Confessions of a Bronzing newbie: Essence Love to be Matt Bronzer review
I'm the first to admit that I have zero knowledge when it comes to bronzing or contouring. It has never been part of my daily makeup routine. But I've gotten curious about bronzing from reading beauty blogs. Since I'm new to this kind of makeup, I thought I'd try a cheap product first to see if I can incorporate this to my daily routine. So far, all my attempts have failed. I don't know if it's my lack of skill or if I don't have the proper product or tools to achieve the look that I want. I got this product a month ago and I've been playing with it ever since.
Essence Bronzing Compact Powder in 02 Love to be Matt. The pan says it's a silky smooth powder for a matt and tanned finish. The compact is huge so you get a lot of product in the pan. It also had a pretty design which I should have photographed before using. I was just really excited to try it as it was my first bronzing product. As you can see in the last photo, this is super powdery. You don't need to work in your brush to get the product, a light dip is all that's needed. With bronzing, you definitely don't want to load up too much product on your brush as you will end up looking burned when you apply too much. It's best to apply it light first then build it up to the intensity that you want.
I've started using the first brush to apply the product at the hollows of my cheeks then use the slanted brush to kind of blend it out. You can see in the the swatch that it is without any shimmer or sparkles which works for me. A matte finish is something I can work with given my newbie status. On the cheeks, it kinda looks orange to me. They say you should pick a color that's closest to the color you have when you tan and I don't think I've ever had orange skin. I also need to practice blending more as you're not supposed to see a visible line when you apply this product. This product also isn't long wearing. It disappears after the fourth hour or so. My cream blushes perform better than this. So by lunchtime, this is completely gone and I never seem to remember packing this in my makeup bag.
I probably wouldn't repurchase this but I'm glad I bought it to try my hand at bronzing. It made me want to try it more! I'm looking at the Body Shop Honey bronzer which looks like a closer color match to me. The Essence Bronzing compact powder just isn't it. I will still continue to use this as a blush and probably mix it with a lighter color (NYX angel) to get a peachy color. I think it'll work.
Essence Bronzing Compact Powder in 02 Love to be Matt. The pan says it's a silky smooth powder for a matt and tanned finish. The compact is huge so you get a lot of product in the pan. It also had a pretty design which I should have photographed before using. I was just really excited to try it as it was my first bronzing product. As you can see in the last photo, this is super powdery. You don't need to work in your brush to get the product, a light dip is all that's needed. With bronzing, you definitely don't want to load up too much product on your brush as you will end up looking burned when you apply too much. It's best to apply it light first then build it up to the intensity that you want.
I've started using the first brush to apply the product at the hollows of my cheeks then use the slanted brush to kind of blend it out. You can see in the the swatch that it is without any shimmer or sparkles which works for me. A matte finish is something I can work with given my newbie status. On the cheeks, it kinda looks orange to me. They say you should pick a color that's closest to the color you have when you tan and I don't think I've ever had orange skin. I also need to practice blending more as you're not supposed to see a visible line when you apply this product. This product also isn't long wearing. It disappears after the fourth hour or so. My cream blushes perform better than this. So by lunchtime, this is completely gone and I never seem to remember packing this in my makeup bag.
I probably wouldn't repurchase this but I'm glad I bought it to try my hand at bronzing. It made me want to try it more! I'm looking at the Body Shop Honey bronzer which looks like a closer color match to me. The Essence Bronzing compact powder just isn't it. I will still continue to use this as a blush and probably mix it with a lighter color (NYX angel) to get a peachy color. I think it'll work.