DIY Rainbow Highlighter – Pride Makeup

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Daniela Kretchmer
Updated: Oct 27, 2023
Dupe, Makeup, Rainbow, Upcycle

Learn how to make your own DIY rainbow highlighter inspired by the original Prism Rainbow Highlighter by Bitter Lace Beauty that went viral years ago. It’s surprisingly easy to make your own custom highlighters and cover yourself in rainbows!

Happy Pride month! Because it’s the first weekend in June, of course that means this week’s craft project be a rainbow craft. And not just any rainbow craft, but a wearable one in the form of rainbow makeup! The best part about this DIY rainbow highlighter is doesn’t just need to be used as a highlighter.

Fun fact, face makeup (eyeshadows, blushes, highlighters, etc) are typically able to be used anywhere on your body. Therefore you can get all sorts of rainbow makeup looks! You can even use each individual color from the DIY highlighter to draw on rainbows or create gorgeous rainbow eyeshadow.

So whether you’re looking to express your inner rainbow unicorn or simply get some new Pride makeup looks, get your rainbow makeup on!

Note: Some links in this post may contain affiliate links, which means at no cost to you, I may earn a commission.

Materials for DIY Rainbow Highlighter

Eyeshadows in rainbow colors (shimmer shadows are best if you want the highlight shimmer effect, but you can also use a rainbow eyeshadow palette with matte colors)
Empty eyeshadow tin (Use one from an old makeup tin or get a new one) – I recommend a rectangular tin so the colors are more even
Knife
Mixing palette (this is the one I used or you can use an actual makeup mixing palette that comes with a little knife)
Rubbing alcohol

Video Instructions to Make a Rainbow Highlighter

Instructions to Make a Rainbow Highlighter

Prepare Your Rainbow Highlighter Tin

If you’re not using a new makeup tin (like this one), you’ll want to prepare one. I used an eyeshadow palette that I never really used.

Remove the eyeshadow using a knife. If you want to use the colors in your highlighter, try not to mix them as you remove them.

Empty each color into a mixing palette.

(I ended up only using the purples and pinks and tossed the white ones in the end. But when I prepared the palette I kept all the colors).

Clean the tin using rubbing alcohol and a paper towel. Once it’s clean set it aside for later.

Prepare the Colors for Your Rainbow Highlighter

Next you want to prepare all of the colors. I used these shimmer eyeshadow palettes that were already partially broken, but between the three of them it had all of the rainbow colors.

You can use eyeshadow palettes or even blushes or other highlighters that you have. The key is to use powdered makeup that is highly pigmented. This set is a great option if you don’t already have one.

Scoop out the color from each of the palettes into a mixing palette. In total you want red/pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Since I wasn’t going to use these eyeshadows anymore I ended up combining all of the similar colors into one.

Note: I just used a clean and sterilized paint mixing palette, but I recommend getting one specifically for makeup.

By combining colors you can also customize them more to how you like them. For example there wasn’t an orange that I really liked so I added some red to make it more defined.

Once you have your eyeshadows scooped out, start at one side of the rainbow (either red/pink or purple) as you want to make sure you work in rainbow order.

Use the knife to smash the makeup into a powder. What you’re doing is breaking it back down into a powder so you can rebuild it into a pressed powder.

By the way, this process is also how you can fix any pressed powder makeup!

After the makeup is all smashed, add in a few drops of rubbing alcohol.

Mix it up until it forms a paste. Continue to add more rubbing alcohol until it’s easy to work with, but not a runny mess. Think toothpaste consistency.

Add the Colors to the Tin

Then spread it into one side of the clean makeup tin.

Use the knife to shape the edge. You can choose to either have the colors perfectly straight or mix it up for a fun look. I went with slightly wavy.

Tip: Be sure to leave room for all the colors. Since you’re using 6 colors in total, you only want to fill in 1/6th of the palette with the first color.

After you’re done with pink/red, move onto orange. Just as before, mash up the makeup and add in rubbing alcohol until it forms a paste.

Then again, spread it into the palette. Make sure you press it against the pink so there isn’t a gap in between them.

Continue mixing up each color and adding them to the palette. Next is yellow.

Then green.

Then blue.

And then purple.

This should also be a lesson in planning. As you can see I didn’t take my own advice and only had a little bit of room left for the purple.

To give it a smooth finish on top, you can use a paper towel to carefully press across the palette.

Let it dry overnight so that the alcohol evaporates. Then you’re left with a gorgeous rainbow highlighter that would look adorable with some cute pink nail designs!

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This is such a fun way to upcycle your makeup into something new!

By the way, did you know there are actually beauty product recycling programs that make it easy to recycle your containers? With all the different plastics it’s difficult to know how to sort it, but those programs make it easy to mail in your empty containers and they do the recycling for you!

How to Apply Rainbow Highlighter

The key to using rainbow highlighter is to get all of the colors onto a brush at once. Therefore it’s recommended to use a thick straight makeup brush. Or you can do what I do and use a big fluffy brush and simply squeeze it so it forms a line.

Then drag the brush from one side of the rainbow palette to the other in one stroke. Make sure you wipe in the same direction of the colors. Otherwise you’ll mix up all the colors.

When you do it correctly your brush should look like this – a beautiful powdery rainbow!

Then wipe the brush across where you want the rainbow, again in one motion.

You can keep the colors subtle or repeat the process for more pigmented color.

For the classic rainbow highlighter look, swipe the brush across your cheekbone.

Why use regular blush when your cheeks can quite literally be all the colors of the rainbow! Rainbow blush all the way!

Other Ways to Use a Rainbow Highlighter

Using One Color at a Time: You don’t only have to use your highlighter as a rainbow all the time. Each color can be used on its own. Simply use a smaller brush and use one color at a time.

Making one Color More Pigmented: Use a small brush to add more color to one particular area if that color is not as pigmented as the others. This is what I’m doing in the photo below.

Make Smaller Rainbows: If your palette is bigger than you want the rainbow to be you can paint on each color one at a time. This a great way to make a gorgeous rainbow eyeshadow look. Mini rainbow makeup everywhere!

More Rainbow Crafts to Try

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