The Body Shop Honey Bronzer

I’m a fair skinned gal. To the point where most foundations are too dark for me and wearing bronzer, instead of bronzing or sculpting my face, makes my make up look muddy and yuck. Bronzers are my on and off product. I can go months without using it and then suddenly: bam, I use nothing but bronzer. Finding the right shade was also a feat. I used to swear by my Sephora sundisk, but found it too orange. Then I tried Nars Laguna, which I like, but don’t love, since I’m too pale most of the year to actually wear it. Enter Essiebutton on youtube, who mentioned The Body Shop’s  Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder in shade no. 02. I came, I purchased and I fell in love.

The reason why bronzer can be a difficult product to find is because most bronzers aren’t ideal. They are shimmery, too orange and the resulting effect is that of highlight gone bad. Not the kind of thing you want to go for when you try using bronzer to sculpt and give more shape to your face. And even when you find a bronzer that is void of shimmer and has the right undertone, they are often too dark for the fairest of skins. Enter this lovely products: a light bronzer that is completely matte and without an orange undertone to it.

The packaging is absolutely gorgeous. The bronzer is from the ‘Honey’ line, and comes in a gorgeous brown packaging that shows a beehive pattern when held in the right light. The Body Shop logo is stamped on it in gold. Classy and pretty, with a big mirror inside, so it’s easy for on the go as well. The beehinve pattern is repeated on the product itself which is a nice touch. In stores I could only find 3 shades, but apparently there is one shade even lighter than this one. The Body Shop recommends using this powder on the places where the sun would naturally bronze your skin, but I use this to contour, which is my favorite way to use bronzer.

The Body Shop make up isn’t cheap. This bronzer retails for €16. The ingredients are none to exciting, apart from the fact that fairtrade honey is used, but it’s all the way at the bottom of the list. I therefore doubt it really has any effect on the workings of this product. According to The Body Shop:

This honey-enriched pressed powder gives skin an even, bronze matte finish.

• Even matte finish

• Convenient compact

As you can see from the pan and the swatches below, this product is indeed matte. The compact is convenient as it’s not too big and comes with a good sized mirror. Like I said, I don’t use this bronzer all over, but I’m sure you could do so and not turn yourself into a disco ball with this product. The bronzer works really nicely as well. It’s well pigmented, but not so pigmented that you need a very light hand. The color is buildable and it is easy to blend into the rest of your make up without it looking like mud. You can see me wearing the product in this blog post.

The bronzer looks a tad orange in the lefthand swatch, but on the right you can see it after it’s been sheered out. As you can see, it leaves a slightly darker mark than my skin tone. The undertone is more beige/ grey than anything else. It’s not too orange in the pan, nor in the swatch and it’s got a pleasant yet slightly powdery texture. And as you can see: no shimmer whatsoever. Not even hidden micro shimmer. It is 100% matte.

Conclusion: I’m very happy to have found this bronzer by The Body Shop. The color is great for a light skin tone, the texture is easy to work with and it is simply a gorgeous product. If you have a lighter skin tone and are looking for a good bronzer that you can use for contouring purposes, I’d recommend this bronzing powder by The Body Shop.

What’s your favorite bronzer?