Review: new Wet n Wild Coloricon Bronzers

I've been busy testing all of the new 2012 Wet n Wild products for several weeks now, so I'm exciting to finally start showing them to you! Today I'd like to share my thoughts about the new Coloricon Bronzers with SPF15.

 Wet n Wild Coloricon Bronzers SPF15 

Reserve Your Cabana, Bikini Contest and Ticket to Brazil

(retail: $3.99 each, 0.46 oz)

At the beginning of January, you may recall my post about how Reserve Your Cabana was an exact match for the long-ago discontinued Acapulco Glow. Well, I couldn't find my old Acapulco Glow compact, but I have pictures here, and my memory of that shade is still very fresh in my mind. So you can image how sad I was when I received comments from some of you indicating that Reserve Your Cabana was NOT an exact match for Acapulco Glow. This concerned me, so before I even received this compact for review, I asked Wet n Wild about the possible difference. 

Wet n Wild told me that they used Acapulco Glow as their benchmark for the new shade, and that Reserve Your Cabana is an exact match for Acapulco Glow, but with the addition of SPF. Per Wet n Wild, SPF is a white-based substance that's less smooth than Wet n Wild's regular fine-milled pressed powders, so although SPF was meant to be an added benefit, it may have slightly altered the color and wear of the product because of the nature of the formula. Wet n Wild said that although they may have slightly sacrificed perfect wear for the added benefits of SPF, the benefits of SPF are so great that it seemed to be the right call.  

So there you have it. And now that I have Reserve Your Cabana in my possession and have been using it for several weeks, I'd like to tell you what I think of it:

First off, this is not a bronzer. It's a highlighter. I can't imaging this giving anyone on the planet a "bronzed" look, so if you're looking for a true bronzer, you'll definitely want to pick up one of the other two new shades.

Second, Reserve Your Cabana lacks the pink "glow" of Acapulco Glow (which I now know has to do with the whiteness of the SPF), but to my eye, there is still a slight resemblance to Acapulco Glow when viewed at certain angles:

At other angles, there is a slight golden glow:

I've heard from some of you that this shade had a tendency to settle into fine lines. You can kind of see that happening in this swatch:

However, since I only use this product on the tops of my cheeks and above my eyebrows, I haven't noticed any real settling. If I were to use it closer to my eyes, I'd probably want to proceed with caution. 

My final verdict on Reserve Your Cabana: I feel like it's a watered-down version of Acapulco Glow. For what it is, I do think it's a nice highlighter applied strategically to certain areas of my face, but it doesn't give me the beautiful glow that I was able to achieve with the original Acapulco Glow. If you never owned Acapulco Glow and you're looking for a warm highlighting shade, you might want to give this one a whirl. Just keep your receipt in case it doesn't work for you, of course.

Ticket to Brazil is a shimmery golden brown bronzer. This color is extremely pigmented, so fairer skintones will want to use a light hand during application. I personally have been using this lightly as an all-over bronzer and I find it to give me a very realistic "tan" (I'm a MAC NC20, for reference).

Bikini Contest is the darkest of the three shades, and it has a much more reddish-bronze undertone than Ticket to Brazil. If you normally gravitate toward bronzes and coppers, you might fall in love with this one. Since this shade doesn't have as much shimmer as the other two, I find it doubles as a nice contouring shade for me (used very lightly and blended well, of course).

Some final thoughts:

I love the texture of these powders. They are buttery smooth and they apply effortlessly. They blend effortlessly too, and the staying power of the two darker shades is downright incredible on my skin. I can still see these colors on my face a full eight hours after application. The staying powder of Reserve Your Cabana is good too, but not as good as the other two, in my opinion. 

I also love that you get such large compacts for $3.99. These are larger than a standard pressed powder compact, in case you haven't seen them in person yet.

If any three of these shades appeal to you, I'd definitely consider giving them a shot. On my NC20 skintone, Ticket to Brazil makes me look like I have a nice, sun-kissed tan (in a natural-looking way). Also, Bikini Contest can double as a contour shade if it works for your skintone, so that's a nice bonus.

Do you own any of the new Wet n Wild Coloricon 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.