Maybelline City Bronzer

My current favorite bronzer? The Maybelline City bronzer! I bought this product when I visited London and was afraid it would be too dark. Why? Because the lightest shade was sold out everywhere and on my fair skin most medium to deep bronzers end up looking muddy and weird. So I was a bit skeptical about this at first. But now that I have tried it, it instantly jumped to the top of my list. Read on to find out why!

Maybelline City Bronzer 250 Warm Medium

For a Maybelline product this isn’t too bad. I keep saying this and will say it again: here in The Netherlands, brands like Maybelline and L’Oreal are expensive. Much more expensive than in other countries in Europe even. So that this comes in at a €12.99 price point was not a surprise to me, but for this product it seems reasonable too. In total, this bronzer comes in 4 shades: for the drugstore that is quite good. It even comes in a cool and warm undertone!

The Packaging

I generally like Maybelline packaging because it is always simple and functional, but it can feel a bit cheap at times. This product is housed in a round, plastic compact. There is no mirror and all of the space provided is taken up by the bronzer. No space is wasted on a brush and the packaging isn’t overly thick. Overall, this has lightweight packaging and in total you get 8 grams of product.

The Bronzer

As you can see here, the bronzer is fully matte, has a warm undertone and it looks… orange. Now you know why I felt apprehensive about trying this. But weirdly enough this shade works! I did save it till the summer time as I was afraid it may look too muddy on me in the spring time when I’m a bit paler. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. This bronzer sheers out beautifully and never looks weird and muddy. This is a great one for year round use.

The Swatch

So while the shade looked intimidating, the bronzer itself isn’t as intense as you might expect. The bronzer has a very easy to blend formula, is not too powdery and it doesn’t grab onto one part of your face but seamlessly blends into the skin. It sheers out so well that you can build this up and it still doesn’t look weird. The formula is easy to use, but I would still recommend using a light hand and a stipple brush to ensure you cannot go overboard. It is my preferred way of bronzer application in any case.

The Application

To show you what this looks like on, you can see my cheek without bronzer in the top picture and with bronzer in the bottom picture. Here you can clearly see the warm undertone of the product. But you can also see how natural and bronzy this looks. It is not a bronzer that barely shows up: it is one that is clearly visible on the skin. However, since this blends in so well it looks very natural and really like part of your skin rather than makeup.

The Conclusion

I hope this review was able to show you why the new Maybelline City Bronzer is a great bronzer indeed. I am not sure whether the full shade range will work for everyone, but 4 shades is better than just one (which is what most brands do in the drugstore). That would be the only downside here. I am loving this product so much that after using it for a full month in June, I decided to keep it in my shop my stash for the month of July. It has quickly become one of my favorite bronzers. I hope it can be one of your favorites too?

What drugstore bronzer do you use?