Best: Overall

Rating: 9/10

Scottish make-up artist and YouTuber, Jamie Genevive, launched her beauty brand in November 2020 to much anticipation. Renowned for her Nineties nude lip, smoky eye looks and glowy skin, Genevive is arguably the queen of sun-kissed bronze, so we had high expectations from this formula. Luckily, it didn’t disappoint, and since it landed in our make-up bag, we’ve barely picked up another bronzer since.

The sleek black and gold compact houses two shades that arm you with everything you need to bronze and sculpt, and the formula is truly the best powder bronzer we’ve tried. We’re not sure what magic the Vieve team has mustered up here, but a quick sweep of this bronzer makes our face look completely lifted, immediately hugging the contours of our face, with a natural-looking warmth that blends like butter. The powder is creamy and buildable on both bare skin and on top of foundation, with a near-invisible shimmer that adds dimension to the skin. With some powder formulas, we find that adding a cream bronzer as a base helps the powder apply more naturally, but we didn’t need this step with Vieve’s bronzer, which is a real testament to how well it performs on the skin.

As avid contourers, we loved having two shades in this compact, and used a smaller tapered brush to add definition to the hollows of our cheeks with the deeper shade and a larger, fluffier brush to sweep the bronzer shade across our cheeks, forehead and jawline. If you usually find powder bronzers flat or dull on the skin, this formula is a real gamechanger.

Best: Liquid bronzer

Rating: 8.5/10

Obsessed with Glossier’s coveted cloud paint? You’re in luck, as its glowy, bronzed cousin has arrived. The It-girl brand’s first-ever bronzer has quickly become our favourite cream formula thanks to its unusual gel consistency. Infused with a hint of shimmer for added dimension, the gel buffs into the skin and dries down enough that it doesn’t feel thick or sticky, without looking too flat. We’d suggest using a synthetic brush to apply, as we didn’t have much luck when using our fingers. The barely-there shimmer particles shift as you move into the sunlight for a truly natural look, which is something the brand was aiming for here.

The colour pay-off is relatively sheer, but unlike other Glossier products, this bronzer is brilliantly buildable and works both on bare skin and over foundation, making it really versatile. We love the doe-foot applicator too, as it helps to control the placement of product, and once applied, the gel doesn’t leave an imprint behind where you originally put it down, which can be a bugbear with other cream or liquid formulas. If you’re a full-coverage fan and usually stray away from Glossier’s minimal ethos, don’t rule its bronzer out – we can’t get enough of it.

Best: Budget bronzer

Rating: 8/10

When high street brands pivot to beauty, we approach with caution. However, Zara Beauty has proved to be one of our favourite make-up launches of 2021. If you’re going to snap anything up from the collection, it should be this bronzer. Housed in a glossy compact, it rivals some of our favourite high-end products that cost twice as much (we’d go as far as saying it’s a great dupe for the Charlotte Tilbury formula).

Available in four shades (we hope to see this expand) the powder is infused with a subtle glitter particles that make the skin look lifted rather than flat. It’s a perfect balance: matte enough to add definition without looking chalky, and with a hint of shimmer that adds dimension to the skin without being disco-ball-esque.

The colour pay-off is impressive (a little goes a long way, and you will experience a slight kick-back in the pan); it blends effortlessly (a characteristic that many affordable bronzers fail to achieve); and the shade we tried looked natural on the skin, imparting a subtle glow while warming up the complexion. With refills costing just £11.99, this is our favourite budget bronzer.

Best: Generously sized compact

Rating: 8.5/10

This matte bronzer is part of Charlotte Tilbury’s airbrush range, and if you’ve ever tried the face powder from the same line, you’ll be familiar with its blurring, perfecting properties. This applied beautifully to our skin – with plenty of pigment which meant we barely had to tap the pan to get enough product for a full bronze – and blended with minimal effort. We tested the medium shade, which was warm without being orange and didn’t appear muddy on the skin, even when we built up the coverage.

It’s available in four shades: fair, medium, tan and deep, with plenty of swatches and model shots on the website to help you find the right colour for you. This may not sound like a huge offering, but the cleverly formulated shades do span across the skintone spectrum, unlike other brands that tend to offer a few mid-tone bronzers with no darker shade. The colour looked lighter in the pan than it did on our skin, so we’d suggest choosing a shade lighter than you normally would.

Some matte bronzers can make your complexion appear flat, but this lifted the look of our skin while leaving us with a healthy glow. At a whopping 16g, this is far larger than standard compact sizes (which tend to be around 8g), but it is reflected in the price tag. The compact is also refillable (£28, Selfridges.com), making this a more conscious buy.

Best: Shade range

Rating: 7.5/10

Lauded for its diverse shade range, Rihanna’s make-up line forced other rival beauty brands to reflect on their lack of inclusivity when it launched in 2017. The brand’s matte powder bronzer comes in eight different shades that not only cater to different skintones, but different undertones too, in what is a substantial offering compared to other brands.

But we keep coming back to this bronzer for another reason: the creamy formula blends like a dream while being completely buildable – it’s hard to go wrong. We tested “private island”, a light to medium shade with warm undertones, which delivered on our expectations both in the pan and on the skin.

It’s warm without being ashy – a key factor to look out for in a bronzer – and the colour stays pigmented all day, wearing beautifully on the skin. It also contains mango and papaya fruit extracts for extra benefits. We’d recommend this to anyone, as it’s a versatile staple that accommodates every skintone. We’re also huge fans of Fenty Beauty’s cream bronzer (£28, Boots.co.uk) if you prefer that finish but still want a longwearing product.

Best: Shimmery bronzer

Rating: 7/10

You’ll no doubt have heard of Nars’s “Laguna” bronzer, as it hailed the top spot in the bronzing game for years. It is loved for its ability to warm up a complexion naturally, without looking muddy on the skin. The brand extended its bronzing powder line last year with two new shades: “San Juan” and “Punta Cana”, the lightest and darkest bronzers available in the range. We tried “casino” – the second deepest shade in the collection – and loved it for its staying power and subtle shimmer.

As matte bronzer lovers, we’re usually fearful of overly glittery formulas, but the hint of shimmer in this product helps it appear natural on the skin and delivers that bronzed glow we’re all searching for. The compact is sleek and classic, which is to be expected from Nars, and we’re pleased to see the brand extend its shade range to accommodate more skintones, but would like to see this diversify even further. The product blends well on the skin and stays put all day, so if you’re looking for a mostly matte formula with a hint of glow, add this to your basket.

Best: High-end bronzer

Rating: 7/10

This high-end offering has been a staple in celebrity make-up artists’ kits for years, and it’s had a revamp. Chanel reformulated the coveted product a couple of years ago, much to the anticipation of fans, but luckily little has changed with the beautiful finish.

In line with new EU regulations, Chanel has replaced some of the potentially allergy-triggering ingredients and preservatives with kinder alternatives. The new formula features coconut oil to help the product glide on the skin, with the brand stressing that, despite this ingredient’s inclusion, the product is still non-comedogenic (ie, it won’t clog pores). As acne sufferers, we didn’t experience any breakouts with regular use.

A whipped cream formula, the product is best described as a silky mousse, and the texture is a dream to blend into the skin – it was the most effortless cream formula we tested. The warm bronze colour dries to a near-matte finish with an ever-so-subtle sheen, blurring imperfections along the way. It’s definitely designed for natural-looking bronzing rather than contouring, but you can build up the coverage to sculpt and define.

The downfall of this product is its poor shade range. After much criticism, Chanel finally launched a deeper shade of les beiges this year (read our extensive review here) but a two-shade offering still isn’t enough to accommodate all skin tones. We hope the brand reviews this soon.

Best: Natural glow

Rating: 7/10

The perfect hybrid between luminosity and bronze, this product converted an avid matte fan. It combines the brand’s much-loved “ambient lighting” highlighter powder with bronzing pearls for a multi-dimensional, soft-focus finish on the skin. We’re always sceptical of shimmery bronzers, as too much shine can detract from the warmth you’re trying to build, but this seriously impressed us – adding depth and definition to the skin while delivering a natural-looking glow.

The shimmer is pearlescent rather than glittery and the finely milled formula means this is incredibly effortless to blend and build on the skin. If you’re after that your-skin-but-better look with a glow-from-within highlight, this is the one for you. Available in four shades, it’s pricey, but as it’s a multi-tasking product, we’d argue it’s worth it.

Best: Matte liquid bronzer

Rating: 8/10

Aside from his signature colourful eye looks, Manchester-based make-up artist Mitchell Halliday is renowned for creating the perfect base. With more than 1 million followers on Instagram, the MUA has toured the world teaching masterclasses and has painted big-name faces such as pop star Saweetie.

His make-up line, Made by Mitchell, is as full of personality as his looks, with one of its most popular products being the line of liquid blushers and bronzers. A regular sellout, the bronzer formula is unlike anything we’ve tried; a mousse-cream hybrid with a cushiony, satin finish that blends effortlessly. If you struggle with bronzing creams feeling too heavy or sticky on the skin, but don’t like the feeling of a powder, this one’s for you, as it’s the perfect compromise between the two.

It gives a soft-focus finish to the skin that blurs imperfections while delivering a natural-looking bronze. The colour pay-off is sheer but buildable and it looks gorgeous on bare skin in the summer for a hint of colour. There’s no shimmer here and it does dry down quite matte, so is great for oily skin types. The colour and soft-focus effect lasts all day too. Snap up these quick, before they fly off the shelves again.

Best: For full-coverage contour

Rating: 7.5/10

This is a brand known for its full-coverage, high-impact products, and this bronzer formula is no different. The cream formula is best used for contouring rather than bronzing, as the pigment is intense and the shades are more geared to adding depth to the skin rather than warmth, but it does blend easily, making it the perfect tool to add real depth to the hollows of your cheekbones and to sculpt your jawline.

Huda Beauty describes this as a cream-to-powder product, and while it does dry down, we’d still recommend setting it with a powder, as it is heavier than other creams. A little goes a long way with this formula: we applied it with a make-up sponge and it blended well while staying pigmented on the skin. We love using this over a full-coverage foundation for a nighttime look, or for days that we want super long wear from our make-up.

Available in five shades, we were impressed with how diverse the colour options are, from a taupe “fair” hue to “rich”, which is one of the deepest shades we’ve seen on the market. If you’re well versed in contouring and enjoy a full-coverage look, this is for you, but if you’re a beginner or are just looking for a light all-over bronze, we’d suggest looking elsewhere in our round-up.