Ever since I joined the beauty community and I started learning how to do my makeup, I have had to do almost as much research as I have done for some of my classes. Be it the undertones of a product, the finish, the ingredients etc. these are all significant in deciding what products meet your personal makeup goals. I have had some trouble in this area, specifically with complexion products like foundation, concealer, contour and bronzer, and this was mainly because of undertone differences. The color payoff of the wrong undertone can be the downfall of an entire makeup look, which I encountered a lot and it was usually at the contouring and bronzing stage of the routine. The products I was using were either too muddy, too orange or simply underwhelming and that led to me committing the time to not only finding what products would work best for me, but also products that show evidence of accommodating more than a few shades of medium deep to dark skin.
Here I have compiled some of my favorite cream bronzers that I found accounted for the diversity in darker skin tones, with my reviews of them. These are all personal opinions I formed based on my experience with the products, they may not apply to everyone.Â
Starting off strong with this palette, it has four bronzer shades and four blush shades, and it is a personal favorite. I truly do not remember my life before it. The bronzer shades range from warm to neutral, which I love because you can use them depending on your look for the day. I found that for my lighter looks, the warm bronzers were perfect and when I was doing a full glam look, a mix of the warm and neutral bronzers were best because I could carve my face out and bronze over the contoured places.Â
This palette is the most inclusive complexion product I have. I am able to use it on a lot of people because four shades is a surprisingly wide enough range to mix and make custom shades from. While being beautifully pigmented, it also has one of the best textures I have ever felt from a product. It is very buttery, easy to blend, and has the prettiest dewy finish. Those who do not want that could use powder bronzer on top of the cream bronzer after setting, which sets a perfect foundation for building dimension on the face. The brand also has four other complexion palettes like this, ranging from light to dark.Â
This bronzer is the definition of glow and I absolutely love it. It has pearl essence so for those who love shimmers like me, this will be the perfect addition to your routine. I love this particular shade because it acts as a contour and bronzer for me, it meets in the middle of warm and neutral depending on how the light hits your face.Â
It is a creamy, balm formula so it blends very well, which is important because it is quite pigmented and it makes it non-threatening, in comparison to some other contour/bronzer products I have used. There are eight shades in total for this product and due to its natural versatility, most can find a shade there depending on what purpose they want it to serve: bronzer or contour.Â
This bronzer shade looks exactly like its name, and when put onto the skin it brings so much colour and dimension to the face because, though it is warm, it still has the ability to sculpt. I found that it does a perfect job of warming up and balancing my face when I don’t want to fully contour. It is buildable, so you can play around with it to find what placements and applications work best for you.Â
I found that using different brushes with this product makes all the difference, smaller brushes make it look concentrated and perfect for contour and the larger, fluffier brushes diffuse the product really well and give an effortless sunkissed look. It is very versatile with a natural finish.
The bestselling Laguna bronzer powder being turned to a cream product is why I know that dreams do in fact come true. The powders were already amazing, but this new creamy formula that not only bronzes the face beautifully also blends like a dream. What I love most about this product is the fact that it maintains the bronzing effect without looking orange, which many products struggle with in order to give a “sunkissed look.”
It is very buildable, so you can moderate how much color you want on your face and it has a natural finish that makes this appropriate for however you want to use it: on your skin for a sunkissed glow or part of a full glam look.Â
This cute bronzer stick packs a punch for sure and I only found it recently. When I started experimenting with different textures of makeup, I was looking for matte products that would not appear too dry or dry out my skin, and I found this bronzer stick. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to apply and blend and how great it looked against my skin tone.Â
It is a creamy, hydrating formula which ensures even blending and application while keeping shine to a minimum. When I used it for the first time, it was perfectly bronzey without appearing orange or muddy and did not feel too different from my regular products, so I felt this was a very good introduction to matte products.