Is it Blush? Is it a Bronzer?

What is the deal with bronzer? What is it really for? And does everyone need it?

Indian Earth was a hugely popular product in the late 1970’s-early 80’s. I remember walking through Neiman Marcus as a teenager and seeing the Indian Earth ladies standing in the isle with their little jars of brown mineral powder and corks. They were everywhere, very aggressive and if you stopped, they would attack your face with that cork, under your cheeks. It was a bronzing powder but applied like a contour, to “give you cheekbones”. It was awful looking, it really made people look like they had dirt on their face. It probably is the reason I have never been a bronzer person, because I was traumatized by the Indian Earth ladies.

Cher popularized the bronzed look, a pot of Indian Earth

And then later, I started working in the cosmetic industry.

I remember the first time I saw a product that was specifically called a “bronzer”. It was in the late 80’s and I was working for Lancôme Cosmetics. I was brand new to the industry and to working full-time. Tho product was intended to add a “kiss of sun” to the face. It was a reddish-brown powder and we applied it with a large fluffy brush. Not as intense or mineralized (sparkly) as Indian Earth, this product was in a pressed powder compact, no cork. The timing was great as we were starting to talk about sun-damage, skin cancer and the dangers of too much UVA/UVB light. We were being encouraged to not tan, or at least not tan the face. So a bronzer was a way to mimic “tan” onto the face without having to get in the sun.

It made sense.

We would apply the bronzer where the sun naturally would hit the face, the forehead, tops of cheekbones, tip of nose and chin. It was supposed to give a hint of warmth and sun-kiss to the skin. It was, for the most part, sold as part of the summer color collection. That was it.

In the 90’s bronzers kind of fell to the wayside as the paler skin and deep lips became more popular. We were goth, vamped out and into grunge. The idea of having a kiss of sun on the face became less popular. Plus, we were inundated with self-tan products for those that wanted color on the face. (And man were they funky in the beginning! I was orange for a year.)

The New Popularity of Bronzer

With rise social media and the makeup influencer in the 2010’s, we started seeing a resurgence of bronzer being used in makeup. Accept it was no longer being used to kiss the skin with sun. It was being applied everywhere! Across the forehead, down the center of the face, under the cheekbones, on the chin, along the jaw and down the neck. What the heck? Overnight bronzer went from an accessory powder product used occasionally to an all-in-one product; a blush, contour and finishing powder!

The problem now that I see with bronzer is that everyone thinks they need it but no one knows why they need it. They see it being used and assume they should use it but aren’t using it well. I see SO many dirty looking foreheads and muddy makeup.

So, is a Bronzer a Blush? And Other Questions-