The Her Campus National Editors write about products we love and think you’ll love too. Her Campus has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase. All products are in stock and all prices are accurate as of publication.
Growing up, I always hated my oily skin. My goal with my makeup was always to make it look as matte as possible because I knew it would still end up shiny by the end of the day. Nowadays, there has been a large shift toward “glowy” and “dewy” makeup, which shocked me initially that people wanted their makeup to look like my skin. Over time, the trend has grown on me, but I realized there is a delicate balance between looking “glowy” and “greasy.” After much trial and error, I have found my makeup staples that give me that glowy look without my makeup looking overly greasy at the end of the day.
A glowy look for an oily skin girl starts with a matte primer made for oily skin. This might sound contradictory to the overall goal of the look but trust me on this. Starting out with a matte primer that will control your natural shine throughout the day will keep your glowy look from crossing into greasy territory. My personal favorites for this are the E.L.F. liquid Poreless Putty Primer for special occasions and the E.L.F. Suntouchable Invisible Sunscreen that has a matte primer formula in it for daily use.
After I use a matte primer is when I start to add a glowy base. I hesitated for a long time to use this product because I thought it would be too much for my oily skin, but it actually turned out to be the perfect way to add some glow to my makeup. The E.L.F. Halo Glow Liquid Filter does such a good job of evening out my skin tone while giving my skin a subtle glow. This is the key component I use to take my makeup from matte to glowy.
I like to balance out the Halo Glow Liquid Filter by topping it with a light coverage matte foundation. The strategy here is a matte and shiny sandwich of sorts with the layering of my products. So, what is the shiny aspect that comes after foundation? I am personally not a fan of highlighter, but I love blush that has a little shimmer to it. My new favorite shimmery liquid blush has been the E.L.F. Halo Glow Blush Beauty Wand in the shade “Pink-Me-Up.” Can you tell I love E.L.F. by the way? My favorite powder blush that I keep going back to is surprisingly not E.L.F, it’s the Milani Baked Powder Blush in the shade “Petal Primavera.” This one has more of a subtle shimmer than the E.L.F. liquid blush, but I will alternate between the two and sometimes use them together if I know I need my blush to hold up strong throughout the day.

To finish off the matte and shiny layering, I lock in my makeup look with a little powder and setting spray. I have tried many different setting sprays, but I recently started using this setting spray that is unsuspectingly good. It’s the E.L.F. Makeup Mist & Set. It looks like nothing special, but it is truly the best setting spray I have ever used, it almost feels too good to be true.
I hope these products help my fellow oily skin girls to embrace their skin and rock the glowy look!