6 Expert Tips on the Best Bronzer for Mature Skin & How to Apply It

Tools and materials:

• Bronzer
• Makeup brush

1. Pick the right color

The bronzer I’m going to apply is just a few shades darker than my skin tone. When working with a bronzer, you want to consider your natural skin tone and stay within that range, whether you’re warm or cool, whether you have a yellow undertone, a golden undertone.

Whatever your skin coloration is, you want to pick a bronzer that is a few shades darker than your skin tone.

2. Powder or cream?

The bronzer that I’m using is a powder formulation. If you have very dry skin, you might want to try a cream bronzer. You’ll use the same techniques with a cream bronzer as you will with the powder bronzer.

You can have a go with both and see which one works best for your skin.

3. Get the sunkissed glow

One question that you may have is what is the difference between a bronzer or a contour. When you think about bronzers, think of a kind of sunkissed feel, like where the sun would hit your skin and that kind of glow you get from being in the sun.

When you’re talking about a contour, you’re generally talking about creating shadows and depth within your face in order to contour your face to appear to be a different shape than it actually is.

Does bronzing contour your face a little bit? Yes, it does, and that’s one of the reasons we do it. It’s just not as strong of a contour as when you’re strictly contouring your face.

4. Select the right brush

I apply my bronzer with a big fluffy brush as it works well for me. You might prefer to use a smaller brush that you have a bit more control over. Choose a brush that you feel fits the contours of your face.

5. The rule of 3

In terms of where to place the contours on your face, the rule is just to think of the number three.

Where you’re going to put it will trace a three on your face. It starts on your forehead, goes around the eye and under your cheekbone, and then around again to underneath your chin. 

6. How to apply the bronzer

Take your brush, dip it in gently to the product, tap off the excess and then start right at your hairline. That way, if you have much product on your brush, it will be in that hairline area and not down in the center of your face.

Start at the top and then work down as your brush has less product on it. Start smoothing it into the area at the top of your head with back and forth motions and then swirling it around in that area. Work it down into the area right under the cheekbone.

Don’t bring it in any further than parallel to the middle of your eye because you want to keep that definition and glow up and away to give your face a bit more of a lifted look. Then bring the brush down and underneath your chin, right under the chin bone.

Does bronzer make you look older?

Not at all. It can be the opposite. As we get older, we get a softer line underneath our chin, and putting a darker color there and cutting that line gives the illusion of a much sharper and tighter chin line.

To finish, I like to take the brush with the little bit of product that’s left and run it just around the side of my nose to give a little more cut to the angle of my nose.

Once done, blend the bronzer out so that you don’t have any areas of your face that have an obvious bronzer line on them. You want your bronzer to look like you have a natural glow from sun-kissed days, instead of something that is just sitting on top of your face.

Best bronzer for mature skin tutorial

That is how you can easily apply bronzer to mature skin. The finished look gives my skin a tighter and more chiseled appearance. Bronzer, when done correctly, really can take years off your face and give you a much more lifted and youthful look.

Let me know what you think of this tutorial in the comments and whether you'll be trying out these tips for yourself.