Guerlain Terracotta four seasons bronzer in natural brunette

I'm not a bronzer girl, every time I tried I failed miserably. I never looks quite right. I tried rimmel, bare escentuals warmth and even the famous benefit hoola with no luck. I gave them all away to girls with a more suitable skin tone. That's why I was very afraid to shell 59 euro on another experiment (I actually had gift certificates and coupon so I ended up spending 3 euros of my own money).

Guerlain is THE bronzer reference, they apparently invented it in 1984. They have a wide offering. The four seasons collection is their most expensive offering from the regular line. They come in six shades: one nude shade (created with fair skin Asian women in mind), two pink toned blonde shades, two golden toned brunette shades and one ebony shade. You need to base your decision on your overall skin tone and undertone. Ignore the hair color reference.

I spend literally weeks reading about this before taking the plunge. I was really bouncing between nude, natural blonde and natural brunette. Because nude contains a pretty unpigmented blush, and natural blonde is so pink and doesn't have much contrast between the four shades (then why bother with the four season concept you might as well by the regular terracotta and save some cash), I went for natural brunette and I'm glad I did.

The bronzer contains a generous amount of 10 grams of product that comes in a gorgeous magnetic compact with a hologram. The powder is very smooth and smell like violets. I love the idea of being able to customize my shade according to the season.

The bronzer could be used as contouring if you have strong warm undertone, but on me it ends up looking like brown stripes. I use it the way Guerlain intended it; to give me a sunkissed glow without the damage. I can use it also as a blush to tone down the redness of my cheeks when I'm wearing a low coverage foundation or tinted moisturizer or very lightly all over for a touch of warmth and then layer a fresh blush.

Even though this is a matte bronzer, it gives really a healthy glow. The powder feels so smooth and creamy and you can really blend it to your heart's content. I'm seriously impressed by this product. I really made me make peace with bronzer.

Before the bronzer (isn't that l'Oreal magic nude foundation great or what?)

after (applied more heavily than I'd normally would to see the color)

The only con I would see, except for the price of course, is the fact that it is so fragrant. If this is a bit too expensive for you, their original Terracotta is significantly less expensive and also come in blonde and brunette shades. If you can afford it this is a fantastic product.