Hey all English Roses,
When you start googling “bronzers for pale skin” there are a few suggestions that crop up, mostly being touted by girls that have no business calling themselves pale. I mean, talk to me after a spray tan and I will tell you just about any Bronzer in Sephora looks great on me. But catch me on a winters morning (you know, when you’ve just got up and somehow the blood hasn’t worked it’s way up to you face yet), when my own mother will ask me if feeling ok because I “look a little pale” and I assure you, finding a bronzer that looks natural on my skin is tough.
I don’t want orange, I don’t want grey, and I definitely don’t want red – I have enough of that in my “strawberry and cream” skin. I just want a little warmth on my skin, to make me look healthy. Yes folks, the beauty goal of a pale girl is the look of health – oh the glamour of it all.
So when I kept seeing The Body Shop’s Honey Bronze name pop up in my search I thought this may actually be the one. I swatched all four shades in store, immediately discounting the darkest two like any good pale girl does, and began choosing between 01 and 02. I went with 01 for the tone appeared a little more neutral on my wrist (yeah – the under, super pale side that hasn’t caught the sun – ever). In the interests of serious research, I waited until the next morning to test it on-face, without any foundation to mask my true Snow White hue.
Result? I almost had to doublecheck my brush after the first application; was I swiping hard enough? Was my brush picking up the product? Yes, and yes. We’re so used to the light handed sweep up the cheekbone and furious blend afterwards that I couldn’t quite believe it when I went for a second, and third pot-swirl and reapplied. Now this is a natural bronzer for us fair girls. It is virtually impossible to over-do it, and I even started to question my shade choice. We’re so accustomed to having an unnatural warmth to the face that it’s almost hard to settle (i.e put the brush down) with a real one.
Some more specifics – this is a matte, no sheen, no Hourglass candlelit filter, powder and I therefore up my glow with an illuminating primer underneath and plenty of balmy RMS Living Luminizer on top or things can look a little ‘flat’. If I have any kind of fake tan on this is definitely not the bronzing powder I’ll reach for as I’d end up applying so much that my complexion would be powdery AF. On those occasions, one of the Honey Bronzer’s deeper shades may well work a treat. As for my everyday fair face, when the blue veins show through around my eyes and the pink in my lips even seems like too much of a colour contrast, this is a fool-proof product to dust on and bring me back to the land of the living (after some SPF of course – that sun is deadlier to us than garlic to a vampire). Oh aren’t we lucky, English Roses, life would be so boring brushing on Laguna like the masses.
And one final thought fair ladies: Nicole Kidman, Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and, that’s right, The Queen of England. Squad goals? Just saying.