#MarieClaireBeautyTrip: Day Five

Our top bronzers to fake a tan/glow/health revealed…

Before we share some of our top bronzers with you we want to emphasise that we know there is such a thing as overkill on the tan front. You may - justifiably, given the number of posts pertaining to the shade of our skin - think the team have gone to extremes and now resemble a TOWIE cast member but, no, we are subtle creatures and subscribe to the school of thin layers of warming bronzes and gentle, light-reflecting tints.

Equally, the member of the beauty team out here at the Constance Ephelia Resort in the Seychelles have different tanning styles: Style & Beauty Director Lisa Oxenham’s skin has honeyed in the sun after days spent directing shoots, while I am still really quite some way behind her thanks to being enormously careful in the sun (I adhere to all the rules) and spending an inordinate number of sun hours barking down the phone or on my laptop - occupational hazard.

Despite our discrepancies in hue, we both have hit the bronzer. Me because it takes the edge off the pale and tips me into ‘you look healthy’ territory; Lisa because it revs her colour up and makes her feel like she’s caught more of the sun. Both us us apply in the same way: a dusting around our hairlines, a touch on the bridge of the nose, a little scooped under cheekbones and sweep on collars and tops of shoulders.

Here are our favourites:

FOR A HEALTHY GLOW: YSL Les Sahariennes Sun-Kissed Blur Perfector - Launches in May. A blur product that is also a veil of delicious golden brown? Sign. Me. Up. This has been by our trip make-up artist Sonia Deveney’s side throughout our time in the Seychelles because it makes skin luminous without any streaks and leaves no sign of its existence bar warmed up skin once on, which is basically exactly what we look for in a bronzing agent. 

FOR BODY BRONZING: Givenchy Brune Bonne Mine Powder Spray - Launches in May. Remember how spraying on tan mists was a thing about ten years ago? Expect a revival of the trend, with this Givenchy mist leading the pack. It’s nozzle allows just the right amount of colour to hit the skin, making it incredibly difficult to mess up. For a sneaky body contour, just go over the area you’d like to recess with a second layer of mist.

FOR A NATURAL FINISH: Laura Mercier Matte Radiance Baked Powder. An old faithful that deserves a shout out, we use this ridiculously often, switching to lighter shades come winter and a hopeful 03 when spring shows its pretty face.

FOR DEFINITION: Tom Ford Sculpt & Illuminate. A little post-flight puffiness was all but hidden with this clever bronze/highlight duo. Make-up artists sometimes use brushes, but we swear by tapping and blending with fingers to warm and diffuse the colour so nobody can tell we’ve had a little help.

FOR THE VERY PALE: Maybelline Dream Terra Sun Bronzer. See that pink bit at the edge of the bronzer? That can be used as a blusher but actually works a treat at balancing the brown when skin is closer to moon than sunlight and even the palest of bronzers look a little obvious. Just swirl your brush over the entire palette, tap excess off and sweep where the sun would hit your face.

THE CLASSIC: Guerlain Terracotta Four Seasons. No list of top bronzers would be complete without this corker. Available in six colour combinations (each palette is divided into four different tones so if you’re having a pale day/particularly brown day you can customise), we always have one of these in our make-up bags.