What is Strobing? Should You Strobe? Plus Strobing Options for Dark Skin

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This “new” strobing trend that’s popping up everywhere lately particularly on social media? It’s actually highlighting. Something many of us have been doing for AGES. It just has a new fancy term and probably legs for brands to come up with strobing kits down the line. But if you’re a highlighter junkie like me, you probably already have the goods in your makeup stash. And if you don’t, no worries—later on in this post I’ll link you to a bunch of highlighters you can use for strobing should your heart so desire.

???????????? It's really pretty but definitely not "new." At all. Just like contouring wasn't new. In case you were wondering, "strobing" is when you use a highlighter (it's a pinky, silvery, bronzy, or golden luminous or shimmery product like a BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector or MAC MSF or thebalm Betty Lou-Manizer, etc—not to be confused with "highlight" which is something 2-3 shades lighter than your skin tone typically used in conjunction with a contour) to highlight areas like the tops of your cheekbones, the temples, the bow of the lip, the inner corners of the eyes, the tip of the nose, etc. I actually love the look (I love contouring, too) and am a highlighter junkie (tons of posts on the blog with lots of options for dark skin—just search "highlighter" in the search box on www.thestyleandbeautydoctor.com). ?????????????

A photo posted by Danielle Gray (@stylenbeautydoc) on Jun 28, 2015 at 8:54am PDT

So strobing is being billed as the “new contour” and many folks are even claiming the death of contouring. Not so fast…lol. Contouring isn’t going anywhere—it’s actually still and will be a preferred technique to add dimension to the face and if you’re like me (the perimeter of my face is darker than the center of my face), you might highlight and contour to account for the different shades that are naturally on your face. Don’t go kicking contouring to the curb like it’s frosty icy blue eyeshadow or black lip liner…lol. There’s nothing wrong with contouring and I’ll personally still do it and the world will still turn. Strobing though is just another way to add dimension to your face.

So why are we adding dimension to our faces? Basically we don’t want to look flat and many of us aren’t blessed with high cheekbones or symmetrical features. Also for those of us who wear foundation, you know that it can have the tendency to “flatten” your features if you wear it alone. But for the record, contouring and strobing aren’t the only ways to add dimension. You can add dimension to the face with blush, bronzer, adding lashes, etc. There’s more than one way to skin a cat and a gazillion ways to beat a face, hunty.

OK but back to strobing.

What is strobing?

Me “strobing” back when strobing was highlighting…lol

BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector Pressed in Blushed Copper

Basically strobing is highlighting the areas of your face where light would naturally hit: the tops of your cheekbones, the tip of your nose, the temples, the bow of the lip, the inner corners of the eyes. You’d take a highlighter (not to be confused with the HIGHLIGHT used in highlighting and contouring—this is a luminous or shimmery product similar to a BECCA Shimmering Skin Perfector or MAC Mineralize Skin Finish—the non-natural ones like Gold Deposit, Global Glow, etc.) and sweep it on the areas I mentioned earlier. This will give the illusion of a sculpted face and give you a gorgeous glow. Highlighters come in many forms: liquid, powders, gels, and creams or sticks. Which type you use depends on your skin type. I have oily skin so I typically only use powder or gel highlighters but I can get away with liquids and creams in winter and sometimes in the fall and spring depending on how cold it is outside. Liquids and creams are great for drier skin types and those with normal skin can typically wear any variation.

Strobing tips

More strobing before strobing was strobing…lol. My skin is different colors because of lighting.

When strobing, you want to be careful with how much product you use—especially if you have oily skin because it can look oil slick-y pretty fast. You’re not going to apply highlighter in a strobing look the way you would in a highlight/contour look. Nope. Go easy. Be easy. In fact the word strobing itself seems a little misleading because it almost sounds like you’d roll your entire face with highlighter. But don’t do that. Please.

As always with makeup it’s all about balance and this is the same with strobing. So since a luminous product is already drawing attention to itself by virtue of being—well, luminous, you want to keep pretty much everything else matte in finish. Otherwise the eye won’t know what to focus on and now everyone’s eyes are going to be all wonky because you decided to look like New Year’s Eve on your face. SMH.

Use your judgement, but at most the only other “shiny” thing on your face that won’t compete might be a lipgloss and even then be careful.

How exactly should you apply your highlighting when you strobe? There’s a gazillion ways. You can use your fingers, a fluffy brush (will get you a less concentrated application), a brush with densely packed bristles (will you get you a more intense application), a fan brush, a beautyblender (in the case of a liquid or cream)—so many options. Just make sure you BLEND. IT. OUT. No harsh lines, folks. You want that glow to appear as if it comes from within. Not like you’re a character from “The Wiz.”

Should You Strobe?

If you already have highlighters in your stash, try it! But remember that highlighters HIGHLIGHT things so if you’re worried about texture issues like wrinkles, fine lines, acne, etc. highlighting could well, highlight it. Be careful not to unintentionally draw attention to these areas by putting a highlighter on them.

Also, for those of us with oily skin, we can tend to strobe naturally after a few hours…lol. Be mindful of how much you apply and the texture of the highlighter you use—I explained this earlier in this post.

Strobing Options for Dark Skin

Typically magazines will tell you that icy pink shades are best for fair skin, bronzy for tan skin, and then maybe a rose gold or something like that for dark skin but as someone with actual dark skin who is a highlighter fanatic—there’s SO many that look amazing on dark skin that even include icy pinks, golds, bronzes, and rose golds. All we really need is for the color to be pigmented enough to show up (no frosty finishes, please) and we’re good to go.

Check out TONS of highlighter options I’ve reviewed here.

And that’s that. Strobing in a nutshell. If you’d like a great laugh, I seriously think you should check out Jackie Aina’s strobing video on Youtube.

I can already see the strobing kits coming out from brands. No shade of course—I’ll probably will buy them…lol.

Do you strobe? What do you think of this “trend?” Tell me in the comments!

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