Fans of Merit’s $32 Day Glow Balm Are Using This $10 Highlighter Stick as a Cheaper Alternative

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Anyone who has ever fallen for a balmy highlighter knows the problem: the glow is gorgeous, the tube is tiny and suddenly your cheekbones have a luxury-beauty budget. Merit’s Day Glow Balm has earned its spot in plenty of makeup bags for that dewy, skin-first sheen, but L’Oréal Paris True Match Lumi Le Glass Highlighter Stick is getting attention from shoppers who want a similar glassy finish for about $10.

The pull here is not subtle sparkle or powdery frost. Lumi Le Glass is a stick highlighter made for that reflective, almost wet-looking glow people search for when they want “glass skin” without turning their full routine into a 12-step project. It comes in six shades total, with the Le Glass shades leaning translucent and reflective and the Le Glow shades giving a softer satin luminosity. Translation: cheekbones, brow bones, collarbones and no-makeup days are all very much on the table.

One Glassy Pink Ballet shopper titled their review “Love this… better than Merit!” and said they are a “highlighting fiend” who owns a “ridiculous, borderline unholy amount of highlighters,” so yes, we are listening. They wrote that the L’Oréal stick is “very similar in consistency to the Merit highlighting stick,” but somehow “glassier” with “better staying power” at “a literal fraction of the price.” Their only note? Swiping it straight from the tube moved their foundation a bit, while applying it with a brush gave the same glow without disturbing their base.

That tracks with the formula’s appeal. It has the slip and melt of a cream highlighter, so it can layer over makeup, but the finish is more light-catching than glittery. A Glassy Pearl Eclat shopper called it an “easy to use glow stick” and said they wore it on bare skin for a “natural light catching glow,” adding that a few swipes down the nose and on key points earned them “fresh face compliments.”

Another Glassy Pearl Eclat fan got right to the point: “Perfect glass skin finish.” A third said they bought three shades because it “blends easily on the cheekbones after my blush” and leaves a “pretty sheen to the skin.” For warmer glow seekers, one Glowy Golden Couture shopper praised the “little bright perk it gives my face.”

So yes, Merit fans may want to investigate. For $10, L’Oréal’s Lumi Le Glass Highlighter Stick brings the dewy stick format, the easy toss-in-your-bag application and the kind of gleam shoppers are already comparing to its luxury counterparts. Try it with a brush over foundation, tap it onto bare skin or swipe it across the collarbone before heading out. Your highlighter drawer can handle one more.

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