How To Apply Cream Bronzer: 5 Unique Ideas
It’s winter, and skin usually behaves differently than it does in the summer. Drier, colder climates and indoor heaters can sap moisture away from the skin, and by December, the last remnants of your summer tan are usually long gone, leaving skin looking dull and sallow.
Have no fear; it’s bronzer to the rescue. Even useful during the summer months to help highlight the beauty of your naturally sun-kissed skin, bronzer is a lifesaver during months when skin can begin looking a little less than luminous.
At RMS Beauty, we love an easy-to-apply, cream-based bronzer. We’ll tell you what it’s used for, how to use it, and give you five different ways to create a true bronzed goddess look. We’ll also give you a few tips and tricks so you can avoid common bronzer mistakes.
What Is Bronzer?
Bronzing products are used to create the look of sitting in the sun without any sun exposure. Bronzers come in both powdered and cream-based formulas, but for the purposes of our tutorial, we’ll stick with the benefits and usefulness of cream-based options.
What You Can Do With Bronzer
You can use bronzer on the skin to give it more all-over color and add warmth and depth without contouring or using a darker blush color. You can also use bronzer to add a slight shimmer to your face without glitter or sparkle.
What Bronzer Is Not
Bronzer isn’t a contouring product, so you shouldn’t use it to try to contour your cheeks, nose, or jawline. You’ll end up with a ruddy look that isn’t natural and doesn’t look believable. It’s also best to avoid trying to apply it all over your entire face.
Even though bronzer sometimes resembles a highlighter (it has a dewy, luminous look), you shouldn’t use it as one. Highlighters work to brighten and add glow, while bronzer can help add some depth, warmth, and color.
What Tools Do You Need for Cream Bronzer?
You only need two tools to create a beautifully bronzed look. A hydrating, cream-based bronzer and a sturdy brush.
The Bronzer
Bronzers can contain some not-so-nice ingredients, like parabens and sulfates. These are usually added to preserve the shelf life of the product, but they are known endocrine disruptors that can be toxic to your body.
Instead, keep your skin safe while continuing your sun-kissed summer look all year long with RMS Beauty’s Buriti Bronzer. Formulated with skin-quenching buriti oil and jojoba oil (an oil that closely resembles your skin’s natural sebum), our bronzer helps keep your skin radiant by nourishing it deeply.
The Brush
You can always use your fingertips to apply bronzer, but if you’re more comfortable with a brush, we recommend a blush brush with firm, densely packed bristles like RMS Beauty’s Skin2Skin Blush Brush.
Our brush is cruelty-free, vegan, and made to mimic skin-to-skin makeup application. It’s great for blending in cream-based bronzers to give you a natural, effortless look.
Before You Begin
Before you begin bronzing, prep your skin by cleaning and moisturizing. We also highly recommend using a primer to lock in your skincare and give your makeup something to grip.
RMS Beauty’s ReEvolve Radiance Locking Primer is loaded with vegetable squalane and hyaluronic acid to help keep your skin’s moisture locked in tight and keep your skin tone firm, all while smoothing the surface of your skin to help you create a more polished look.
How Should I Apply Cream Bronzer?
Ready to get sunny? Here are five ways you can use cream bronzer to accent your makeup, create a sun-drenched look, and liven up your winter skin.
1. Mimic Your Natural Tan
The easiest and best way to use any bronzer, including a cream-based formula, is to apply it where the sun naturally hits your skin. This includes the center of your forehead, the tops of your cheeks, the bridge of your nose, and the middle of your chin.
Don’t attempt to apply a bronzer at an angle like a contouring product — you don’t naturally tan that way. Instead, use your brush to blend it straight across these areas on your face in the same manner that the sun would naturally tan them.
2. Use Your Fingers
If you are applying bronzer to bare skin or freshly primed skin, a brush is the perfect tool to help press the product into your skin and give it staying power. If you’re applying it on top of your makeup (like the tops of your blushed cheekbones), we recommend using your fingertips.
Your fingertips have less pull and naturally blend product into the skin with their warmth. You’re less likely to remove the product you’ve already applied if you use your fingertips to apply it on top.
3. Sub It Out
For a completely fresh-faced look, a dab of bronzer works wonders when substituted for some of your heavier makeup products.
To get the look, start with clean, primed skin. Apply just enough concealer or foundation to even out skin tone. Using a brush or your fingertips, apply your bronzer on the apples of your cheeks instead of blush. You can also apply a dart of bronzer on each eyelid, and on top of lip balm, for a completely natural, glowing look.
To get this look right, we recommend blending until a subtle, I woke up like this look is achieved. Using too much product in a concentrated area can make your skin look muddy, not bronzed.
4. Layer With Blush
For the ultimate glow-up on your cheeks and to create dramatic radiance, you can layer your bronzer on top of your favorite blush. Keep the remainder of your makeup light, focusing on drawing attention to the cheekbones.
After you have applied your blush, add the bronzer to the top of your cheekbones and blend it downward onto your blush.
5. Try Adding It to Unexpected Places
One of the best ways to use a bronzer is in unexpected places. Using bronzer on your face is great, but to extend the look, you can also use it on your body.
This produces a slight shimmer that is highlighted any time you move. It also helps the remainder of your skin look hydrated and dewy.
It’s important to remember that bronzer is not a self-tanner. You need to use bronzer to highlight areas on your skin, but avoid trying to smear it all over your skin. You’ll end up looking strange and feeling unnaturally greasy.
Tips and Tricks
The most common mistake people make when using a bronzer is using too much or layering it over products that already contain a slightly golden pigment which can make the skin look orange or ruddy.
Here’s how to avoid making those mistakes.
- Change your blush color when you use a bronzer. If you’re used to wearing a blush that is naturally more peachy than pink, opt for a color with more pink undertones. This way, adding a bronzer will help warm the pink up with a golden glow instead of creating a darker shade of peach.
- Bronzer works great alone! Wearing bronzer on bare skin is a definite win, but if you use it over foundation and concealer, make sure you don’t apply too much on areas that you have contoured or it can look dark and dirty.
- Speaking of contouring, bronzer isn’t a contouring product. Contouring makeup shouldn’t have any shimmer. Using bronzer to contour your face can result in a shimmer left all over your face in areas that the sun wouldn’t naturally hit.
If you use a little too much, you can fade it out with a bit of foundation or translucent powder on top. It’s always the best practice to go in lightly and add more if you need it. RMS Beauty’s Buriti Bronzer is buildable, so you can customize your level of bronziness.
Get Golden
It may be winter, but we’ve got our minds set on summer. Once you learn to use a cream bronzer, you can give yourself a believably sun-kissed look any time of the year. As always, it’s best to use products that contain clean, safe ingredients. At RMS Beauty, we make it our mission to create the safest, cleanest products that consistently outperform their traditional beauty counterparts.
So go ahead, get golden with a cream-based bronzer, and enjoy the benefits of looking suntanned without an expensive vacation or cashing in your vacation weeks ahead of schedule.
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