Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Let's talk about Bronzer!

Hi everybody!

So today I am going to discuss about bronzer!


What is Bronzer?

Bronzer is mostly used for contouring, it is to make the nose seem more defined and taller (though most ppl use eyeshadow instead of bronzer), or to sculpt the jaw so your face seems slimmer, or around the edges of the forehead to give a smaller face. 
Bronzer to a pale face or a face with full foundation can give a warmer appearance, not flushed like cheeks, but an overall warmth.

Should I use bronzer?
Putting on bronzer is definitely a preference thing. 
Though if you are conflicted with putting on bronzer and blush, try just going with one of them. Most people chose one or the other and it's only like a photoshoot where you use both and it is rather difficult to put on both and get them right without making them clash with each other.
If you feel you need that, then go for it. I don't use it, I'm too lazy haha. =P

Types and colors of bronzers and what kind should I use?
As you can see from the picture above, there are many different types of bronzers. But they are all in powder form, compact or loose.
Bronzers can be one shade, they can be matt or shimmery, they can be a combination of different shades. The different shades is to give an overall natural look or best combination of colors. With the bronzers that have multiple shades, you can choose a single one or a few that you like more than the others and mix and match yourself.
If you are going to use a bronzer for your face and neck, I would recommend sticking with matt. Shimmer reflects light in photography and attracts attention when it reflects light in life as well. The point of bronzer is to contour and slim down, not to attract attention.
However, if you want to apply shimmer bronzer to your body to attract attention, ladies haha, then you probably would only put on your bust area to contour or define. Or if you are tanned that works great for you because you can just put it on the top of your boobs to attract attention or make them look bigger, etc. If you want to haha.

How to and where to apply bronzer
Most people use brushes to apply bronzers, I have never seen anyone use their hands or a sponge or sth. There are bronzer brushes but I'm sure any powder or kabuki brush works just as well. For contour the edges of the face, thicker, fan brushes do a good job with a narrow strip of application around the forhead and hollows of the cheek!
Just like I said with applying blush. Please! Don't over do it!
1) Start off light and build slowly. You should also think about what kind of lighting you will be when you wear bronzer because at different lighting it can look too obvious.
2) blend blend blend well!
There are some places to apply bronzer to contour
1) hollows of the cheeks (most common) to slim down the face
2) around the edge of the forehead where it meets the hairline (don't forget to blend well into the hairline) to reduce the appearance of a wide forehead
3) jawline and under chin to slim down the face
4) along the sides of the bridge of the nose and around/under the tip of the nose to make the nose appear higher/taller and smaller/more narrow

Here is an image of where you could apply bronzer for contouring:
(the arrow you see just means blend down to jawline) For the otherside of the nose and hollow of cheeks, I didn't circle it, but it's pretty much the same as her right side.


If you want to warm up the face, you would probably put it around the edges of the face and blend well, with a little on the hollows of your cheeks. I've heard ppl apply bronzer like blush on their cheekbones, and I don't know about that, because I don't apply bronzer (I'm more of a highlighting person) but if it works well for you, and you're happy with it, sure!

So, I covered the basics of bronzer and bronzing, I hope that this has helped some ppl who are beginners in makeup to better understand what things are and what they would like to do/use!
Thank you for reading! =)

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