It's That Time Of Year

When the sun is blaring and we all get a little toasty. I've pakced away my winter powder and foundation as they no longer match (which I am pissed about because I JUST had that foundation mixed not too long ago and barely got any wear out of it. Who knows if it will match come this Fall!) My tinted moisturizer works for now, but I'll probably have to get a darker one blended later down the road.

Now generally I am in love with most types of makeup products, but I truly love bronzer. To borrow a fellow Specktralites phrase, I'm a bronzer whore. Too much is never enough. I layer bronzer over bronzer. At this point I could probably wear a different bronzer a day. I just purchased MAC's Refined Deeper Bronze and the new Mineralize Loose Foundation in Deeper Dark to wear as a matte bronzer. Because the shade is a bit darker and redder than my current skin tone, it works with a light hand. Now I have my eyes on Stila's discontinued Pivotal Sun Bronzer #2, which you can find at Fragrancex.com.



It looks beautiful and coppery, and as I love most things Stila I think this will be a winner.








Another idea of mine is to get a mineral foundation from Milan Minerals (www.milanminerals.com) and use that as a bronzer. Candace also has a few shades of bronzer and I may get a sample of one of them as well.

So here are some bronzer techniques that I love. For liquid bronzer, I like to apply the product over a liquid foundation or tinted moisturizer and follow with a light dusting of a slightly shimmery, but not overly so, bronzer. It makes no sense to apply a traditional powder product over a liquid bronzer because you'll negate the bronzy, dewy look you want to achieve. And I believe all liquid anything should be set with a powder, so this does the trick. In my case I use MAC's Face and Body Bronze FX in Deeper Bronze (released with Lure, Bait, & Hooked - Summer 2006) and set with my Prescriptives Custom Blend Bronzer. The latter is semi-matte and very translucent.

Matte and semi-matte bronzers work well all over the face, as a setting powder even, however shimmery and high shimmer bronzers should only be used where sunlight would hit the face, the cheeks, chin, etc. I like to avoid the forehead because shimmer on the forehead often looks oily or greasy. Instead, make a 3 or W motion with your brush. Imagine the 3 is the profile of your face: start at your temple, sweep to your cheek, and follow through at the chin. For the W look at your face head on and sweep downward from the temple, then up to the chin, and back up athe face to the other temple. For a matte shimmer try Guerlain Terracotta, which is too light for me, but would work for lighter complexions or Stila Sun, which is semi-matte. The Prescriptives Bronzing Trio is a great low shimmer bronzer. CARGO makes an awesome moderately shimmery bronzer as does MAC. And if you like your face glowing, try Prescriptives' Sunsheen Cooling Bronzer Powder or even a darker highlighting powder, Sephora's Luminous Trio (Bronze Trio) comes to mind.

I like to take it a step further and accentuate my cheek bones with a bronzing stick (in may case MAC's Bronzing Sticks, but you could also try a NARS Multiple in Palm Beach) or a golden powder like Stila's Sun Highlighter or for a softer look, try MAC's Iridescent Loose Powder in Golden Bronze.
Format or Raizin blushes (MAC) are gorgeous on the cheeks.
Finally, I add a darker brown shade to my contour. Try Chocolate Brown Pigment (MAC) or Twig or Barefoot eye shadows (Stila).

The result is a polished Bronze Goddess!!! Wow, I just got a little excited there. A little much? Maybe. Gorgeous? Definitely!