Review: NYX Matte Bronzers and Illuminating Bronzers

Summer's here, and if you're anything like me, that means it's bronzer season. This is the one time of year when I really look to bronzers and highlighters to compensate for the fact that I slather sunscreen on my face on a daily basis. So today I'd like to show you the new NYX Matte and Illuminating Bronzers, which I received a while back for review.

You can purchase these products on the NYX website and they retail for $9 each. Please note that while I was sent all three shades in the Illuminating Bronzer range, I only received the first three shades in the Matte Bronzer range (there are two additional deeper shades in this range, which you can view here).

 NYX Matte Bronzers and Illuminating Bronzers

(retail: $9 each, 0.33 oz)

Ingredients - Matte Bronzer:

Ingredients - Illuminating Bronzer:

These bronzers come in sleek black compacts and they're quite generous in size. For example, many of my standard drugstore face powder compacts are between 0.35 and 0.34 oz, and these contain 0.33 oz of product:

 

Clockwise from the top:

Light

Medium

Deep

The Matte Bronzers are truly mattes. There is not one spec of shimmer or sparkle to these. The common thread that runs throughout the three shades I received for review is that they all have a yellow undertone to them, making them quite wearable and natural-looking for a large range of users. 

Light has a slight peachy tone to it, whereas Medium has more of a honey tone to it. Deep is, in my opinion, just a darker version of Medium; they share the same undertones.

For my NC20 skintone, the only wearable shade for me is Light. I find Medium and Deep much too dark for me to pull off, but then again I'm pretty pale. 

The consistency of the Matte Bronzers is quite nice. They're soft, nicely pigmented, they don't have much fallout, and they easily blend on the skin. I can get about six hours of wear from these powders before I start to see fading, and I like that, because of their matte finish, they can all easily double as contouring shades.

Next up, the Illuminating Bronzers:

 Clockwise from the top:

Narcissistic

Magnetic

Chaotic

Please don't look to the photo above for color accuracy. The photos below are much more accurate, and I ALSO want to show you these photos because, after breaking the surface of these powders with my brush, the TRUE finish of each shade became more visible.

Note: these photos were taken after several (dozens) of uses:

 Narcissistic

 I think the shade name for Narcissistic might be a little tongue-in-cheek nod to a popular, higher end brand. Indeed, all three of these Illuminating Bronzers remind me of NARS Highlighting Blushes (retail: $28 each), and they behave more like highlighters and blushes well (in fact, I wouldn't categorize them as true bronzers). Narcissistic is a beautiful, light peachy-golden shimmer with fine gold sparkle that I've been wearing on the tops of my cheekbones and above my eyebrows lately. It's very pretty worn in that way, as it gives the skin a luminous, sunlit glow. Staying power is good, not great, with this one. I can get about four hours of wear before it starts to fade.

 Chaotic

I tried to circle the sparkle in Chaotic (above), but it's still kind of hard to see in my photo. The sparkle in Narcissistic is finer--the sparkle in Chaotic is just a touch chunkier, though maybe not as abundant. When applied on the skin, you can see the sparkle though, so I want you to be aware of that. For me, this rosy-peachy-pink is the most blush-like of the three Illuminating Bronzers. In fact, I've been wearing it as straight-up blush for several weeks now and I love it in that capacity. I've tried wearing it as a highlighter, but it's got more of a satin finish to it, so it really doesn't read as highlighter on me. It feels like I've just run blush across my forehead when I try to wear Chaotic as a highlighter, so if you're around an NC20 like me, I'd buy this one if you're looking for a nice, warm pink blush. Staying power, when worn as blush, is good with this one. I can get between 6-8 hours of wear before it starts to fade.

 Magnetic

Magentic reminds me of a popular shade of blush (nudge-nudge wink-wink), with the additional of abundant, chunky gold sparkle. I think you can easily see how much chunky gold glitter is in this product, so if you're a glitter fiend, meet your new best friend for the summer.  Magnetic is a gorgeous shade of golden peach, and it behaves more like a highlighter than a blush on me. Worn as blush, it's a bit on the sheer side (though you can build for more intensity). But worn as highlighter, it gives such warmth to the skin, along with a very pretty sheen, and of course tons of gold sparkle. The finish on this one is more of a satin, but since it's sheer, it works better as a highlighter than Chaotic. Staying power is about 4-6 hours for me before I start to see fading.

All three Illuminating Bronzers have varying degrees of sparkle to them. You really must love sparkle to wear these, because I find that the sparkle sticks around on the skin even after the color starts to fade. Narcissistic's sparkle is fine, whereas the sparkle in Chaotic is bit chunkier. The sparkle in Magnetic is mega-chunky. 

As far as the consistency of the Illuminating Bronzers, I don't find them quite as finely-milled as the Matte Bronzers. There's some fallout with these, and if you don't blend well, they can sit on the skin and look a bit powdery. So be sure to moisturize well before application and blend, blend, blend.

FINAL VERDICT: If you're looking for pigmented, matte bronzers in shades that are quite wearable and natural-looking, then I think you might want to consider NYX Matte Bronzers. I think they're easy to apply, a cinch to blend, and the staying power is quite good. Plus, they can double as contour shades, giving you a bit more bang for your buck. If you're looking for highlighters to give your skin luminosity and glow this summer, I'd consider the NYX Illuminating Bronzers, but you've really got to like sparkle if you're going to wear any of the three shades in the range. Each shade contains varying degrees of sparkle: fine (Narcissistic), chunky (Chaotic) and mega-chunky (Magnetic). I think that all three shades would be wearable for a variety of different skintones, with Narcissistic probably being the most wearable of the three. Chaotic works best as a blush for me, and Magnetic can be used as either a blush or highlighter (worn as blush, you'll need to build for intensity though). Also, take note that the Illuminating Bronzers are a bit more powdery than the Matte Bronzers, so extra blending is required. 

Do you own any NYX Bronzers? If so, what shades do you own, and how do you like them?

A sample of this product was given to Nouveau Cheap for editorial purposes, either directly from the manufacturer or from the agency that works on behalf of the manufacturer. All reviews on NouveauCheap.blogspot.com are the honest opinion of its author and editorial samples do not, in any way, affect the outcome of product reviews.