Ultimate Guide to Bronzer - BeautyBrainsBlush (2025)

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Bronzer is an awesome makeup product that a lot of people use without knowing much about it! Other people feel too intimidated to use bronzers, and do not know exactly where or how to use them. Read through this ultimate guide to bronzer to learn everything you need to know to achieve the perfect healthy glow!

What is bronzer?

Bronzer is a makeup product that comes in many forms, including powders, creams, gels, and stick formulas. It can be purchased as a single matte shade, have many shades swirled together, or even include shimmer.

The primary goal of bronzer is to bring a healthy, radiant warmth to the face. Think of it as a gorgeous sun-kissed glow – without the dangers of tanning.

Bronzers are typically 1-2 shades darker than your skin tone, allowing you to darken specific areas of your face to mimic a healthy summery glow!

How is bronzing different than contouring?

While both bronzers and contours are used to define and darken certain areas of the face, they are actually quite different.

Contouring creates “shadows” (or the illusion of shadows!) on the face, using a cool toned matte cream or powder. This defines the face, especially along the cheekbones, jawline, forehead, and nose.

Bronzing also can create definition, but primarily focuses on bringing warmth and radiance to the face using a warmer toned product. Bronzers can be matte or shimmer, and come in a wide range of formulas.

You can use only contour, only bronzer, both, or neither – it all depends on your personal preference! I personally love a quick daily sweep of bronzer on my face to bring a radiance life-like glow to my pale skin, while I consider contouring to be a “full glam” or “fancy” type of makeup step.

What shade of bronzer should I use?

Typically, you should use a bronzer that is 1 to 2 shades darker than your natural skin tone.

If you use a bronzer that is much too dark for your skin tone, you can have trouble blending it in and making it look realistic.

This may also mean that you use different bronzer shades throughout the year if your skin tone deepens in the summer. Many people have a darker shade they use during the warmer months where they are naturally more tan, and a lighter shade they use in the winter/cooler months.

If you are fair or light skin toned, you want to be careful to not get a bronzer with heavy red undertones, which may cause your skin to look orange. Instead, try to find a light neutral or peachy toned bronzer.

Medium and olive skin tones should look for neutral browns and golden undertones that are about 2 shades darker than your natural skin.

Tan, dark, and deep skin tones can take advantage of gorgeous rich brown shades with both warm and cool undertones.

If you are unsure what shade bronzer you should use, try out a bronzing palette with multiple shades to see which flatters you the best!

Matte or shimmer bronzer?

In the end, this decision is totally up to you and what you think will look best on your skin.

Shimmer is rather common in bronzers, and can look beautiful when applied correctly. Because shimmer reflects light, they can appear illuminating and glowy on the skin. However, this can backfire if you already have oily skin and your shimmery bronzer emphasizes the shine.

Matte bronzers do not have any shine in them, and will simply warm up the face with a flat shade.

In many cases, bronzers have a very small amount of shimmer in them but look almost matte on the skin. Or, they will have a very slight sheen to them (almost like a satin blush type of finish!) that have a glow without any sparkly particles in the actual product. I find these types to be wonderful for many people.

When in doubt, try both and see how you like each type in natural sunlight.

How and where do I apply bronzer?

Since bronzer is supposed to emulate where the sun would naturally tan your face, you want to apply bronzer in those “naturally bronzed” areas.

These include the cheek bones, forehead, temples, and nose. Some people also like to apply bronzer along their jawline – just be careful to not put too much in this area so your foundation shade still matches your neck!

Use a fluffy makeup brush to apply bronzer. Fluffy brushes are great at dispersing product and blending it out to create a seamless finish.

The shape of the brush you should use depends on your own preference; starting with a rounded powder brush is a great option. Angled brushes and fan brushes are also popular options.

Always start applying bronzer with a small amount of product. You can always add more bronzer if you want to deepen your bronze, but you won’t be able to take it off very easily! Applying bronzer a small amount at a time can also prevent you from having unblendable, “muddy” patches on your skin.

When you first touch your bronzer brush to your face, place it directly where you want the deepest part of your bronzer to be. Why? The initial application is where the most product will be deposited, therefore will be the darkest! For instance, I always touch my bronzer brush to my temples first, and then sweep it downwards into the center of my face along my cheekbones – so the deepest part of the bronzer is along the exterior of my face, not near my nose.

It can be hard to know when to stop applying bronzer. I recommend looking at yourself in a mirror or taking a picture of yourself in natural daylight by going outside or standing by a window, and then judge your bronzer. Interior lighting can fool you into thinking you need much more bronzer than you actually do – especially bright vanity lights!

Don’t forget to blend your bronzer, either. Keep blending it until you think you’re set, and then blend for an additional 30 seconds to ensure you’re good!

Which bronzer do you recommend?

I personally am fair, cool toned, with combination skin.

Related: Best Bronzers for Fair Skin

Physician’s Formula Butter Bronzer

My absolute favorite bronzer ever is the Physicians Formula Butter Bronzer. It is slightly pricey for the drugstore, but is very cost effective compared to most high end bronzers!

The formula of the award winning butter bronzer is amazing – it is soft and buttery like the name suggests, has an amazing color to it, and is the easiest to blend. I constantly wear this bronzer over my other, high end ones.

Ultimate Guide to Bronzer - BeautyBrainsBlush (2)

Shop at Amazon | Physican’s Formula | Target | Ulta

Something I will note about this bronzer is that it is scented. It smells like a tropical vacation! I personally love the scent of this (and the other Physicians Formula butter products) so it’s just an added bonus for me.

I use the shade “Bronzer” but they do have other shades to choose from. They recently expanded the range and have some great new undertones available as well! I truly think this is the best bronzer on the market for this price range!

Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Bronzer

If you prefer to have high end makeup products, a great classic bronzer is the Hoola Matte Bronzer by Benefit Cosmetics! This has been the best selling prestige bronzer since its release.

Ultimate Guide to Bronzer - BeautyBrainsBlush (3)

Shop at Benefit Cosmetics | Sephora | Ulta

Hoola is a true matte bronzer and looks great on many skin tones. They recently added a couple deeper shades, too!

Ultimate Guide to Bronzer - BeautyBrainsBlush (4)

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I hope this ultimate guide to bronzer has been helpful!

If you liked this Ultimate Guide, you’ll probably like these ones, too:

  • Blush
  • Bronzer
  • Eyeshadow
  • False Lashes
  • Foundation
  • Glitter
  • Mascara
  • Primer
  • Setting Powder
  • Setting Spray

Think that I missed something? Let me know in a comment below!

Do you use bronzer? What is your absolute favorite bronzer? I’d love to know and try it out.

Ultimate Guide to Bronzer - BeautyBrainsBlush (6)

Ultimate Guide to Bronzer - BeautyBrainsBlush (2025)

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