10 best liquid bronzers for a natural-looking post-holiday glow

Make-up meets skincare with this hydrating liquid bronzer formulation from the New York-based beauty brand that now comes in four flattering shades for all. You can wake up your complexion with just a sheer touch, or build up the intensity with a brush for a more post-holiday glow – either way, the shimmer-free finish always stays natural-looking with its satin finish.

Delivering a blast of hyaluronic acid, vegan collagen and mushroom extracts, ensures this has a smooth and comfortable finish even on dry skin types. Of course, it plays well with other coverages, but we found this also looks beautiful worn on bare skin.

This liquid bronzer has been flying off the shelves after going viral on TikTok and being dubbed “sunshine in a bottle” and we can confirm this isn’t just hype. Our tester has been using these on/off for a few years now because they’re such a fuss-free way of faking a natural glow. All you have to do is mix a drop or two (depending on how deep you want to go) with your serum, moisturiser, or oil in your existing skincare routine for a healthy-looking hue.

Furthermore, it’s packed with skincare benefits, like skin-protecting antioxidants, line-plumping peptides, and nourishing marula oil and vitamin E to name just a few that defend the skin from daily aggressors, as well as smooth the skin. Plus, fans of Drunk Elephant will know already it’s a “free-from” beauty brand ideal for those on the sensitive side too.

With all this, it’s no wonder that it’s sold out across the UK right now. But if you want to get your hands on one when it’s available again, your best bet is to sign up to a waitlist.

Now available to the UK, there’s been a social buzz around this Italian beauty brand, and not just because all its line is infused with caffeine. Likened to Glossier, the brand celebrates natural beauty with the ethos of complementing your beauty and not covering it up with a carefully selected vegan and “free-from” collection.

One of our favourites is the brand’s matte finish bronzer. Made up of 100 per cent natural ingredients, including shea butter and olive oil (well, it is Italian) that makes this ultra-creamy. A little goes a very long way with this small and mighty tube, so the key is to use it very sparingly, building up to the desired effect. We found it works well blended with fingers and a brush alike, but it’s best to dab the product on hand first to use as a palette. There are only two shades to choose from, but they’re so adaptable and easy to layer they’ll work for most skin tones.

This is another liquid bronzer going viral on TikTok and with good reason. It’s being compared to the sold-out Drunk Elephant d-bronzi sunshine drops (£31, Boots.com) on socials because it works similarly. Simply drop into your serum, day cream, or foundation for a natural wash of warmth to the skin. The formula is customisable, so our light skin tester liked just one drop for glowy results and two for a more sun-lit finish.

A dose of hyaluronic acid and skin-living extracts adds to its appeal, boosting skin hydration. Furthermore, like the brand’s popular Nanoblur cream, it’s a blurring formula diffusing the look of imperfections like a real-life filter. Expect, your golden glow to last until you wash it off in the evening.

The prestige beauty brand is well-known for creating a long line of “best of the best” complexion boosters, and we’re including their sunkissed shade of this highlighter meets liquid bronzer in that. The silky formula imparts such a beautiful lit-from-within glow to lighter skin tones with a hint of pearly bronze finish that can be tapped to areas of the face seamlessly with fingers or a brush. You can also add a drop into your foundation to impart luminosity all over. It doesn’t matter how you use it, we found it stays in place all day and comfortably thanks to its infusion of skincare for a second-skin finish.

Inspired by Nordic nature, Scandi brand Lumene has these liquid bronzer drops in its lineup that add the most beautiful slightly luminous but natural sunkissed effect. Infusing its collection with potent natural actives, these use a blend of hydrating pure arctic spring water, Nordic algae, willowherb and vitamin E so they feel more like a skincare-make-up hybrid.

Now there are two shades to choose from, as “deep glow” has just launched to sit beside the lighter shade “summer glow” covering a much better range of skin tones. To use, simply dot on where the sun would naturally hit or use to contour, and buff out with a brush. Pairing well with foundation, our tester also loved to use these on bare skin.

One of the originals at fusing skincare and cosmetic formulations, Perricone MD has a collection of products perfect for nailing the no make-up make-up look, including this liquid bronzer. If you’re a minimalist looking for a natural, shimmer-free sun-touched finish this one’s for you. You can use it to effortlessly bronze high points, contour, or if mixed with foundation, dial up the colour for summer.

The one-shade formula is universally flattering on light to medium skin tones, with its lightweight texture that layers seamlessly, so you can build up the colour to create your desired look. What’s more, it’s infused with vitamin C helping to brighten the skin while you wear it. Win-win!

Irish make-up artist Aimee Connolly has this ultra-glowy bronzing highlighter in her cosmetic collection that’s super blendable and easy to layer to suit most light-medium skin tones. It has an illuminating finish, so isn’t for those that are looking for a “no make-up make-up look”, but for those looking for a bronzing liquid that oozes shimmering glow – both highlighting and adding warmth to the skin – it’s perfect.

A little goes a very long way with this concentrated tube, so we found it’s best to apply in tiny dabs and blend out. We love to use this on the tops of cheekbones, forehead and nose as a finishing touch to make-up when the dress code calls for glamour.

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With four versatile shades, from a neutral golden to a deep reddish bronze, there’s a shade to match every skin tone in Glossier’s much-loved liquid bronzers collection. Focusing on a natural finish, like all the cosmetics from the brand, this melts into the skin offering a believable sun-touched veil.

The gel-crème texture is infused with botanical oils and extracts, making it blendable for that seamless realistic finish, while the tint has a touch of pearlescence to it for added radiance. Plus, we found this one extra easy to apply thanks to the doe foot applicator making it mess-free as you can dot straight to the skin and blend with fingers with ease.

This may be marketed more as a highlighter, but we found the bronze glow of the “hypnotic heroine” shade makes it the ideal versatile liquid bronzer that can be used on both face and body and is a must-have for packing on your summer holiday. For the face, it adds a boost of radiance when mixed with foundation and a golden hue to the high points of the face when used neat. But, we equally liked to mix a few drops in our body moisturiser to add a little glow to our limbs or buffed into the chest, collarbones and shoulders when you’ve got skin on show.