Finding your bronzer shade match feels as contradictory as a preachy vegan with a cheeseburger habit. The whole thing is that it’s not the same color as your skin tone—so how do you know which to use? It’s a question that even stumped ITG’s editors until we enlisted makeup artist Mimi Quiquine to help crack the code.
Common magazine wisdom says that the right bronzer is supposed to be about two shades darker than your complexion and match your skin’s undertone (warm or cool). But there are issues with this! First, even the lightest bronzer shade might not be light enough if you’re super pale. In that case, application technique is more important than shade. And if you’re on the high end of the melanin spectrum, something warm and saturated is the most flattering. A dark shadow isn’t the only route to added dimension.
This brings us to the other thing: bronzer will always be warmer than your natural skin color, so trying to ascribe the typical undertones of “warm” and “cool” gets confusing fast. To simplify, consider cool skin “rosy” and warm skin “golden.” Bronzers with an undercurrent of pink or red create harmony on rosy-hued, calm skin. Golden, warm skin, on the other hand, looks most alive when bronzer has predominantly yellow or burnt caramel tones. If you’re unsure which sounds more like you, look at your blush collection. Peach, coral, and brick shades have a golden undertone, while pale pink, fuschia, and berry share a rosy undertone. Which do you use most?
That’s a lot of tell, and you deserve a little show, so Mimi prepped three models with totally different skin tones to demonstrate. She rubbed face oil from her brand Maison Quiquine between her palms and pressed it all over, then mattified the t-zone with Fenty’s Instant Retouch primer. (Like highlighting in reverse, letting skin’s natural glow shine through instead.) She concealed with Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage as needed and finished each model with a coat of clear lip balm. That gave everyone a solid, even canvas—then, we moved on to the good stuff.
First, Adama. When you see Fenty’s Sunstalkr bronzer collection, you may be tempted to follow the dark two-tone rule and go for a thick load, but look again! A dense, rosy color is almost pink on dark skin. In contrast, a dark amber like Mokamami better accentuates Adama’s natural golden undertone (though it’s slightly lighter). Mimi first applied Glossier Cloud Paint to the apples of Adama’s cheeks. Then, using a MAC dot brush, she swept the mokamami along the temples, cheekbones, and jawline. Then Mimi gently adjusted everything to the center of Adama’s face, leaving the most bronzed spots around—instant glow.
Vika’s skin is medium olive, while Mimi chooses a warm tan. She lined Vika’s eyebrows with a taupe pencil from Julep and elfin brow gel. Next, she applied Tower 28’s creamy peach blush to Vika’s cheeks at Magic Hour. A quick primer on blush: If you’re going to use blush, Mimi recommends applying blush before applying bronzer so you can focus only a little on color. This will also give your skin a believable glow from the inside out. She finished with a bronzer called Fenty’s Private Island, which she applied from her cheeks to her chin. Private Island has a little orange undertone that you might shy away from. Still, for olive skin like Vika, it infuses a subtle sunny warmth.
If you buy a bronzer that doesn’t match your skin tone, you don’t have to throw it away – as Mimi shows on Maryv’s website. Although Maryv’s overall skin tone is much lighter than Vika’s, Mimi also uses Fenty’s Private Island bronzer. Mimi needs to put it in Frankenstein with everything else in her toolbox for it to work. Mimi first dots the gloss cloud paint on Maryv’s cheeks then mixes private islands from the cheeks to the temples. In this case, the bronzer acts as a medium temperature tone between blush and Maryv skin tone. MAC taupe gives a more subtle, holistic feeling of warmth, and Mimi is brushed with a thin layer of taupe all over her body. As she said on set, redheads can be warm or cool but primarily pale. The key is to go easy on bronzer. She also brought taupe to Maryv’s neck and collarbones for extra charm. “It’s the tiniest difference, you can hardly tell,” Mimi explained. “But you don’t want your face tanned and your body out of proportion.”
