Catrice Sun Glow Limited Edition

I cannot remember the last time I reviewed a Catrice or Essence limited edition collection: they just hadn’t really grabbed my attention. But then Catrice started teasing their summer 2019 Sun Glow limited edition and I knew I wanted to try it. The products are finally for sale in The Netherlands and I decided to try nearly the entire collection, save for the makeup brush.

Catrice Sun Glow Limited Edition | Bronzer & Highlight summer 2019 collection

The products in this limited edition collection range from €4.59 for the liquid products to €4.99 for the powder bronzers. The highlighter and brush are the most expensive products at €5.99 each. If these are any good, then it is still super affordable of course and even better, as I am writing this, Kruidvat (Dutch drugstore) currently has a buy one get one half price on all Essence and Catrice deal going on. So if you see anything of interest here, you may want to give it a shot this week.

The Packaging

Sun Glow is a very apt name for this collection. It is very bronzy and highlighty. The products can easily be told apart due to the bold font used for the writing on the packaging. I also like how the powders all come in a hexagonal compact. Very much inspired by the Fenty products of course, but I like that look. The liquid products come in glass bottles with a pipette. The powders come in a cardboard compact and there are not mirrors or brushes included with any of these.

The Powder Bronzers

The star of the show are the three powder bronzers: one for contouring, one for luminosity and one for a metallic finish. These really sold the collection to me. I was thinking of only getting one of these, but rather than different shades, these bronzers have different finishes instead. The Contouring Bronzing Powder in C01 Contouring Tan is the only satin to matte finish powder. The Luminous Bronzing Powder in C02 Luminous Bronze has a more glowy finish. However, the Glazing Bronzing Powder in C03 Glazing Sun takes the cake and has a bronze metallic finish.

The Bronzing Powders – Swatches

When buying these I knew instantly that Glazing Bronze would be too dark for me, but I still used it in my makeup look to test the formula. There are other things you can do with bronzer ;-). The Contouring and Luminous bronzers look very identical in a swatch. I find them to be perhaps a hair different in deepness, and Luminous Bronze is a touch more glowy than Contouring, but I had expected the latter to be matte, which it isn’t fully. The undertones of the first two seem to be more yellow toned (which I like), whereas the Glazing bronzer seems to be more red toned.

The Liquids & Powder Highlight

Also part of the collection: a giant face & body highlighter (available in one shade) and two liquid products. The highlighter is so big as it should also allow you to apply the product with a large brush all over your body. I really wish they had released this collection a little sooner as I feel this is a bit too late. However, it does mean you can keep up that summer spirit and help you to reminisce of being tanned on vacation.

The Powder Highlight

The Glowy Face & Body Highlighter in C01 Sunkissed Glow looks very intense and dark in the pan. Also the swatch goes full on. This is no joke: it is a very blinding highlight that will pack a true punch. The swatch looks quite dark too, but as you can see around the edges there is some lightness to this highlighter. I would describe the shade as a deep champagne rather than a gold. The texture feels very thick and creamy. It certainly is a powder product, but it feels and performs more as a cream to powder product.

The Liquid Bronzer & Highlighter

Liquid and cream products are not my preferred ways of applying bronzer and highlighter, but they are still great products for the summer time. This collection comes with a both a liquid highlighter and a liquid bronzer. The Sun Glow Highlighter Fluid in C01 Luminous Light is the only shade available for the highlight. In the packaging it looks quite dark, but it certainly seems to be the same shade as the powder highlighter but only in liquid form.

The Sun Glow Bronzing Fluid in C01 Melted Bronze serves a bit more of a discussion. Because this is a liquid bronzer in a shade that I have never seen. It isn’t super bronzy, in fact it has a pinkish red undertone. Now on me, pink/ red toned bronzers look nice in the summer as it gives that sunburn look. Since I burn easily it can actually look quite natural on, but just looking at this in the bottle it seems too dark.

The Liquid Products – Swatches

So are they too dark? From the swatches I’d say yes. Both do blend in easily and as you can see both the bronzer and highlighter have a bit of a more highlight like flash to it. So these could still work. the highlighter and bronzer have a very runny texture and a little goes a long way. You would only need one or two drops of both at a time to use these. My preferred method of using these is to apply a drop to the back of my hand and stipple the product on with the ELF small stipple brush. If I think it looks too intense, I will go in with my makeup sponge and blend in the product a bit more to tone it down.

The Application

To show you what these products look like on, I used all the products in a full face makeup look the other day. In this first picture I am going from just foundation, concealer and brows to having applied the bronzer. As you can see it may be a touch too dark for me at first, but I find that blending it in more and applying the rest of my makeup, really helps to make this a lot more wearable. Despite the shine in the swatch, this doesn’t make me look like the tin man and I really like the undertone this has.

Step two was to apply the liquid highlighter. I used a stipple brush for this as well and went over it with a sponge. In the front view I couldn’t really capture the stunning shine this has. Surprisingly this is not too dark: it has a very nice white gold/ champagne shade that looks really nice on my skin tone. What’s more, this highlighter packs a punch. Look at that shine!

On to the powder products. Top left is what my face looks like after applying powder. I then used the Contouring powder (top right) . That is too dark for a contour for me, but it would work well as a bronzer on my complexion. It is just too warm to really do much for me. I then went in with the Luminous bronzer to give my face that overall bronzy glow. It works well and as you can see: it pulls a touch warmer on the face than it does in a swatch or in the pan. Last but not least, I also applied the Glowy highlighter and that definitely brings back that shine, but is not as strong as with the liquid.

So what about that Glazing bronze shade? Where did that go? No worries, I did apply it to my face, but knew it would be too dark to work well on my complexion. The intense bronze shade combined with the metallic shine made me want to use this as an eyeshadow instead. I just whipped out a fluffy brush and fluffed it all over my moving lid. Then I just dabbed on some more towards the lower lash line, et voilá: a quick simply eye look is born. Bronzer can work very well as eyeshadow and htis is no exception.

The Conclusion

The Catrice Sun Glow Limited Edition is one that intrigued me for a good reason. The highlighters in this collection are stunning and even though not all the bronzers work for me, I do appreciate their formulas and the way they apply. In short, Catrice has released a high quality limited editon with some unique products that I think many people would like. This limited edition collection is still availabe till October 2019.

What do you think of these products?