Bronzer over 50 is ageing – unless you follow this expert advice

Telegraph

08-05-2025

In this regular series, Ageless Beauty, The Telegraph's beauty experts Annabel Jones and Lisa Armstrong tackle the conundrums they've been searching for answers to, and share their favourite tips and tricks. This week, they discuss bronzer.
The morning of writing this, I had my make-up applied by Bobbi Brown's senior make-up artist, Zara Findlay, who informed me that if you're not getting on with your bronzer then it's undoubtedly the wrong shade. She's probably right.
Up until this exchange, I was anti-bronzing. I prefer blush to bronzer and have always argued that a bronzed face feels too artificial for my fair complexion, which, even when it's being kissed by the sun, doesn't turn as deep as most bronzing powders I've encountered.
Even so, I'll be the first to advise you to revisit a product you've written off every now and then as formulations improve at a rate of knots these days. And so, here I am challenged to face my long-held prejudice that bronzer doesn't suit a fair gal like me. It's time to roll up my sleeves and give a selection of bronzers a fair and honest assessment.
As far as powders go, Dior Forever Nude Bronze in Light Matte (my shade) is feather-light and easy to apply. Though unless you appreciate the designer case, which, to be fair, has a decent-sized mirror and a smart tan leather exterior, it is a steep investment at £48. Then again, Charlotte Tilbury's Airbrush Bronzer, which if we're comparing apples with apples is a more seamless finish, is not much less at £45. My shade of Airbrush (fair) is the closest match to my skin out of the dozens of bronzing powders I've trialled. But it's the tone (not too red) and consistency (silky and feather-light) that I like most.
Findlay says to go one shade warmer than your actual skin tone – and even then, you should knock the extra from the brush before you apply it to your skin. This is sound advice and makes all the difference on mature skin, which, alas, tends to be less lubricated.
Creams and liquid bronzers are better on dry complexions but they take some skill to get right. Rare Beauty and Merit's bronzing sticks are as soft as butter, thus you really can't go wrong. Whereas Tilbury's Hollywood Contour Wand, which strictly speaking isn't ashy enough to be a contour (contour sticks should be cool to add definition; bronzers are warm), is the ideal antithesis to dry skin like mine.
Lisa, I know you find the wands fiddly. I did too – until I spent time hashing out various techniques which the brand showcases on its website.
Eventually, I landed on my own lite method. I place one dot on my cheekbones, about an inch or two from my temples, which I press and blend with a soft stippling brush. I will add a dot more as I need it – often, I leave it at one and blend it out until it's evenly distributed. Max Factor does an alternative to Tilbury's Contour Wand that is almost as good and purse-friendly at under £10.
I've tried – on days when my confidence is high – to contour my jaw-line, but it never works. Instead Findlay showed me how to dust bronzing powder down the neck to tie in the face and neck seamlessly. I find this approach boosts the tone of the neck, which is lighter than the face, invisibly. A liquid alternative would be a tinted moisturiser or tinted SPF, of which there are a bazillion good ones. Ultra Violette's Daydream Screen SPF50 Tinted Veil, £38, is my current crush. It comes in 15 shades from porcelain to deep.
Another thing: you can use powder bronzer to add definition high to the crease of your upper eyelids. I prefer this to eye shadow as typically powder bronzer un sparkly (in other words, way cooler).
If I had to choose between blush and bronzer I would pick the former. But as I'm sure you already know, you can do both. In fact, it's recommended that you do. Findlay used Bobbi Brown's Bronzing Powder in Light on my nose, cheeks, temples, forehead and neck, followed by a pretty pink blusher on the apples and high points of my cheekbones. Seemingly, even at 51, bubblegum pink and soft brown make for a flattering pair.
Having dug into the weeds, it turns out that bronzer is suitable for my muted complexion; I just needed the right shade and some decent professional advice.
I've come exceedingly late to the bronzer party and now that I'm here, I'm not leaving. In fact, I'm a zealot.
Cast aside all your contouring prejudices. They're not relevant. Actually, contouring isn't relevant, unless you're among the 0.1 per cent who found it actually worked. For most of us, contouring – at least the kind that required three different shades of product – was always a bit of a fantasy. It can be great in photographs or from afar (handy if you're a ballerina), but in RL, you had to blend, blot and buff it to the point where it became so subtle that it didn't make a blind bit of difference to how you looked.
I'm talking about the next generation of bronzers that deliver a natural sun-kissed look and some strategic shading, which might sound like contouring, but is far less laborious and doesn't require Lisa Eldridge levels of skill.
Why not just slap on some fake tan, you ask? I know I always preferred fake tan to bronzers of yore, which always seemed too matte or too obvious. But you may not like the flattening effect fake can sometimes have on the face. Or you want more flexibility about where you'd like the 'sun' to have brushed your skin. Or you like the idea of being able to wipe it all off at the end of the day. Most fake tans take several days to fade. Mistakes have consequences.
Modern bronzer textures are so different from the ones that scared me off. They're a doddle to use. That said, unlike Annabel, I don't really get on with liquid bronzers. I find them harder to control and blend, so prefer the powders.
My favourite is RMS ReDimension Hydra Bronzer, a gel-to-powder formula. In plain English, that means it melts into your skin rather than sitting on top of it in a cakey layer. It also has goldeny undertones (presumably the redimension bit) that catch the light, bouncing it around your face to make you look healthy and refreshed rather than iridescent. You need a brush, as you do with all forms of bronzer, but at a pinch, I have used fingers.
I apply it along my jawline (blend blend blend), across my cheekbones, on my eyelids, and a little on my forehead – wherever the sun would actually hit you, which is horizontally. If you're buying this online, you might think the shades look too dark for you, but that's not how they are when you apply them. I use Malibu Muse, which Rose-Marie Swift, the founder, recommended for me, and it's perfect. The ReDimension blushers are beautiful too, but so is Victoria's Cheeky Posh, which comes in a tube and goes on sheer.
A pat of tawny or pink blush on the upper part of your cheekbones and you're good to go. If I had to choose, I'd take this RMS bronzer over a mascara in summer.
Ask Annabel and Lisa