If there’s one item in my makeup arsenal that I’ve yet to use on a regular basis, that would be bronzer. By the way, do you want to know when it was that I actually started using bronzer? It was early this year. Just this year! So for the years that I’ve learned about and used makeup, I don’t even touch bronzers. I’m your typical Chinese chick; I like to look as fair as possible and the thought of making myself look darker confuses me. Don’t believe me? Ask the next Chinese lady you come across if she uses bronzer or self-tanning cream. Okay there may be some but most don’t. 😛

Still, I thought that this year, I’d come out of my comfort zone and try something new in my makeup routine. Bronzer has always been something I’m reluctant to use because I don’t know how to get it right without looking like I’ve just made my face a few shades darker for no good reason. I started to learn how to contour my face. I’m still learning, by the way, so please forgive my pictures if I look a tad weird with the contouring.

When Clarins kindly sent me their new Splendour Summer Bronzing Compact to try out, all apprehensive thoughts of not wanting to use bronzer just went wooooosh out of the window. I mean, come on. Look at how beautiful this compact is!

Oh this is such a difficult one to use. By difficult I mean it was tough for me to even want to use it just so I don’t ruin the gorgeous embossed design. I know it won’t be too long before the design is gone as the compact gets used more and more but for now, I’ll just enjoy the beauty of the design.

Needless to say, the packaging is top notch. The outer shell of the compact has what I’d assume to be an Aztec pattern. The design of the pressed powder differs from the outer shell’s. The compact is quite large (bigger than my palm) and comes with a mirror and no brush. There’s a subtle yet pleasant floral fragrance in the pressed powder.

The bronzing powder can be a touch gritty when swatched but when it’s blended on the skin, it becomes this gorgeous finely-milled powder that blends on the face very well. If you swirl your makeup brush around the powder without touching the middle C, you’ll get matte powder. However, when you swirl your brush all over the powder and touching the golden middle, you’ll get a slight hint of shimmer in the bronzer.

Argh the selfies aren’t showing the bronzer at all (why???) but I promise you it’s there. My face looked warm and very, er, summer-like

The result of the bronzing compact is a lovely warm complexion with a natural glow. It doesn’t look muddy or dirty on the skin and isn’t too warm on my already warm, yellow skin tone. I can use it as a contouring powder or an all-over setting powder (although with the latter, a light hand is needed lest it makes the skin too warm as it’s quite pigmented).

The only thing I don’t like about the compact is the amount of powder fallout on the compact. I used the lightest touch as possible of the brush on the pressed powder and yet there are bits and tiny chunks of powder on the compact which makes it look dirty. You don’t have to do this, of course, as it can be a waste of product but I usually remove the fallout bits by turning the compact upside down over a bin. Call me a tad OCD but I like my compact clean. 🙂

Other than that, it’s a beautiful bronzing compact and I’m lucky to have it in my makeup collection.

Clarins’ Splendour Summer Bronzing Compact retails at AU$52.00 and is a limited edition piece. So if you managed to find this at Clarins counters at MYER, David Jones or selected pharmacies, I say get it and don’t look back. 😛

What I like about it: Beautiful packaging and gorgeous design of the pressed powder, highly pigmented, quite matte

What I do not like about it: Lots of powder fallout

Have you tried this bronzing compact? Your thoughts? Did yours have a lot of powder fallout too? If you’ve not tried it before and if you do use bronzer, which one’s your favourite?

Note: This product was sent for editorial consideration.