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Makeup by Mario, ABH, Colourpop, and other June 2022 Purchases Reviewed

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Once again, this post is a year late! It’s no longer relevant in terms of keeping up with last year’s low-buy, but I still intend to review the products that haven’t been discussed on this blog. I’m also including updates and links to the products I already reviewed.

Makeup by Mario Soft Sculpt Perfector in Dark

In May 2022, Mario released an Enhancer and Perfector. The Enhancer is essentially a tinted bronzer balm, and since I have several bronzers that are very subtle on me, I don’t feel I need something like that. Plus, I tend to dislike true balmy face products. The Perfector was marketed as a glowy setting powder, highlighter, and bronzer in one. Because of the multipurpose nature, I could only resist it for a few weeks before I caved and ordered it.

I find that the setting powder portion is too light and powdery looking to use alone on my skin. It’s also inconvenient having to use a small brush to try and pick up what’s supposed to be an all-over-the-face setting powder without getting some of the highlighter on the brush too. That accidental shimmer is why I wouldn’t want to set my under-eye concealer with it either, though it has a sheen to it anyway, even without the highlighter particles mixed in.

I’m also not the biggest fan of the way the highlighter looks by itself, as there isn’t much of a base color, but it’s borderline glittery. I discovered that mixing the setting powder and highlighter together balances those two issues out to create a pretty highlighting shade. Sometimes I even mix all three strips to form my cheekbone highlighter that has a sheen, less sparkles, and some color to it. This combination looks decent, but “decent” would put it at nearly the bottom of a highlighter collection ranking list if I made one. I just prefer much finer shimmer particles in my face products.

The best aspect of this Perfector is the matte bronzer. I tend to use that portion in the pan by itself, or to mix it with the setting powder (avoiding the shimmer highlight center strip) so I can give my face a more natural looking bronze glow. Over the past year, I’ve probably gotten less than 15 uses out of this product. The majority of those uses were for the bronzer alone. The quality of it is honestly the equivalent of the best of drugstore. By this I mean that it works well and looks great on camera, but there aren’t any extra bells and whistles. It’s not as airbrushed as the Charlotte Tilbury bronzer, as blendable as the Hermes, as soft to the touch as Huda’s Glowish bronzer, or have a pretty sheen on its own like the original Kosas ones. Still, it’s good enough that it’s not at the back of the drawer and still gets the occasional use.

I may not be using this Perfector as fully intended, but I can use it as a tailored highlighter, bronzer with a sheen, or plain matte bronzer. That’s a unique combination for me to have in one single compact. I could have done without purchasing it, and it’s not going to survive a declutter if I need to condense my collection for moving purposes. However, I don’t regret buying it. I’ve been able to make this work, but I don’t know if I necessarily recommend it unless someone really loves a glittery highlighter. One that will look much more textured and sparkly than the last face photo in this section where I demonstrated how it looks mixed/toned down.

Photos taken one year apart.

Rose Inc Cream Bronzer in Seychelles (Returned) and Capri

I ordered Seychelles during one of my bronzer purchasing sprees, but since that shade did not work out for me and it didn’t arrive until the first week of June (which is when I ordered Capri) I thought it would be better for me to list this as a June purchase. I had already been working on a Celebrity Makeup Brand post for months prior to the purchase, so my review for these bronzers and shade comparisons ended up there. Considering how long I’ve had it, I can update by saying it dried out way quicker than the expected period after opening. I would estimate it took somewhere between 6-8 months to happen. This had the makings of being in my top ten bronzers for the fantastic blendability, skin-like finish, it wearing well all day, and being pretty much sweat-proof and non-transferring. It’s still technically usable, but such a struggle to pick up that I don’t bother with it anymore. Considering the price, I can’t recommend it anymore if it requires needing to be replaced twice a year.

Rose Inc Skin Enhance Luminous Skin Tint Serum Foundation in 110

Of course, I also added this product to the review linked above dealing with Celebrity Makeup Brands. For those who like low coverage, lightweight formulas, and products that look dewy but dries down, I highly recommend checking out this one if you can get a close enough shade match. I ended up purchasing shade 100 instead (and selling 110) when I realized the depth was nearly the same, but 100’s undertone was better for me, even though a model with far lighter skin than mine is wearing it on the Rose Inc website.

Hakuhodo S110 Brush This brush is reviewed in my Fude 5 post.

Haus Labs By Lady Gaga Bio-Radiant Gel-Powder Highlighter in Fire Opal

This review wound up in that same Celebrity Brands post. I returned the product to Sephora. The only other Haus Labs product I’ve purchased from Sephora was the blush in Pomelo Peach. It didn’t look that pretty on me, so I gave it to a friend. I just don’t think this brand is meant for me.

Pat Mcgrath Duo Blushes and Divine Glow Highlighter in Divine Rose II, Cosmic Coral, Paradise Glow, and Bronze Mirage

My review for these can be found HERE. Of the three split pan blush duos, the one I use the most is Cosmic Coral, but I use a mix of Paradise Venus and Desert Orchid from the holiday Divine Blush and Glow Cheek Palette way more frequently than Cosmic Coral (and instead of the Paradise Glow Duo). As for the highlighter, I also eventually added Venus Nectar to my collection, but I barely use that shade or even Bronze Mirage. The Ultra Glow highlighter (Divine Rose) still reigns supreme.

MOB BEAUTY Custom 4-Pan Palette: highlighter, bronzer, blush, two eyeshadows

I did not have the happiest outcome with my attempts to make custom palettes out of products from the brand, but the review can be found HERE.

Chantecaille Perfect Blur Finishing Powder in Medium/Dark

In my powder declutter post from March 2021, I mentioned that I would sell my Chantecaille powder in order to help pay for a darker version if one came out. I did sell mine, but it took until June 2022 for me to get my hands on it for two reasons.

  • I hated the Flower Power packaging that the Med/Dark shade initially launched in and the standard silver packaging version wasn’t released until three to six months later.
  • I wanted to purchase this for a deeper discount than Chantecaille’s annual 30% off sale because my Dior Powder No-Powder was already doing more than my version of the Chantecaille powder (Light/Med) ever did. I did not want to spend above Dior Backstage prices for something that might not work as well, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Thanks to a sale at SpaceNK, and a promo code on top of that, I was able to purchase this darker shade for $33! Unfortunately, the darker color didn’t improve things enough to make this a powder I use very often. I can see the blurring effect, but it’s still not as good as the Dior Powder-No Powder (at least prior to Dior’s reformulation). The one benefit is that this doesn’t deposit a lot of color, so I can wear it anywhere on my face at any time. The Dior Powder-No-Powder has enough pigment that I have to switch between 4N and 5N at different times of the year, and there are even points when I’m too light for 5N and it deepens up on my face too much, versus when I’m too dark and get a slightly ashy sheen from 4N. There are pros and cons to the levels of translucency of powders.

I went on a little rant and also divulged history between myself and Chantecaille at the end of this New Makeup Releases post, for those interested.

Chanel Blush Lumière in Brun Roussi

I purchased this blush in swatched-only condition from Mercari. As much as I love it, I still never would have paid full price for it, so I’m glad I was able to get a deal. The color is beautiful! It’s a rich reddish-brown with slight golden shimmer. It’s a baked product (I think baked gelee), so I use my goat brushes and dense natural hair shapes to pick up the product. It blends seamlessly into the skin. I really enjoy the “standard” Chanel baked blush I have, but I love this formula even more because of how smooth it looks on the cheeks. I have zero complaints about the longevity, pigmentation, etc. My only issue is the retail price difference for the same type of packaging, but it’s technically a better deal at $47 for 4g versus $70 for 14g. At least, it was $70 when it launched, which was prior to the recent price hikes and this would likely be priced at $90 today. It’s still double the price for three times the product, but I still think it’s only worth that to the luxury lovers/collectors and not for the formula. However, it was so worth it to me for the discounted price!

Photos taken January 2023 vs June 2023 with different foundations worn (I believe the Rituel d Fille thorn oil made the difference in dewy skin levels as well).

I don’t use this blush as often as I wish, purely because I have such a large collection with many other blushes I love. In fact, I’ve been wearing the BareMinerals Blonzer in Kiss of Rose the most out of my glowy blushes for several months now, and it’s quite similar to Brun Roussi. The difference is Brun Roussi is darker and a satin-shimmer versus a shimmer-metallic.

The second closest dupe I have is the shade Piazza from Vieve, but Piazza has a matte (but not flat matte) finish. I hope these swatches have been helpful since Brun Roussi was limited edition and not available anymore, including unfortunately, some of those MAC comparisons.

LH Cosmetics Spectral Palette

I think the shipping cost will always play a factor in whether or not I make a purchase. I’ve wanted to try LH Cosmetics products when they were still going by Linda Halberg Cosmetics, but their prices as a new-to-me brand combined with their high shipping fees always kept me from making purchases, even during their sales. So, the only products I own from them thus far are from Mercari. That includes this palette, plus two quads someone depotted and left behind the colors I still wanted. Because of the states of those quads, I didn’t review them on this blog, and I’ve only used them less than a handful of times in the three years I’ve owned them.

Now that I know what to expect, it’s still the shipping cost that keeps me from exploring more. I can get cheaper shipping if I buy the brand’s products via Beauty Bay, but I’ve had one horrible delivery and customer service experience with Beauty Bay out of two orders, so I’m still wary about having things shipped over to the US by them.

Regarding the Spectral palette, the “shimmer” formula feels thin, soft, and smooth like satins, and reminds me a bit of the shimmer-satin formula of some of the shades from the Melt She’s in Parties palette. Without any help, they build up to a super thin yet opaque layer. However, they easily wipe away and don’t stay on my eyes unless I dampen my brush to apply them or use a glitter glue. This seems to be intentional based on the description of this palette being meant to, “give you a soft touch of color to a natural makeup look or create vibrant eye-catching looks.” By being so thin, it allows people who don’t want a lot of pigment to create soft eye looks despite how colorful they are. These shimmers have trouble sticking to my eyes with eye primers I tried them with a year ago, but because these shadows can be used wet or dry, it’s a bit expected that those like me who want full opacity can just spray the shimmers and they work exactly how I want. The glitters stick better to the eyes, but need help to avoid fallout. Abstract is a duochrome, which helps to compliment all the shades in this palette, and I have very little trouble using it. Illusion is not my type of shade as I prefer warmer shimmers for highlighting specific sections around the eyes, and it just doesn’t look right in the inner corner of my eyes, so I use it as a topper shadow for extra sparkle. Preferences aside, this shade gave me major fallout and it’s very gritty to the touch, unlike all the other shadows in the palette. So, those are additional reasons I try to avoid using this shade and really don’t like it.

I’m a big fan of the “muted” nature of Eerie, Phantom, and Unknown because they give me a pastel affect without the ashy white cast that makes the majority of true pastel shadows look awful on my eyes. Occult, Phantom, and Unknown are easy to build up and blend easily with each other. Eerie takes more packing on than the others, but using the right primer can help. All the shadows performed well with the MAC Paint Pot, excluding Eerie (which took more effort and the final result was just okay), but I had an easier time using that shadow over my Coloured Raine Eye Base. These all perform well (minus the fallout issue with Illusion and to some degree Abstract) on my Gerard Clean Canvas eye base.

My eye looks using this palette tend to be similar even though there is a variety of colors within it, so I view this as a supplemental palette. This is the kind of whimsical color story I want to reach for during Spring, so I expect I won’t get much use out of it again until next year.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Bronzer in Terracotta

My original review for this is here, though I mentioned that I thought all my blending issues might be solved if I had a better shade for me. Eventually, ABH added three more to the line: Warm Tan, Terracotta, and Deep Tan. Terracotta and Deep Tan are similar depths and listed as being suited for tan to deep skin tones with the former having “warm red undertones” and the latter with “neutral” undertones. At the time, I owned a lot of deep bronzers that leaned neutral or cool and were so deep that they looked like contours on me. So, I chose Terracotta to guarantee I’d have something warm, even though red leaning bronzers aren’t my preference as much currently.

I find it quite interesting that it pulls a little olive on my skin, but the moment I pair it with blush, I think the tone looks perfect for me. I like the color and because the depth is right, I barely have to do any blending. This eliminates the issue I had with the other color in trying to build up the product slowly but it getting patchy as parts of it were setting at different times. Most of the time I use the Patrick Ta Contour Brush with it, which makes things all the faster. It even made it into my top 10 out of around 35 ranked.

Colourpop Pressed Powder Blush in Toffee Cake

I love this tone of blush, but it’s highly pigmented and I have to use the lightest hand to get a restrained flush of color to my cheeks. There’s a little bit of gold shimmer in it that I didn’t appreciate as much when I initially bought it, but I like it a bit more now.

This was a limited edition blush, but Colourpop’s new permanent range of blushes includes the color “Icing on Top,” which appears in website photos to look similar.

Longevity is rarely an issue with Colourpop. This lasts all day. It’s not the smoothest or most effortless to apply blush in my collection, but Colourpop blushes are quite good for the price. I still don’t know that I would have purchased it again if I could rewind time, but I still use it on occasion.

Pixi x Hello Kitty Glow Tonic

This is is such a classic product. I tried a sample of it once a long time ago and didn’t notice it having any effect on my skin other than making it have a slight tingle. When I saw this adorable packaging for the product, I thought it would be a good opportunity to test it for an extended period of time to see if the brightening results would be apparent this time. Worst case scenario, I could reuse this bottle. It has a stopper inside, but it’s removable.

I still haven’t seen any benefits. The hero ingredient is the glycolic acid. My skin responds quite well to AHA’s, but my favorite products pair glycolic acid with lactic acid at the very least, plus at a minimum of 7% concentration. While I admittedly haven’t used it consistently or very much over the past year, it might just be the case that it’s too weak for me at this point in my skincare journey. There’s also the issue of it smelling nice, but in addition to some natural sources like hexylene glycol, it also contains fragrance and dyes which I prefer to be absent in my skincare. There’s no alcohol in the Glow Tonic, and it doesn’t feel drying like some toners of the past that used primarily witch hazel instead of just a splash of it, in addition to Pixi adding skin conditioning ingredients (aloe leaf juice, glycerin, urea, etc.). So, I can’t attest to this product’s effectiveness, but it might be a decent starter for someone not used to AHAs who wants to get into it. Of course, one would have to be okay with having fragrance in their skincare. It’s a light herbal scent that isn’t offensive to the nose at least.
If fragrance isn’t okay, I recommend for someone to consider from The Ordinary their Glycolic Acid 7% Exfoliating Toning Solution. It has no dyes, alcohol, or fragrance and contains similar beneficial ingredients I liked in the Glow Tonic, though it’s 7% instead of 5%, so proceed with caution.

CDJapan Haul – All of these have finally been reviewed in my Fude Collection 5 update post.

That’s everything! Of course, all the previous monthly check-ins can be found HERE. Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

*DISCLOSURE: To those who chose to use my affiliate link to shop from CDJapan, thank you so much! The commission from that was used to pay for a portion of one of the brushes in the Fude 5 post. Otherwise, all other products discussed today were purchased by me with my own money. Links appearing like this (Example) are standard links. Links appearing like this (Example) are affiliate links. There are no affiliate links in the body of this post.

Bronzer Ranking Post and Declutter

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Ranking posts and videos are always interesting to me, but my collection is so big that there are very few categories that I can show in their entirety without feeling like it’s an overwhelming task to remove them from their various storage spots. In the case of bronzers and contours, it’s also hard to remember them all when some are mixed in face palettes with other products. So, for this ranking post, I am only including individual products and bronzer/contour palettes without blushes or highlighters. It’s fairer that way considering the bronzers in my full face palettes are likes but not loves. The closest to “love” I have in one is the Kaja Bento Mochamallow Trio, which I am still working through at least the cream bronzer/contour. It’s quite dark for me now until summer comes around.

I will also separate my favorite cream/liquid products and favorite powders before combing them both in a top ten. Granted, these photos were taken and this list compiled prior to the release of the new MAC Sunstruck Bronzers, Pat Mcgrath Labs Skin Fetish: Divine Bronzers, Nars Laguna Talc-Free Bronzing Powders and the shade extension for the Rare Beauty Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Stick. I bought Nars shade 6 and Rare Beauty’s shade Full of Life during the Sephora VIB sale and had it shipped to the US. I bought Matte Rich Golden and Radiant Rich Rosy from MAC and had it shipped home since it was unavailable on the MAC DE website at launch. I bought Bronze Divinity and Burnished Honey from PML and had it shipped to my current location, but Desert Glow that I bought later won’t arrive in time for this post and even if I delayed this post to include it, I wouldn’t have had enough time with the Pat Mcgrath bronzers for it to be fair to include them in this ranking. However, expect a review of those 2023 bronzers in the future! For now, I will include a sneak peek of the two Pat Mcgrath Bronzers at the very end of this post.

The starting point we’re working with (minus 2 Melt products and 2 Colourpop ones I forgot about until midway through sorting)!

Some products I already decluttered prior to taking the large group photo is the Wayne Goss Radiance Boosting Face Palette and Patrick Ta Contour/Bronzer Duo. Both of them had alarming looking bumps in the powders, so I did not want to risk using them, even though they’re supposedly oil spots according to customer service. This happened after only the second use with Wayne Goss, but the Patrick Ta one developed after about a year.

Below are the separated creams and liquids.

If I had to do a declutter, below is what I would narrow things down to. I essentially removed the Tarte Cream Blushes, Danessa Myricks Contour Balm, and KVD Mod Liquid Contour. I really like all three products, but if I had to rank ease of blending of all the creams, Tarte comes last. Plus, I don’t have a perfect shade and rely on using two products together. I’m trying to simplify my collection, so if I have bronzers I like better that are a better shade, as much as I like the Tarte, it doesn’t make sense to keep them when it takes up space and prohibits me from getting more use out of the others. If my collection was smaller overall, keeping it for variety would have been fine. As for the Danessa Myricks Contour Balm, it was always a warmth adding shade for me and didn’t give much of a shadowing effect. Plus I didn’t care for the texture of it on my skin. Lastly, I do like the KVD one and it looks amazing when I apply it perfectly, but the tricky part is that initial application process. Using too much or too little looks pretty bad, so I feel it would benefit me to not keep such a finicky product.

Narrowing things down to my absolute favorite cream bronzers would be the three below. The Colourpop Super Shock Bronzer includes both my Summer to Winter shade and Winter to Spring shade. I actually hated the first ABH Cream Bronzer because the color threw off the look. However, my correct shade (Terracotta) looks beautiful which is why it surprisingly made the list. The Charlotte Tilbury Cream Bronzer is one I was unsure about for a while because I could swear the undertone looked different on me every time, but I continuously reach for it.

The biggest factors as to why these three made it is because of not only the color, the ease of use, the impeccable blendability, longevity, and setting down to a dry or dry enough finish on the skin, but also primarily because over time these creams have not dried out or created a film on the top layer or changed in consistency in any way*. I loved the Rose Inc Bronzer for all the above reasons (and especially how it set to a non-tranferring finish), but it dried out in the container! I can still use it, but it’s so tough to get the product out now. I like the Nars Laguna Bronzer a lot, and it would be up there with the ABH one, but it’s a little more emollient, is borderline heavy in fragrance, and the color is a little more red than I prefer. If the shade was more on the deep golden side, I’d have still kept it in the favorites. The Glossier Solar Paint is beautiful, but it’s a little heavy on the shimmer (even more than the Kosas) and the liquid blends nicely, but buffing out some of that shimmer isn’t as easy. I also loved the Danessa Myricks Power Cream Bronzer, but it’s a tad too dark for me now and it does have a big issue with forming chunks on the top layer. Those chunks increase the need to spend extra time smoothing it out when it’s on my face. The difficulty with smoothing it out is increased when the color is already too dark for me.

Sometimes I feel like more of the bronzer from Danessa ends up being scraped away than applied to my face.

*UPDATE: July 28, 2023 – I’ve finally gotten a performance issue with the Colourpop Bronzer. After owning it for a few days shy of one year, it’s no longer depositing as much color on the skin (plenty of slip and shine, but not as much pigment).

Now for the powder products:

The Fenty bronzer represents all of them in my collection (which includes this individual in Mocha Mami plus the Bronzer/Highlighter palette).

In some cases, I own multiple shades because I have to mix the two together to create a better shade match. In the case of Coloured Raine, Jaclyn Cosmetics, and Glowish, I just have one shade that works and the other is too dark. I kept them in case I get significantly darker (quite easy if you forget sunscreen just once in Florida and are outside for hours), but I’m considering decluttering them.

It was quite easy to declutter the L’Oreal Powder Foundation that I used as bronzer because it was nice but not a favorite. The Juvia’s Place Bronzer Duo always looked pretty but didn’t stay on my skin. The ELF Contour Palette I never even used despite having it for years and I don’t think I would ever get around to using, so I could let it go. What should technically also be let go is the Glowish Face Powder which I purchased to use as a shimmery bronzer. It’s way too glowy and texture enhancing, but I don’t want to declutter it yet. I can’t explain why except some part of me feels like I can get it to work somehow.

Below is what I narrowed down to actual favorites of the ones that survived the declutter. Some that didn’t make the list due to being a nice but not standout formula, in a shade that wasn’t perfect for me, are: The Nars Bronzing Powder, Fenty Sunstlk’r Instant Warmth Bronzer, and The Gucci Bronzing Powder. The ones excluded because the formula was nice but not necessarily as special as the others (and shade was not factor) is the bronzer within the Kaleidos Contour Trio and the Coloured Raine Powder Bronzers. The Vieve Bronzer/Contour Duo didn’t make it purely because I haven’t used it enough to form my opinion. I can’t even remember if I used it one time at all. Perhaps only once.

The Makeup by Mario Perfector is nice, but didn’t make the favorites because of the trickiness of trying to get a strip of bronzer with only a little bit of the top strip for slight satin type of shimmer, but not any of the actual shimmer strip which has much too large and noticeable of glittery shimmer particles.

At this point, had I remembered the Melt Contour/Bronzer Stack and Melt Ultra Matte Bronzer, the Stack would have made it to this point above, but neither would make the “Top Favorite Powder Bronzers” pile below.

Because these are my absolute powder favorites thus far, I deal with having two shades of Mented Bronzer and two of the Hatice Schmidt Labs Bronzer.

I’ve surprised myself by putting the Jaclyn Hill Sun Bathe Pressed Bronzers, Makeup Revolution Glow Splendour, and I Heart Revolution Tasty Coffee Bronzer this high, but they’re quite good! I have to give them credit. I thought for sure I would declutter the last two, but when I tried them again, I was too impressed to let them go. The I Heart Revolution one is similar to Coloured Raine’s bronzer, but the slight addition of shimmer is what edges it above because of the slightly prettier finish from my perspective. Revolution’s bronzer is similar to Jaclyn’s, which is similar to Mented, which puts it nearer to the bottom of the favorites. Jaclyn’s didn’t make it beyond this point because of the strong (though tolerable and somewhat pleasant) fragrance and the fact that the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Matte Powder Bronzer is just better.

Some products that are past favorites that didn’t make the list were my decluttered Fenty Contour Matchstix and Uoma Beauty Double Take Contour and Highlight Stick. I liked them at the time, but not enough to repurchase them which is an indication for me that they’d make it through some of the rounds, but not the final ten. The same goes with the Benefit Hoola Toasted Bronzer that I loved, but the hardpan issue and it being too deep for me (and Caramel is too light) is why I decluttered them.

This is what I’m left with for my top powder favorites!

Below (somewhat in no particular order but kind of in that order), are my top 10 bronzers! All of them are products I’ve used for nearly a year or several years!

And then these final six pictured below are my absolute holy grails! These are the ones I would repurchase immediately. In fact, when I return to the US, I am planning to try the repackaged and slightly reformulated Kosas Sun Show Baked Bronzer (in the yellow version of this packaging) that I purchased in the VIB sale. My old one is too dark for me now (shade Deep/Dark), and I believe it’s the equivalent of Paradise, but Paradise might be slightly lighter. The original smells pretty off (like old frying oil) but had such a pretty effect on the skin that I kept using it. Plus, it’s one of the few shimmers that make it high in my rankings. The Huda Glowish Bronzer in Tan and Hatice Schmidt ones have that baked gelee effect leaving such a beautiful natural sheen to the skin in a stunning blend that one normally gets from a cream, but these are definitely powder products. What puts the Glowish above the Hatice is just that I can use one shade versus needing two. And of course the Charlotte Tilbury is the most powdery of the powder bronzers in the ultimate holy grail list. It gives the most beautiful airbrushed finish. I need something like a 4.5 version between Tan and Dark (basically the color of the cream version of Tan which is darker than the powder version of Tan) in order for it to be perfect, but because of how blendable it is, I can certainly pull it off. I reserve it for when I’m not trying to look entirely natural and want to look snatched but well blended. A glam look.

The ABH one got edged out purely because I don’t need three creams at the top and Colourpop’s price trumps ABH. The Nabla Skin Bronzing has an amazing formula like the Hatice Schmidt one, but it’s subtle on me and Nabla doesn’t have any darker shades available. Mented didn’t make the holy grails because of the needing two shades issue (plus Charlotte Tilbury’s powder formula topping it). The Covergirl Trublend So Flushed High Pigment Bronzer didn’t make it because as much as I’m impressed by that bronzer (enough for it to make the top ten) the powder surface is starting to change a little bit (not blending quite as well as it was in the beginning). I think the formula expiration is quicker than the others. I noticed this briefly the day before I left for the trip, but I will look into it further when I return in May (and update this post if needed).

*UPDATE: MAY 29, 2023 – The Covergirl Bronzer is 14 months by old now and has indeed started to not blend as well, but is still workable with a beautifully smooth finish. I would keep it where it is on this particular list. However, in testing out quite a few new bronzers released in 2023, there’s at least one that would be guaranteed to knock this out of the top 10.

*UPDATE: July 28, 2023 – Since the Colourpop bronzers lasted a year before giving me issues, I’m reconsidering whether I should have put the ABH bronzer in the top 6 instead. They were pretty much neck and neck to me, but Colourpop’s is $9 versus $35 from ABH. That’s why I stand by keeping the ones from Colourpop in the top 10. At that price, I could replace the one from Colourpop three times before it neared the cost of a single ABH bronzer.

So, that’s my bronzer collection decluttered and ranked (33 keeping of the ones featured here)! Now that I’ve done this, I feel it will be a bit easier going forward to stick better to my low-buy in the bronzer category. I have to admit that I’m curious about the Hermes Plein Air H Trio Healthy Glow Mineral Powder, but I could only ever dream of trying that in the refill. Plus, I hear it’s not too far off from the Charlotte Tilbury Powder Bronzer or Victoria Beckham Matte Bronzing Brick (another long time lust). If that’s the case, I should be all set on my bronzer collection. Or at least…I want to be!

As promised, here is a sneak peek of the PML Bronzers!

Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤