Honestly, I don’t wear bronzer most days. It’s certainly not because I want to look the ghostly shade of pale that I am, but I’ve found that with such fair skin, it’s nearly impossible to find a shade that doesn’t look orange or ruddy. I also have lived my life with a crippling fear of leaving the house with an unblended bronzer line, so, well, there’s that. But I trust makeup artist and brand founder Gucci Westman with my life, so when I heard whispers that she was dropping a cream-to-powder bronzing duo, I was intrigued. If anyone could make me a bronzer convert, it’s her.
Available today, April 2, the Sun Tone Bronzing Crème is designed to mimic the way that the sun hits the skin. With two shades in each—and four duos total—you’re able to sculpt and add definition with the darker shade and create all-over warmth and diffusion on your face with the lighter shade. “The secret to an authentic tan is never just one shade—it’s an expert balance of warmth and depth,” Westman tells MC. “This duo gives you both: the range to build real dimension and the control to make it look totally natural.”
So, let’s see if the new Sun Tone Bronzing Crème lives up to the hype, shall we?
The Formula
While the brand is technically calling this a matte finish product, I’d say it dries down very naturally. Both of the duos have warm undertones (regardless of the shade you pick) and are super creamy. It was designed with coconut-derived emollients, which give the product extreme blendability and help keep it lightweight; avocado fruit extract, which makes it unbelievably hydrating despite being a matte formula; and shiitake mushroom extract, which smooths, blurs, and controls shine.
The Application
I have a feeling that a lot of people won’t use this the right way. Honestly, the formula is so creamy and easy to use that you can’t really mess it up, but there is a bit of strategy here. Don’t just muddy the two colors together. Instead, start with the darker shade in the duo and define and sculpt the areas you want to lift—almost like you would use a contour. I drag a little along my cheekbone, on the side of my nose, my jawline, and my hairline (but not too much here, as I have the world’s smallest forehead). Then, I use the lighter shade in the compact to diffuse any harsh lines and give my skin a healthy tan. I’m pretty generous with it, and it’s pretty impossible to mess it up. But just to err on the side of caution, I take my beauty blender, which has a little leftover foundation on it, and lightly bounce it over the edges.
The Takeaway
I tested shades one and two—the former has a bit of an orange undertone, whereas the second runs a bit redder. I’ve been using shade one more because I am incredibly pale at the moment, but I was pretty shocked to find I could get away with shade two. It’s better for underpainting at the moment, but I’ll probably transition to using it every day once summer hits. I also want to call out that my skin doesn’t eat this bronzer into oblivion. I often find that my blush-bronzer-highlighter has fully dissipated by late afternoon, but this pigment truly stayed on until I washed it off with a cleansing balm late at night.
It also just gives a really stunning finish. Is it the first cream-to-powder bronzer on the market? No, I’d be lying if I said it was, but the undertones and complementary shades really do create a sun-kissed skin effect that I’ve yet to experience. I haven’t stopped using this since I got my hands on it, and it’s quickly become my go-to everyday bronzer. And for someone who rarely used bronzer before, well, that’s saying something.
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