Top 10 Bronzers for Summer.

With just a few brushes of bronzer swept across your skin, your entire look can be changed with the look of summer, sun and a warm glow. Bronzer really is super easy to use and the best part is that you can control how much you apply. If you want your skin to take on a look of overall warmth, simply dust it over the apples of your cheeks and brush upwards. If you want to look like you've spent the day out in the sun, apply bronzer with a brush just where the sun would hit you — your cheekbones, nose, center of your forehead and your chin. It's easy to do this by taking your brush and sweeping it into a 3 over your forehead, cheeks and chin or backwards 3 (think about it). If you want to look like you have a great tan, dust bronzer on like you would a powder, but lightly all over your face.

While I use bronzer every day to warm up my skintone, I use more bronzer in the summer to give my skin a sun-kissed look. I depend on different bronzers to give me a differnt look, depending on the rest of my makeup or occassion. These are my top 10 bronzer picks for summer.

Top 10 Bronzers for Summer

1. Urban Decay Beached Bronzer - I love this new silky powder bronzer for how it warms up the skin in two new shades. It leaves such a perfect bronzed glow that radiates the look of the real sun — never fake. Choose from Sun-Kissed for more fair skins or Bronzed for medium or darker skin tones. Buy Beached Bronzer for $28 from urbandecay.com, Sephora, Macy's or Nordstrom.

2. Guerlain Terracotta Bronzing Powder - The originator of powder bronzer always has a new entry for the season and this year they have branded it the Guerlain Terracotta 2016 Original Bronzing Powder and there is no bronzer that will replicate the look of sun on the cheeks better than this. With ultra-fine pigments and varying shades, it gives skin such a perfect, natural glow.  This one comes in seven shades for a variety of skintones. Buy it for $53 from Nordstrom, Sephora, Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue.

3. Laura Mercier Bronzed Butter Face & Body Veil - This creamy, luminous bronzer is like a highlighter + bronzer in one. It is super glowy and adds a ton of radiant bronze to the skin. If you want the "J Lo Glow", this is the bronzer for you. I like it for highlighting the décolletage, and legs. Buy it for $50 from lauramercier.com, Nordstrom or Sephora.

4. NARS Laguna Tiare Bronzer - NARS best-selling bronzer Laguna, that is pretty perfect for all skintones, is back in new packaging and is scented in this version. The brand took their popular Monoi fragrance and infused it into the bronzer and the aura is intoxicating and perfect for summer. Buy it for $59 at NARS Cosmetics, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales or Sephora.

5. Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Bronze - I love Bobbi's Shimmer Bricks for how they can add dimension and color with just one swipe of the brush and the Shimmer Brick Bronze is perfect for doing that for bronze. In fact, Shimmer Brick Bronze is Bobbi Brown's original Shimmer Brick that started it all. I love how this one imparts a beautiful shimmery deep bronze to the cheeks and skin. It's perfect for summer over a tan. Buy it for $46 at bobbibrown.com, Nordstrom, Macy's and Sephora.

6. Clinique Sun-Kissed Face Gelee - This brand new face gel is a complexion enhancer that leaves skin with a beautiful all-over bronzed glow. It seems to blur imperfections as it adds a bit of bronze to the skin too. I like to apply it with my fingertips just to the apples of my cheeks and then blend it outward for a natural looking sun-kissed radiance. Buy it for $26.50 at clinique.com and Sephora.

7. COVERGIRL TruBlend Bronzer - This beautiful baked bronzer leaves a soft, luminous natural looking glow to the skin. The pigments are baked, making them very long-lasting ad real looking. I love how they warm up the skin making it great for an everyday summer look. Buy it for around $9.99 at your favorite drugstore or mass retailer like drugstore.com or Walgreens.

8. Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Bronzer - I've been a longtime fan of Tarte's waterproof bronzer. Not only is this a super long-wearing and waterproof bronzer (a must in the summer with heat, humidity and pool/ocean activities), the Park Ave Princess matte shade is so unbelievably real looking on most skintones that you can fake a true tan with this one. I like to apply it with a large bronzer brush. and sweep it all over in a 3 (or backwards 3) motion. Buy it for $30 at tartecosmetics.com, Sephora or Macy's.

9. IT Cosmetics Vitality Anti-Aging Matte Bronzer - This large matte bronzer leaves skin with a beautiful true bronzed radiance with airbrush finish. I also like how true to a real bronzed look this one is. If you suffer or worry about fine lines and wrinkles, this bronzer is for you as it seems to float above lines and never settles into them. Buy it for $34 at itcosmetics.com, beauty.com or QVC.

10. Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess Powder Bronzer - This powder bronzer is super luxurious with its subtle golden radiance and silky feel. It sweeps on like silk and absorbs oil as you apply. This bronzer comes in three shades to suit different skin tones. Buy it for $37 at esteelauder.com, Nordstrom, Sephora or Neiman Marcus.

NARS Summer 2016 Color Collection.

I don't know about you, but I have had it with this wishy-washing spring weather and just need summer to be here already. I long for longer days filled with warmth and sunny skies. If the NARS summer 2016 Color Collection doesn't rep summer in a more perfect way with its French Riveria look and feel, I don't know what will.

To bring the NARS Summer 2016 color collection to life, François Nars’ partnered with contemporary artist Konstantin Kakanias to bring the glamorous, vintage and whimsical look to the pieces. Just look!

NARS Summer 2016 Color Collection

With this collection comes a new lip product in NARS Lip Cover. Lip Cover is a full coverage, creamy feeling lip color that offers a lot of pigment and satin look to the lips. I find it on par with a lot of the creamy-matte liquid gloss products that have been released lately. I tried Get Dirty which is a dusky peachy rose shade that leaves a satin-matte finish to the lips. It wore for about four hours before starting to fade on my lips. I am hoping they make this product a permanent addition to the line; it's really nice.

NARS Lip Cover Get Dirty
NARS Summer 2016 Color Collection

The entire NARS Summer 2016 collection:

Lip Cover - $28

  • Overheated - Deep Dusty Rose
  • Do Not Disturb - Vivid Orange-Red
  • Get Dirty - Desert Rose
  • Members Only (a NARS exclusive) - Crimson

Dual-Intensity Eyeshadow - $29

  • Deep End - Shimmering Tel Green
  • Tan Lines - Rich Hazelnut
  • Topless - Seashell Pink
  • Pool Shark - Iridescent Periwinkle

Dual-Intensity Blush - $45

  • Liberation - Shimmering Light Pink/Caramel Rose
  • Sexual Content - Sandy Peach/Soft Raspberry

Shop for the NARS summer collection beginning April 15th at NARS boutiques and online at narscosmetics.com. It will then be available at Sephora, department and specialty stores beginning May 1st.

tarteist Glossy Lip Paint.

tarte must have heard my calls for a long-wearing, highly pigmented GLOSSY lip paint because they just launched tarteist Glossy Lip Paint and I am thrilled. As soon as I heard of this nine stunning shade launch, I had to order a few of them to check them out.

I am happy to report that tarte delivers in every way with this Glossy Lip Paint. This dreamy liquid lip formula has a super concentrated level of pigments plus lip conditioners so it leaves lips in a luxurious, lacquer finish with a high glossy shine.

tarteist Glossy Lip Paint feels super smooth on the lips as I apply it with the wand tip. It lasts a good four to five hours on me before it starts fading — super impressive. On first swipe, it is not super glossy, but the more I layer it on, the more glossy is becomes. It is very creamy feeling and not sticky whatsoever.

Like all of tarte's products, this Glossy Lip Paint is formulated with nourishing good-for-you ingredients and skin soothers so lips are never dried out even with the long-wearing formula. 

The shades are all nude and plum based, which are perfectly on trend for the spring and summer season.

  • Obvi - Warm Nude
  • Hella - White Nude
  • Snap - Nude Mauve
  • Goals - Rosy Nude
  • WCW - Berry
  • Fave - Plum Berry
  • Poison - Back Plum
  • Double Tap - Cool Mauve
  • Slay - Orchid

Of course, I picked up the lighter nude shades and I will be keeping these in my spring and summer lip rotation. They are perfect. I have Obvi, Hella and Goals.

I like them all, but I am obsessed with Hella and Obvi and I am sort of ashamed to admit that I already ordered back-ups of both — a lot of back-ups. Hella is the ultimate barely there nude lip shade and Obvi is more pigmented. I also ordered Double Tap to try after falling for the formula.

tarteist Glossy Lip Paint sell for $20 each and are available online now at tartecosmetics.com, Ulta.com, Sephora.com and Macys.com. They will be in stores later this month.