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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 ❤

Bronzers for Dark Skin Tones

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While Bronzers are known for adding warmth, radiance, and a healthy glow to the skin, I used to associate it with, “trying to look tan.” For a very long time, I thought of it as a pointless step for me, since I already have dark skin. However, the more brands that came out with deep shades of bronzer and the more NC/NW 45 and deeper beauty gurus who wore them, my opinion began to change. Now, I see bronzer as the finishing touch that elevates a look, especially a glam look. I still skip this step more than half of the time, but I see the benefit it has in a makeup routine for people of all skin tones.

I’ve tried several popular bronzers, thanks to makeup subscription boxes in the past, and none of them were ever deep enough. I either used them as highlighters or gave them to friends. Eventually, even the ones I kept ended up being decluttered shortly after. The bronzers I’m reviewing today are all the ones I currently own, which were purchased within the past year.

Benefit Hoola Bronzer in Toasted

This is the first bronzer I owned that was deep enough to wear. For years, Benefit stuck to their single original Hoola shade until 2019 when they released three new shades: one lighter called Lite, one darker called Caramel, and the darkest being Toasted. All four are matte.

I bought Toasted at half price during Ulta’s 21 days of beauty last year and during the holidays, when it was on sale again, I bought Caramel. However, Caramel is too close to my skin tone to give a bronzing effect. I tried mixing the two shades together, but that didn’t really work, so I sold it.

I still have and love Toasted. I just use a very light hand, and my squirrel hair brushes, to keep the application on the sheerer side. I can easily overdo it if I’m not careful. Though it leans slightly red, this shade has more of a contouring effect on me because of how much darker it is. Applying a sheer layer helps to prevent this, although sometimes I do use it as a contour on just my forehead and under the cheekbones. If I’m going to contour my jaw and nose, I prefer an actual grey/cool-toned contour powder.

The Toasted bronzer goes on so smoothly, and with the right brush, it can look airbrushed. This bronzer is worth the hype, which is why I included it in my 2019 favorites. I still very much like it, though I’ve been giving my newer bronzers more attention lately.

Photo when I first got the Benefit Bronzer.

Nabla Skin Bronzing in Profile

Profile is a lot lighter than it looks in the compact. As Summer has just ended, in MAC terms, my closest shade match right now is NC47 (would be 48 if that existed). If you’re a little darker than me, I don’t think this shade will work very well, despite it being the darkest bronzer Nabla has available.

This bronzer is in Nabla’s baked gelée formula, which means it’s pressed firmer and is harder to pick up. When I do pack it on, it looks extremely natural as if I spent ages blending, when it’s really just due to being a shade or so darker than my skin tone. Despite being an excellent shade match, I don’t know how often I will use this because of the amount of time I have to spend getting it to show up. I either use a goat hair brush (or at most squirrel-goat mix) which is resilient enough to pick up the product, or a dense synthetic brush.

I can see the shimmer in the pan, but it looks matte on my skin. It’s only after I build it up heavily that I can see a little sheen to it in person.

Photo using the Nabla Bronzer.

Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Matte Bronzer in Deep

The packaging called to me. I couldn’t avoid it! I was also attracted to the fact that the compact is refillable. Not that I will ever run out of the product, but I like having that option. The brand just released a highlighter in a silver compact identical in size and design to the bronzer, so someone could theoretically swap them if they prefer the silver over gold or vice versa. However, unlike the bronzer, the highlighter is glued down. You’d have to be very careful depotting it.

This powder is incredibly smooth. It’s the softest, most finely milled of all the bronzers in my collection. It also seems to be the lightest pressed of the bunch because a ton of product comes onto my brush with just a gentle tap into the pan. Even though it’s nearly as dark as Benefit’s Toasted, I don’t worry as much about overapplying. The powder blends into the skin very well, so I don’t have to be as precise or as light-handed with it. Based on photos, I suspect shade 3 is too light for me, but I haven’t seen or tried it in person to know for certain. Shade 4 works very well for me anyway, so I’m not in a rush to investigate further.

Photo using the Charlotte Tilbury Bronzer.

Kosas The Sun Show Moisturizing Baked Bronzer in Deep

This bronzer has the perfect amount of shimmer as to not be overwhelming and gives the skin a healthy glow. If you know your shade match in the Kosas foundation, they suggest the Light shade of bronzer for foundation matches 1-4, Medium for 5-7.5, and Dark for 8-10.
Most brands use the term “Dark” to refer to a lighter shade of brown and “Deep” to signify the darkest shades. Kosas does the opposite. So, by naming this bronzer “Deep,” but putting “Dark” on the suggestion portion, it makes me wonder whether they had plans to make a darker bronzer suitable for the last four foundation shades but scrapped it.

I have a sample of shade 7.5, and I can get away with using it, but 8.0 is a better match for me during Spring-Summer. As the lightest fit for the Deep bronzer, I should expect this to be very dark on me. However, Deep is almost a perfect match and that makes me question how this could possibly work for all six shades in the 8-10 range. The shade gap between 8 and 10 is so much wider than the others.

That being said, Deep works so well for me. Since buying it, I keep reaching for this Kosas bronzer the most out of all the ones in my collection. There’s just something special about it that I can’t explain. It has the strongest warm/red tone out of all my bronzers, so perhaps that has something to do with it.

I do have to bring up the smell, because I know it can be very off-putting for some people, enough to possibly not want to buy.
It smells like leftover frying oil. I don’t think the smell is too bad in the pan, but for whatever reason, when I actually dip my brush in the powder, it somehow intensifies the smell. Perhaps it disperses the powder into the air and actually gets in my nostrils? I don’t know, but I definitely smell it until I’ve finished blending it into my face. I even have a designated brush for this bronzer alone because the smell lingers in the bristles. I find it tolerable because I’d prefer this over a flowery perfume scent.

Photo using the Kosas Bronzer.

Too Faced Chocolate Gold Soleil Bronzer

Near the beginning of the year, Too Faced had a set that included the Original Chocolate Bar palette I wanted (along with this bronzer and other items) for $25, so I couldn’t pass up on the deal!

The bronzer has the same chocolatey scent that Too Faced is known for, and the packaging is so pretty! The shimmer makes it too light to bronze my skin, but it does make for a decent highlighter, which is why I’ve kept it.

Physicians Formula Murumuru Butter Bronzer Palette

Physicians Formula is another brand, like Benefit, which left a bad taste in my mouth with how long they took to make bronzers for anyone darker than medium. Even after their initial expansion, the bronzers still weren’t suitable to those much darker than tan, and it took them a while to add another.

I’ve heard that there is a Walmart exclusive shade that’s deeper than Endless Summer, but that it’s more of a contour powder. This palette was on sale for $9, and though the other two shades would obviously not work for me, I thought perhaps I could use one or both as highlighters. Unlike Benefit’s bronzer, which lived up to the hype, this one does not. There is an absurd amount of shimmer. The Kosas bronzer looks like it has the same, if not more shimmer in swatches, but on the skin, the Kosas one blends in and imparts a glowy sheen. The Butter bronzer, though, looks like I put a glittery highlighter on my forehead and under the cheekbone. It’s not a cute look. Now that I’ve tried it, I really don’t understand why the Butter bronzers are so beloved in the beauty community.

Also, Endless Summer is too light for me as a bronzer but still too dark to use as a highlighter. Some positives I can say are that the powder feels soft (it’s not hard-pressed) and it has a pleasant scent. Though I feel like this one was a waste of money, I’m glad I at least had my curiosity satisfied.

I Heart Revolution Tasty Coffee Bronzer

It wasn’t until I was nearly finished working on this blog post that I decided to try out this bronzer in the shade Mocha, the darkest of the four released (only three are available at Ulta). This shade leans more on the yellow side and is the closest match to my skin tone, but I learned that a close match doesn’t guarantee it will be a better bronzer shade.

My body is 50 shades of brown. I don’t have an even complexion, especially on my face. My forehead is darker than my cheeks, so this shade shows up on my cheeks, but it’s difficult to detect on the perimeter of my forehead. I have to pack it on even more than the Nabla bronzer for it to be seen on camera. This might not be an issue if I try it over a fuller coverage foundation, but I’ve been wearing Nars Sheer Glow almost exclusively in 2020.
I find it a little funny that this doesn’t have a coffee smell. I like that it is unscented, I just wasn’t expecting this to be the product without it, considering how many of my bronzers are scented.

Mocha has shimmer that is visible in the pan, but I don’t see it on my skin when I wear this. I don’t even see a sheen either. To my eyes, it looks matte. While I’m glad I decided to try this bronzer, it isn’t in my top four purely because of the shade match. It’s not as smooth as some of my other powders and it doesn’t have enough red to give me a bronzing effect. The fact that it is my same undertone but darker causes a light contouring effect, even without the addition of grey. For only $7 though, I’m still impressed by the quality and would recommend it if the other bronzers I mentioned are too expensive.

Makeup Revolution Splendour Matte Bronzer

I can’t believe it! A range so deep that my closest match is medium. Medium! Unfortunately, I already made my purchase before realizing that this shade would be too neutral to bronze me. It looked red-toned in the photos and videos I saw. Also, I ran into the same issue of it being visible on my cheeks but next to impossible to show on my forehead. Since I’m trying to avoid getting anymore contouring-bronzers, I can’t even say that picking the Medium-Dark or Dark shades would have been better for me.

The texture is smoother than the Coffee bronzer, but also drier and more powdery. It’s the kind of consistency I expect for an “ultra-matte” bronzer. There is no shimmer in this, so the ultra matte description on the front of the unicarton is accurate. However, I’m confused by the contradictory “Glow Splendour” name on the brand’s website. Ulta doesn’t have “Glow” in the name on their site, but I know it’s the same product because it has “Glow” written on the compact. Without shimmer and without being the right tone to give a bronze look, I don’t think glowing is a good description. I’d also like to note that even though I have dry skin, and ultra-matte products are typically not compatible with my skin type, I didn’t have any issues using it.

I debated whether or not to try a darker shade, but I really don’t need another when I already have the Mocha one. If you have a tan complexion or darker and you’re looking for a contouring-bronzing product, I recommend trying this one out. It’s only $12, you get a lot of product, and the packaging is made of a surprisingly sturdy hard plastic! I’ve seen more expensive bronzers with flimsier packaging. *cough* Benefit Hoola.

My first thought when I opened the compact was that it smells like Piña Colada. I checked the product description on Ulta’s site, and they do mention adding a pineapple and coconut scent.

OTHER SWATCH COMPARISONS

All swatches were done over Nars Sheer Glow foundation with my fingers, except the left Benefit swatch, which I used with a brush. I was trying to avoid rubbing my finger into the product because it creates hardpan, but I did use my finger in the right set of swatches. The Benefit Bronzer can be built up to be quite dark, and it is the darkest bronzer in my collection.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Besides the Physicians formula and Too Faced Bronzers, other famous bronzer shades touted as “universal” that are more of highlighters on me are Tarte’s Park Ave Princess and Nars’ Laguna.

Hyped bronzers released this year that are dark brown-skin friendly but I have not purchased are from Nars (Quirimba and Punta Cana) and Gucci (05 dark).

Between Kosas, Charlotte Tilbury, Nabla, and Benefit, my collection feels complete. I use the Kosas for the quickest blend and my overall favorite look, Charlotte Tilbury for the quickest airbrushed look, Benefit for a partly contoured look, and so far I’ve just used the Nabla bronzer in conjunction with my other Nabla face products.
Thankfully, I don’t feel as much of a compulsion to buy bronzers the way I do for blushes, eyeshadows, and highlighters!

10/26/20 Update: For anyone wondering about the Fenty Sun Stalk’r Instant Warmth Bronzer in the shade Mocha Mami, I got a great deal on it from Fenty’s site and can say that it is very similar to my Kosas bronzer. They’re both red-toned. Mocha Mami is just a matte and slightly darker version. You can see the color difference in the swatch, but because an actual face application wouldn’t be so heavy-handed, it looks the same when I use it on my face, just without the sheen.

If you like the shade match from Kosas but can’t stand the smell, this is a great alternative. Plus, the Fenty Bronzer retails for $30 whereas the Kosas bronzer is $34. And the way the Fenty bronzer performs reminds me a bit of Charlotte Tilbury’s bronzer, but just a little harder pressed. Charlotte’s is still the softest powder of the lot.

This concludes my post. Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤

Blushes So Good I Needed Another

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2020 has been the year of blushes for me. I’m not sure why, but my blush obsession has surpassed even my eyeshadow obsession! That being said, I always buy one blush to start with from a brand, even if they have multiple colors I want. If I end up loving the formula, I still tend to stick with that single shade (or buy a better-suited shade to use instead). However, these are the exceptions to that rule; the blushes I loved so much that I felt compelled to buy another!

I will be excluding MAC, NYX, and Rituel de Fille from this list, as I’ve discussed them in posts before and we know I didn’t stop at just two with those brands!

HOURGLASS AMBIENT LIGHTING BLUSHES

Swatches in different lighting

These are the blushes that inspired this post! Hourglass is notorious for having a stunning powder formula but making shades suited primarily for pale to medium skin tones. Diffused Heat was the first one I bought. It takes a lot of building up to show on my cheeks but despite how many layers I have to add, it still doesn’t look powdery! The poppy color gives a healthy youthful flush that I love. It imparts a subtle glow without looking shimmery or glittery due to the finely milled powder Hourglass is famous for.

A heavy application of Diffused Heat on the cheeks

Since their initial blush launch in 2014, medium tone pinks have been the darkest shades Hourglass has been willing to make. Besides being uninclusive in their powder range, the other issue with making multiple medium tone blushes is that they end up looking too similar on the cheeks. Below is an example of their six darkest blushes using Temptalia’s swatch comparison feature. It should be noted that Vibrant Flush and Mood Flush are only available in limited edition quads/palettes with other products too light for my skin tone. So, to even have access to these blushes, I would’ve had to pay $60-$80. Vivid Flush was the limited edition 2019 Lunar New Year shade that was sold individually but is no longer available.

Photo Credit: Temptalia

After buying my first Hourglass blush, I only had to wait six months for a shade different enough from Diffused Heat to be worth purchasing.
At Night is described as a brick red. The dark maroon marbling gives the impression that it will be a deep shade, but when mixed with the lighter base powder, it turns it into a warm medium to medium-dark pink. I love this shade, perhaps even more than Diffused Heat because I don’t have to work as hard to get the color to show.

A heavy application of At Night on the cheeks
At Night Again

To see how the original Hourglass blushes look on someone with a complexion closer to mine, I recommend this video by The Fancy Face.

10/11/2020 Update: I purchased Radiant Magenta thinking that if Diffused Heat worked on me then this shade would as well. I was mistaken. Despite the gold shimmer, this shade appears too cool-toned on my cheeks and is too light for me. I don’t like the way it looks, so that was unfortunately a bad purchase. At least I got it at a reduced price.

This brand has a decent range of complexion products, so it’s very strange to me that for the past six years I’ve seen customers implore Hourglass to make deeper blushes, bronzers, face powders, and highlighters. The demand is so high, yet Hourglass ignores it. After the release of At Night, I was hopeful that the brand would finally fulfill the barrage of requests for a light version and dark version of their holiday face palettes this year. Instead, they repromoted old products and paired them with “new” powders that look like the old ones, just half a shade darker. I give most brands who promised to be more inclusive in the future some leeway because of COVID-19. However, Hourglass has had over five years to make it happen. It’s disappointing because I like the brand. I like their products. I wish more people were able to use them.

FENTY CHEEKS OUT FREESTYLE CREAM BLUSHES

The left column shows how they look in natural lighting.

My Fenty blushes are like deeper cream versions of my Hourglass blushes! I bought Strawberry Drip during the initial product launch and loved it, then immediately purchased two additional blushes. I don’t like to return things, but Daiquiri Dip was too bold of a red shade. I’ve kept plenty of items I don’t care for, but if there’s something I know I will literally never use again, that’s when I will make a return. Thankfully, I loved Rosé Latte and kept that as my second shade. There are several more colors that appeal to me from the line, but cream products don’t last as long, so I stopped at these two.

Strawberry Drip is described as a “soft coral pink” but is a bright intimidating looking shade to me, so I was surprised how much I liked this one!

Rosé Latte is described as a “soft bronzed nude,” which doesn’t look very special in the pan. On the skin, you can see the subtle red tone that gives this shade it’s oomph.

Because the formula isn’t as pigmented, but still buildable, a wider range of people can use these shades. Though they can be built up, I prefer to wear them on natural makeup days. These mostly set, and although they aren’t transfer-proof, I can still rub my finger over my cheek without it turning patchy. It also doesn’t disturb my foundation using the two methods I have tried: scooping out some product onto the back of my hand and warming it up with my finger before applying with my fingers or a sponge.

This was taken earlier in the year. I’m wearing Rose Latte towards the back of the cheek and Strawberry Drip on the apples of the cheek towards the front. This is my preferred combo.

KVD VEGAN BEAUTY EVERLASTING BLUSH

My goodness, I haven’t discussed any KVD products since the Mi Vida Loca Remix Palette from 2015! Controversies aside, I wasn’t interested in anything from “Kindness Vegan Discovery (Doing Good) Vegan Beauty” until the blush release in January 2020.
I have to address the name change. Did they really need to put Vegan in there twice?

This is an actual banner used in the past by KVD Vegan Beauty. I just added the Meme-ish caption.

I bought Snapdragon at full price shortly after the product launch. At this time, everything else from KVD was going on sale, but I couldn’t resist that rose packaging. I intended to get another blush when I thought it would inevitably go on sale too, but as of September 21st, it still hasn’t. Excluding the new eye primer that was released a month or so ago, the blush is the one item that hasn’t gone on sale yet. What I also find interesting is that these blushes are the only items in the brand that isn’t available at Ulta. Even the new primer is available there.

*DEC 26th, 2020 UPDATE: The blushes are finally available at Ulta!

*MARCH 2021 UPDATE: KVD now stands for Kara Veritas Decors (latin for Value, Truth, and Beauty) in the latest “brand reinvention.” They are to be known as KVD Tattoo Inspired Vegan Beauty.

As you may know, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) is the parent brand of the beauty retailer Sephora. They also own Kendo Holdings, which owns KVD Vegan Beauty. It makes sense that KVD products would be exclusively sold at Sephora and their own website. Ulta Beauty, Sephora’s competitor, now carries KVD products. This is highly unusual. The only other LMVH brand allowed to be sold at Ulta, to my knowledge, is Benefit Cosmetics. Many speculate that this addition to Ulta is because KVD is struggling with their sales and they hope working with Ulta will change that. Because of Sephora’s marketing structure and trying to maintain a high pricepoint as to not devalue their products, things only go up to a certain percentage on sale before they offload everything else to TJMaxx (where makeup goes to die). Because Ulta carries drugstore items, as well as prestige, they can offer products at prices Sephora is unwilling to sell for. So, to have the blushes kept from Ulta leads me to believe that it’s the top-selling KVD item and probably the only real money maker the brand currently has. They’ve revealed a new holiday palette that I think is beautiful, so perhaps they can turn things around. Anyway, back to the blushes.

KVD was always known for making a statement, so I expected these blushes to be pigmented, but dang! I have to use a light hand with Snapdragon, but especially with Poppy. Poppy creates a lot of kick-up in the pan. The Everlasting Blush formula is very smooth and of good quality. It just comes down to deciding which shade one prefers.

I included comparisons to Lolita because it is so similar to Snapdragon. Lolita eyeshadow/blush was released in 2017. I bought it back then, returned it when I discovered a long hair/fiber embedded in the powder, and then didn’t repurchase it until 2020. The difference between Lolita and Snapdragon is that Snapdragon is slightly darker and redder. Snapdragon is also a smoother powder. Even though I bought this is 2020, Sephora has had issues in the past of keeping products in the sale section for much longer than they should. I remember when Sephora added some KVD eyeshadow trios I hadn’t seen before. The pigmentation was awful, so I did my research and found out that not only were the trios supposed to be discontinued, they were originally released 4 years prior. I have no way of knowing if the Lolita shade I have is from a new batch or the first restock after it became permanent. KVD’s vegan eyeshadow formula tends to worsen in performance quicker than other brands of eyeshadows I have, and since Lolita is technically also considered an eyeshadow, it’s possible that it doesn’t feel as soft in comparison or as easy to blend because of its potential age. However, my hypothesis is just that the Everlasting blushes have a better formula.

MELT DIGITAL DUST DUO BLUSHES

Melt Cosmetics recently released their Royal Blush collection. There are three duos in total. I started with buying Queen Bee with the intent of using both shades strictly as highlighters. MAC taught me how to love brown blushes, but the left side called Queen is a warm bronze that doesn’t have enough depth or richness of brown I’d consider flattering as a blush. It’s perfect as a highlighter though. The same can be said of the lighter honey gold shade on the right side called Bee. It reminds me of the Topaz shade from Becca Cosmetics, and although yellow-toned blushes are very popular this year, I don’t like the way it looks on me as a blush alone. I prefer it as a highlighter or blush topper.

After seeing some swatches online, I thought Buzz Kill might still work for me despite looking light in the pan. Though it does look darker and more pigmented in swatches, on my cheeks I get much more of the golden shimmer than the pink pigment, making this not really a blush for me either. Here are swatch comparisons to other light pink blushes with gold shimmer I have in my collection.

Different lighting and over Nars Sheer Glow Foundation in Macao.


The Kill side has bigger glitter specks than any of the three other shades and would only work as a highlighter for me. I wouldn’t even try to use it as a blush topper.

The shade I didn’t buy is called Raw Honey. The Raw side is a mauve bronze. The Honey side is a pink beige. I didn’t think those would work as blush or highlights for me, so I skipped it.

The first digital dust formula I heard about from Melt were highlighters, and these all have that highlighter quality to them. I wonder if Melt marketed these as blushes because the “Glass Skin” trend made products that use glitter/shimmer for shine instead of creating a wet sheen, traditional highlighters, and blinding highlighters drop in popularity. However, blushes have remained popular, if not risen in popularity. I don’t think this is an instance of trying to release unconventional blush shades to be different. Although I can see this being trendy on Instagram, and the packaging/imprint/design is aesthetically pleasing, I don’t know how many people would consider these staple blushes in their collection. I do like the Queen Bee duo, though, as highlighters and eyeshadows. I will continue to use it. Buzz Kill is an example of loving a blush so much I had to get another…but the other didn’t work for me.

COVER FX MONOCHROMATIC BLUSH DUOS

These blushes were initially released in April 2019, but I didn’t buy my first one until that August during Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty sale when it was half off. I bought Spiced Cinnamon and loved it, but didn’t get Warm Honey until this year’s 21 days of beauty at half price again.

I can see why these duos were so hyped last year! The mattes aren’t quite as smooth as KVD’s everlasting blushes, but they are less powdery and very pigmented! The shimmers in the duo remind me of a less glittery version of Melt’s Digital Dust blush formula.
For Spiced Cinnamon, I typically use the matte side alone or mix the two halves together. As I mentioned before, it is very pigmented and just two swirls of my brush in the powder are enough for me.

For Warm Honey, although the matte half is pigmented, the shade is closer to my skin tone so it takes a few more layers of building up to get it to show on me. It’s great for days when I want a more neutral looking flush of color. The shimmer side doesn’t have enough pigmentation for me to use on its own and I don’t like the way it looks as a highlighter.

I love the mattes from both duos. The shimmer sides, although nice quality, are not in my preferred shades. The mattes are comparable to MAC, but MAC blushes range from $25-$30. If you like both shades in Cover FX’s duos, then the $39 price is more reasonable since you’re getting two products in one. If you only like one side, I recommend waiting for a sale. I should note that I’m unsure if these duos are being discontinued. Sephora had them on sale for $19 before removing them from their site. It’s possible the brand as a whole is being removed from Sephora (since all Cover FX items have been on sale there for a while) and that these blushes will continue being available at Ulta.

NABLA SKIN GLAZING AND SKIN BRONZING

I mentioned in my 2019 favorites how much I loved the Nabla Skin Glazing Highlighters. I bought Amnesia and followed that up with Lucent Jungle, which is a bit too dark for me, but I kept it anyway. In 2020, Nabla released two blushes which were still given the same Skin Glazing name and packaging. The shades Adults Only and Truth were part of their original launch, but the blushes released this year are called Lola and Independence. I purchased Lola, which Nabla refers to as a “watermelon with amber and peachy reflects” shade of blush. It looked and sounded so beautiful that I had to get it. It’s on the lighter side of blushes, but it still works for me. I really like the way it looks and am happy I bought it. As with the other Nabla products in this formula, these are harder pressed than regular powders. If you like using natural brushes like I do, then I suggest a goat hair brush, although my squirrel-goat mix HS-2 Hana Sakura Blush Brush does the job well. I’m not sure if this will cause some long term damage to the bristles though, so just be careful!

My curiosity got the better of me, and even though I don’t need more bronzers, I picked up the darkest shade called Profile. The packaging on the Skin Bronzing is a slightly different color to distinguish from the two product types. The product swatches of Profile looked so dark that I contemplated getting the lighter shade called Revenge. However, in-person, Profile was nowhere near as dark as I expected. It works for me but I’m not sure how well it would work on someone even a few shades darker. Since this is a blush post, I’m saving a more in-depth review of the bronzer for the bronzer post I have scheduled next week.

Picture using Nabla’s Profile Bronzer, Lola Blush, and Amnesia Highlighter.

This concludes the post! I was debating adding the monochromatic Patrick Ta blush and the Headliner Blush to this review, but they didn’t fit the theme. Although I have two Patrick Ta blushes, I only stuck to one shade from each formula. So, I may save those for the future in a dedicated post or another themed post. I’ve been so inspired this Summer and Fall that I have plenty of reviews planned. It’s just a matter of having the time for this hobby of mine!

Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤