The Best Bronzers for Dark Skin Tones That You Need in Your Makeup Bag
Orange finish not included.
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We all love a good bronzer, but sometimes finding the right shade for our skin tone can get tricky. For darker skin tones, many bronzers can leave an unflattering orange or ashy finish that most of us don't want from our beauty products. But we have some good news: There are now tons of bronzers for dark skin to choose from that will add the warmth you want to your complexion, without any issues.
The Best Bronzers for Dark Skin Tones
How to Shop
Undertones
Makeup artist Ego Iwegbu advises using bronzers for dark skin tones with a golden, yellow, or orange undertone instead of common silver-gray, which looks ashy on deeper shades. Iwegbu, who founded the clean beauty brand The Good Mineral, suggests identifying your skin's undertone, aka the color under the surface of your skin, and the undertone of a perspective bronzer.
Her biggest tip is to think about how your skin looks after you've been outside. For example, people with warmer undertones have a golden, caramel shade and should opt for bronzers with similar coloring. On the other hand, anyone with cooler undertones will look fantastic rocking a terracotta shade because their skin tends to look a little redder post-sun.
Shade Matching
As for shade selection, her rule is straightforward: Use bronzers for dark skin that are one or two shades deeper for a soft, natural, and bronzy glow. Anything deeper than that will look too obvious on your face, and bronzers that match your skin tone are more similar to powder foundations.
Formulations
Similar to foundations and blushes, bronzers for dark skin are available in various formulas. Here's a quick at-a-glance look at the most common formulations and what skin type they're best suited for.
- Powder bronzers, including Fenty Beauty Sun Stalk'r Instant Warmth Bronzer, NARS Bronzing Powder, and e.l.f. Cosmetics Bronzer Palette, are great for all skin types. They're especially wonderful for combination and oily skin because they provide a matte finish.
- Liquid bronzers, such as the Drunk Elephant D-Bronzi Anti-Pollution Sunshine Serum Drops, provide a dewy, luminous finish to dry, normal, and mature skin types.
- Cream bronzers offer a fresh-face glow to normal, dry, and mature skin types. There are also bronzers, like the Danessa Myricks Beauty Power Bronzer Cream Bronzer, which boasts a cream-to-powder formulation that glides onto skin like a cream bronzer and lasts all day like a powder.
Below, check out a few of our favorite bronzers for dark skin tones — and prepare to make some more space on your vanity.
Nicole Saunders is the beauty editor at Best Products with over seven years of experience researching, writing, and editing lifestyle content. She specializes in breaking down complicated topics, like high-frequency wands and microcurrent devices, into easy-to-understand guides. She takes great pride in heavily researching and testing featured beauty products, — such as hairdryers and foundations — on our site, and spotlights her all-time seasonal favorites in her quarterly column Best New Beauty. And she tests quite literally thousands of launches for our Beauty Awards package.
Jennifer is the former beauty editor for BestProducts.com, where she’s testing out everything from the latest lip gloss to the craziest skincare trend sweeping the online beauty-verse. Her work has been featured in Allure, Byrdie, HelloGiggles, and more. When she’s not swatching eyeshadow all over her arms, you can find the NYC-based editor scouring for hours on end for vintage finds, eating pad thai, and hanging out with her cat, Chunks.
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