Back to basic: Bronzer

It looks like the candy shop in my bronzer drawer: everything is brown, something with glitter, something like caramel, dark or milk chocolate…every time I open it, I crave something sweetJ. If my boyfriend looked in this drawer (fortunately he didn’t so far), he would shake his head in disbelief why I need so many “brown powders”! But the answer is simple; every bronzer has its own use. I admit, if I weren’t a makeup addict I would need just two: for bronzing and for contouring. What is the difference?

Bronzer for bronzing/tanning purposes: depending on your skin shade, it should have, of course, different shade but always with warm undertone. In case of fair skin, if you want to fake tan really well, use little bit of pink blush as fair skin tends to have somewhat pink undertone, not only brown one when it suntans. Depends on your personal preference, you can use matt bronzer or one with light shimmer. I use both, shimmery one in summer as it looks good with tan and matt one in winter when I stay paler. If you have problems choosing right shade, here is a small trick: try regular powder that is 2-3 shades darker than your skin (the same goes for cream bronzers replaced by foundations).

Application: stick to the places where the sun naturally hits your face and tan it. That means on the cheeks, on the nose, on the forehead, on the chin, or even under the eyebrow. Apply bronzer towards your neck and cleavage to avoid difference between face and body.

In this video, Samantha Chapman (one of the Pixiwoo sisters on YouTube) fakes even the freckles!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk9KWFdykEU

Beside powder bronzers you can also buy cream or gel bronzers, they look more natural than powder ones. Unfortunately, there are not sold that much in drugstores.

Bronzer Essence Sun club blondes with warm undertone

NYX Blush in Taupe with cool undertone

Bronzer for contouring purposes: imagine how the natural light and shade hit your face and thanks to your bones and muscles structure create lighter/darker parts. For instance, when the shade is created under your cheek bones, your face looks slimmer. Some people get it by nature (I so envy them) some have to fake it…with bronzer. Now you say “I already have a bronzer for bronzing my face and that is enough”. Well, that is not really enough if you want to fake it well. Natural shade has cool, almost grey, undertone and that is why we should use bronzer with cool undertone not the regular bronzing one with warm undertone. It should also be matt as it is more natural.

I will talk about contouring in detail in next back to basic post.

For bronzing your face, I recommend:

• Essence Sun club blondes (powder, in DM drugstores, in Belgium in Kruidvat)
• Bourjois bronzing primer and Bourjois BB bronzing cream (cream and liquid bronzer, in DM drugstore, in Belgium in DI drugstore) 
• NYX Matte bronzer (powder, in Germany in Douglas perfumery or for ex. cherryculture.com) 
• Soleil tan de Chanel (cream, in perfumeries where they sell Chanel)