Wet n Wild Gold Bar Highlighter Review & Swatches

If you're on Instagram, you may have seen pictures floating around of the Wet n Wild Limited Edition Sequins & Stardust display that's been popping up at Harmons and Rite Aid. It contains false lashes, lip glosses, loose pigments, nail polishes, and...drumroll please...the Gold Bar Highlighter in the shade Holly Gold Head ($3.99).

Each display unit only holds two of the highlighters so you can imagine my struggle trying to get ahold of one of these. It seemed like every store I went to either didn't have the display up yet or if they did, the highlighters were the only thing missing. Arrgh!

*Update...This and the rest of the holiday collection is now on the Wet n Wild website**

Then the other day I went to NY to visit my parents and I remembered that I was about to pass a Rite Aid on the way. I almost didn't stop because I was just over it at that point, but I ended up going in anyway. Good thing I did because they were literally just putting the display up and it was full! So I was able to get one to review and swatch for you guys.

This display was already missing the Gold Bars...they sit to the right of the Lip Glosses.

I'm really hoping that Wet n Wild makes this available online at some point like they did with their other highlighters, but for now, the best advice I can give you is to start checking Rite Aid, Harmons, Christmas Tree Shops, and Bed Bath & Beyond (if your local stores carry WnW...mine don't).

I also saw someone post a photo on Instagram that she found hers at Five Below, so that's another place to check. I haven't seen this in any Walgreens stores yet and I have six of them near me (yes, I checked them all, haha!), so I guess they're either not getting this collection or are just putting it out a little later.

Anyway enough rambling from me, let's take a closer look!

When I first saw this highlighter in person, I was surprised by how chunky the packaging was...it's thick like a bar of gold would actually be. Then I realized that it has a mirror that slides out from the side of the packaging...so cute! It's not the most useful mirror because it's pretty small, but I thought it was a nice touch.

The powder inside is a pure golden shade with an peachy pink star at the top for an accent color.

When I started working on swatches, I decided to swatch the bottom half of the highlighter first and then I swatched the top half, running my finger across the peach star and into the gold a little bit so I could get both colors. The peach warms up the gold and takes it from pure gold to a warmer golden peach. The formula is soft and finely milled, just like Wet n Wild's other highlighters in Precious Petals and Crown of my Canopy. There's no glitter...it's just a beautiful reflective shimmer.

Next, I decided to swatch two higher-end highlighters in my collection that I thought could potentially be dupes for the Gold Bar.
First, I compared Laura Geller's Gilded Honey next to the Gold Wet n Wild swatch...they're honestly very close and on the cheeks, you can't even notice a difference.
The same goes for the peachy part of the Gold Bar next to Becca's Champagne Pop...they're really close in color!

Finally, I wanted to compare the Gold Bar to the previous two Wet n Wild highlighters so you can see how they differ. Precious Petals and Crown of My Canopy definitely have more pink in them.

Overall, if you're a highlighter junkie, you definitely don't want to pass up the Wet n Wild Gold Bar highlighter if you can find it! It's amazing quality for $3.99 and is even a pretty close dupe for two higher-end highlighters.