I’ve never been a bronzer-lover. EVER. I’m pasty white and quite alright with it; I just don’t associate “bronzed” with “healthy” the way a lot of people do. And okay, I have an obscene number of them for someone who doesn’t use them, but in! my! defense!, I’ve never purchased one. 

(I’m pale. People assume I need bronzer. End of story.)

Here’s the thing: Annabelle has this adorable Zebra bronzing powder, and I think I… like it? I mean, it’s not at all orange, and the shimmer (I normally hate shimmer in my cheek products) just looks awesome. It gives me a summery glow, without making me look sunburnt! (And yes, it still lets me seem shockingly pale if I still want to.)

Here’s the Zebra bronzer compared to Annabelle’s SkinTrue bronzer (above.) Now, the SkinTrue one is already pretty good in terms of not looking orange (and comes with the added benefit of one matte side/one shimmery side.) The Zebra bronzer is special, though. I can’t quite put my finger on it. You’d think it would be too warm, but it’s not, not at all. It’s neither too orange nor too green; the perfect gold. It’s very pale, very luminescent — packed with shimmer, but the shimmer is so finely milled that it skips right over “pearled” or “frosty” and just slams into “crazy angelic glow.”


Obviously, for this reason it’s not going to work the same way on a darker-skinned beauty that it does on me. I can use this alone to contour and get away with it; on someone much darker I think it would still be a lovely all-over glow, but it wouldn’t sculpt the face in the same way. I’d say it would be good for the palest of folks (seriously, as in “NW5” if it existed) right up until about NW25 or so. Past that it would likely just start to look more like a gorgeous luminescent cheek product, and less like a bronzer.


A side note: as usual, the product photo on the Annabelle site is (excuse my French,) total shit. Here’s a more accurate one — very accurate in fact, if I may say so myself!

The verdict? This is disgusting! I hate it! Just kidding — I absolutely love this product. And trust me, I’ve never said that about a bronzer before! I’ve set the bar so high for bronzers that it’s the only one I keep in my personal stash. (No, even MAC didn’t manage to scrape its way over the bar.) It just gives this incredible, fairly sheer golden glow, and while it would look great on virtually anyone, I think it looks particularily stunning on us pale ladies.