Be a Bronzed Goddess (NARS Bronzing Powder)

Member Name: glitter_princess

Product:	NARS Bronzing Powder
Date:	13/01/09 (457 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great texture, perfect blending, perfect colour for me, lasts forever

Disadvantages: Could be too dark for some

Bronzer has always been a makeup item that I have never quite managed to find one that really works for me - either they're too shimmery, or too orange, or too brown, or the colour doesn't blend - there's always something not quite right. I thought I'd found a really good match for me after the lovely Mythdata sent me a sample of the Body Shop's Bronzing Pearls, but I think I have finally found my perfect Holy Grail bronzer in the Nars Bronzing Powder. This was a chance purchase for me - browsing in the duty free killing time before a flight, this seemed to be a couple of pounds cheaper than I'd seen it in the UK so decided to go for it based on the high quality of other Nars products I've used.

Packaged in the rubbery black packaging that Nars use for all their powders and including a mirror in the lid, it looks like a classy and expensive product. What I especially love about the packaging though is that it makes the product really resilient to being dropped! I recently dropped my Nars Blusher and was really upset as I was convinced when I opened it up it would be cracked - but there was no damage whatsoever!

The powder itself comes in just two colours - Casino and Laguna, Laguna is for the fairer skinned and Casino for the slightly darker among us. As I have olive skin, I went for Casino which is still fairly pale for a bronzer, but has no orange tones in it, it's a golden brown with yellow undertones and a teeny bit of shimmer. Applying this bronzer is a dream - it's really finely milled and the texture is so fine that you just need to sweep a large brush really gently across it and then sweep across the cheeks along the cheekbones to give definition - a really gentle sweep is enough to pick up lots of colour on the brush. It blends effortlessly with no streaking and it is easy to build the colour if you're after a darker look, but I find that more than one sweep and you run the risk of looking overdone. The slight shimmer in it is barely noticeable once applied, just adding a glow, not heaps of glitter, and the finish is not at all powdery or cakey - it just blends perfectly, bringing out my natural colour and just making my skin pop. Like all powders, you need to make sure you apply with a good quality brush as application is only as good as the tools you're using, but my brushes are the mid range Ruby and Millie ones (not real hair) and work really well with this, so there's no need to spend a fortune. As with the Nars blusher, I find that I only need to apply the tiniest bit to achieve the effect I want and, again like the blush, I can predict that this will last me years before I need to replace it.

This is hands down the best bronzer I have ever used. Because of my pickiness in the criteria I have for bronzer I have never quite found one that worked for me before - Benefit's Hoola was too muddy, Stila's Sun Bronzer was too orange, Lancome's Star bronzer was too sparkly - but this is perfect! I would only advise this for people with at least a medium skin tone, as the yellow tones in this are more suited to olive/asian skin tones and would look too dark and I would imagine a bit dirty on fair skin. Definitely test before you buy as the key to the right bronzer is getting the right one for your skin tone. But the overall quality of this product is like nothing I've ever tried. Like all Nars products, it's not cheap, priced at £21 (I paid £18 in duty free), but for the quality and length of time it lasts I think this is really good value - from the usage I've had out of it so far, I would estimate I will get about 3-4 year's usage out of this before I need to replace it!

Nars products can be bought from Space NK stores, or online from www.hqhair.com.

Summary: Perfect pressed powder from Nars