Revlon Bronzed & Chic Photoready Bronzer

A few weeks ago, I bought Revlon’s new Photoready bronzer in the shade 100 Bronzed & Chic.   This was part of Revlon’s Summer 2012 Escapism collection, which included several new and several limited edition products.  It seems that this bronzer is now part of the permanent Revlon line – I’ve seen it on the Revlon wall in several drugstores.

First – the packaging for this bronzer is annoying.  The compact is functional, but twice as large as it needs to be, just to include a sub-par brush.  I would have much preferred a small, round compact with no brush.  And in fact, after taking the photos for this post, I depotted mine, and put it in a small round compact (it was a bit difficult to depot because there was a lot of glue holding it in, and I damaged it a little bit, unfortunately).

The bronzer itself is really lovely – part of why I bought it, actually.  It has a very pretty design on it – possibly coral, possibly a stylized tree.    The texture is very smooth, and it’s easy to apply just a little or build up for more intensity.

Here are swatches of all four shades. I’ve swatched it from lightest to darkest, which is clockwise starting with the top left (lightest shade),

As you can see, the colors are fairly sheer – but that’s what I want from a bronzer, as I don’t want to look dirty!

I also swatched the bronzer over foundation, because it shows the colors better.

Swatched over foundation

Note that the lightest shade is yellow-toned, the second is neutral brown toned. The second-to-darkest is reddish, and the darkest is neutral deeper brown toned.

Overall, I’m very happy with this bronzer. It’s soft, smooth, and has a nice level of pigmentation for a bronzer. All four of the shades included are flattering, and it’s easy mix them to create a custom shade.  It’s on the pricey side for a drugstore item – $12.99 on Drugstore.com – but I got mine during a 40% off sale. Recommended!