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11 best bronzers for a sun-kissed glow: From cream to powder formulas

Add warmth, depth and contour to your complexion with these tried and tested bronzers, recommended by a beauty editor

Louise Whitbread
Friday 30 June 2023 16:49 BST
<p>Powder formulas tend to be longer lasting while cream bronzers are perfect for building a dewy finish </p>

Powder formulas tend to be longer lasting while cream bronzers are perfect for building a dewy finish

Our Top Picks

Bronzers are one of the most transformative products in your makeup arsenal. Adding instant warmth to cheekbones and a sunkissed glow, the right one can make you look like you’ve just touched down from a tropical trip, and leave you with a healthy, lit-from-within radiance.

However, achieving a look that’s more tanned than terracotta isn’t as simple as it should be. Use the wrong bronzer shade and you can end up looking orange, ashy, or simply overdone.

With cream, powder, gel and liquid textures to choose from, across matte, satin and illuminating finishes that can be sheer, buildable or richly pigmented, there’s no shortage of choice. Typically powder is longer lasting, while creams and liquid bronzers tend to have a dewy end result.

Your application technique is also key. Buttery soft, creamy textures can be dabbed onto cheeks with your finger, a sponge or a dense brush, while powder formats are best swept across skin with a large fluffy brush in circular motions for even distribution.

A buildable bronzer is also imperative to ensure you don’t end up looking muddy, especially if you’re using a brush to lightly add layer after layer for a healthy-looking complexion. Anything too pigmented can mean less room for error if you make an accidental mistake and apply too much. They can also come in handy for creating a tonal makeup look by adding a pinch of product onto your eyelids for a flattering eyeshadow without needing to use more than one product.

From formulas that cater to fair, medium and dark skin tones, youthful and mature skin, palettes to single-pan designs, we’ve explored the best the high street and luxury brands have to offer.

How we tested

Over the course of four weeks, we’ve been busy testing every type of bronzer imaginable, to narrow it down to the top 11. The ones making the cut span affordable, mid-range and high-end options across a multitude of textures, finishes and formats. We looked for bronzers you can’t go wrong with, are easy to apply and seamless to blend.

We tested affordable through to high-end bronzers over four weeks

The best bronzers for 2023 are:

  • Best overall – Makeup by Mario soft sculpt transforming skin enhancer: £35, Sephora.co.uk
  • Best budget bronzer – Sculpted by Aimee cream luxe bronzer: £16, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best bronzing stick – Merit bronze balm: £32, Meritbeauty.com
  • Best bronzer for dark skin tones – Rare Beauty warm wishes effortless bronzer: £25, Spacenk.com
  • Best bronzer for fair skin tones – Jones Road Beauty gel bronzer: £32, Jonesroadbeauty.com

Makeup by Mario soft sculpt transforming skin enhancer

best bronzers uk 2023
  • Best: Bronzer overall
  • Shades: Six

You cannot go wrong with this soft sculpt transforming skin enhancer from professional makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic. Unassuming when first opened, but it’s the easiest bronzer we’ve ever used when it comes to blending, and is perfect if you’re keen to avoid looking too orange or overdone. Using a dense brush, simply dab it over cheeks for a warmer complexion that’s neither too sculpted nor lacking in pigment. Its coverage is sheer, balmy and beautiful. If you have the budget, this is a foolproof option.

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Sculpted by Aimee cream luxe bronzer

best bronzers
  • Best: Budget bronzer
  • Shades: Four

This generously sized circular pan is home to one of the best buildable bronzers we’ve tried. Soft and creamy, it blends seamlessly over the top of foundation without disrupting it at all. It never looks patchy but we did need a couple of applications before we achieved the bronzed cheekbones we wanted. The first time we dipped our brush in it, we noticed it didn’t pick up much product – for us this isn’t a downside as it allows room for mistakes that are easy to touch up.

  1. £16 from Amazon.co.uk
Prices may vary
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Merit bronze balm

best bronzers
  • Best: Bronzing stick
  • Shades: Five

Merit’s bronze balm landed on UK shores in March, after achieving viral success on TikTok in the US. It immediately left us impressed and we’re not surprised it’s been such a hit among beauty lovers. This is a creamy, buttery soft bronzing stick that’s perfect if you prefer lighter makeup. It’s versatile too, we often swiped it onto our eyelids and blended with a fluffy brush or finger. And while it looks small, we’ve been using this since March and aren’t even halfway through it yet. The formula is vegan and blends seamlessly onto cheekbones with a satin finish that isn’t overly glowy, and we found that it’s impossible to mess up application.

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Rare Beauty warm wishes effortless bronzer

best bronzers
  • Best: Bronzer for dark skin tones
  • Shades: Seven

Rare Beauty is full of makeup products we can’t live without, but the top item always making an appearance in our makeup bag is this creamy bronzing stick. So soft it feels like liquid on the skin, it’s compact, lightweight and very easy to build up in layers depending on how much bronzer you want. Water-resistant and non-greasy, it has a sheer finish and never looks cakey, no matter how much you apply.

  1. £25 from Spacenk.com
Prices may vary
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Nudestix nudies all over face colour matte

best bronzers
  • Best: Matte bronzer
  • Shades: 14

You may have seen Nudestix all over your TikTok thanks to its use by Sofia Richie Grainge’s makeup artist, Pati Dubroff, on her wedding day. The stick-based cream products that span lipsticks, blushers, bronzers, highlighters and complexion are designed to streamline your makeup bag in compact packaging. This matte formula is subtle and polished, giving a pretty warmth on the cheek, and we love the stipling brush on the other end of the stick for blending on the go. It’s the perfect low maintenance bronzer for oily skin, too.

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Jones Road Beauty gel bronzer

best bronzers
  • Best: Bronzer for fair skin tones
  • Shades: Three

The newest addition to Jones Road Beauty is this gel bronzer. The perfect mix between a bronzer and a skin tint, its fluid texture is sheer, much like the rest of the brand’s product range, which is focused on formulas that are “easy to use and quick to master”. It gives a gorgeous natural, sunkissed glow but can also be mixed with your moisturiser or with highlighter to customise its finish. We tried the shade light, which is a golden bronze hue, and found a little goes a long way.

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Vieve sunset blush balm

best bronzers
  • Best: Bronzer for mature skin

This liquid, balmy bronzer is described as a blush, but we’ve long loved using the shade piazza as our bronzer. It has a dewy finish and despite the pigmented colour blends into a sheer texture that feels hydrating and smooth on the skin. It takes seconds to blend and can be dabbed onto cheeks using just your fingers. You can also apply it directly onto skin as the thin nozzle is perfect for ensuring you never use too much.

  1. £21 from Spacenk.com
Prices may vary
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Victoria Beckham Beauty contour stylus

best bronzera
  • Best: Bronzer for medium skin tones
  • Shades: Four

We love the precise pencil shape of Victoria Beckham’s newest complexion launch, which allows you to add warmth and sculpting to cheekbones in carefully controlled applications. It’s super compact too, not much thicker than a pencil, making it brilliant for travel. We tried the shade travertine and found it toed the line between warm and cool undertones, so you can use it to contour cheekbones or scribble liberally onto cheeks for a more bronzed finish.

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Kiko The Little Mermaid sunkissed baked bronzer

best bronzers
  • Best: Powder bronzer
  • Shades: One

This powder bronzer is absolutely massive and will last you ages. It’s perfect for adding all over warmth, and we loved using it with a large fluffy brush in circular motions over the cheeks and forehead. It’s not richly pigmented, which is great in a powder format, as it allows you to build up the colour intensity at your own pace, without leaving you orange. Whether you’re a Disney fan or not, this is a great all-rounder for your makeup bag. And while it is currently out of stock, you can sign up to be notified once the bronzer is back.

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Tower28 beauty bronzino illuminating cream bronzer

best bronzers
  • Best: Sheer bronzer
  • Shades: Five

This glowy, radiant bronzing cream from California based brand Tower28 is a gorgeous bronzer and highlighter in one. It leaves skin luminous, can easily be applied with your fingers and is formulated with a blend of mango butter and green tea which adds a dewy finish without a greasy residue. We tried the shade gold coast, which is a medium neutral bronze but it’s available in four other shades too.

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Et al complexion glow

best bronzers
  • Best: Bronzing palette
  • Shades: Three

This is a new brand entering the beauty scene, with bold claims of sustainability and product performance. Testing its complexion glow requires two steps; first pick up a refillable, reusable compact (£20, Etalbeautycollective.co.uk) made from wood fibres with a magnet on one side, pick your shade and pop it into the casing.

We tried the shade warm glow, a mix of four vegan shimmery shades, which features a mix of warm copper, shimmer champagnes and dusty rose. It’s very versatile, each shade can be used as a bronzer, blusher and highlighter in one, along with eyeshadow. It’s not overly powdery, has very little fallout and blends easily with a fluffy brush.

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Bronzer FAQs

What does a bronzer do?

Whether you prefer a matte, satin or luminous end result, bronzers are used to to create a subtle sun-kissed glow using buildable, sheer or highly pigmented powder and cream formulas.

How do you apply bronzer?

The first step to applying bronzer well is to make sure you have the best shade and tone for your skin, with a similar undertone to your skin – that is, warm, cool or neutral toned. You then may want to consider whether you would prefer powder or cream products, as oily skin may do best with powder-based, while for dry or mature skin, cream formulas may be best.

Powder bronzer

If you’re going in with powder, remove any excess by tapping your brush lightly. Start dabbing the product on the high points of your face where the sun would usually fall – the cheekbones, nose, forehead and chin – and try to dab as opposed to sweeping and dragging which can move your base make-up around. The higher you place the product, the more lifted the final look will be.

Cream bronzer

You can use either your finger to apply cream formulas or a fluffy brush, but the warming effect of your fingers may help with achieving a blended, seamless finish. Then apply the cream as you would with powdered products, building and blending over the highpoints of the face.

Bronzer vs contour: What’s the difference?

While contouring is about bringing definition to the face with shadows, bronzers bring depth and warmth to your complexion. Bronzer tends to be warmer in tone while contour is usually cool-toned.

The verdict: Bronzers

We absolutely adore how easy it is to get to grips with the Makeup by Mario soft sculpt transforming skin enhancer. Its soft, buttery texture melts into the skin, and never looks too much, making it ideal for makeup beginners or anyone who struggles to find the right undertones to suit their complexion.

If you’re shopping with a lower budget, we were also very impressed with the Sculpted by Aimee cream luxe bronzer that blended well and lasted throughout the day without budging. It comes a close second, especially thanks to luxe packaging that looks much more expensive than it is.

Pair your glowing skin with the best lip oils formulated for a plumper, hydrated pout

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