Glossier solar paint
If you love Glossier’s notoriously minimalist packaging, you’ll be right at home here. Arriving in a cardboard carton, the matte white tube has a glossy bronzed lid that handily indicates which shade you’ve picked up. We plumped for ray, a medium, warm bronze for light to medium skin tones, to bronze with, as well as heat, the slightly richer hue, for contouring.
After initially swatching on our hand, we were surprised to see the “gel creme” formula transform almost instantly to a near-matte finish, but did pick up the incredibly subtle golden shimmer that runs throughout the formula. Thankfully, solar paint tells a different story when applied to the skin.
The doe foot applicator is handy when controlling where you apply product; we dotted the gel formula liberally across our cheeks, forehead, neckline and nose, and it blended seamlessly. We were wary of the oil content in this formula, as with some cream bronzers, they can slip and slide across the face, not setting and leaving you with a questionable finish. But Glossier has perfected this balance between wearability and glow: the lightweight gel formula blends beautifully and imparts a luminosity to the skin, but it doesn’t stay tacky or shiny, instead drying down nicely, without looking flat.
As we have oily skin, we were skeptical of the oil content in the formula and thought we’d definitely have to set it, but this wasn’t the case – an exciting prospect for those of us who always wanted to achieve that healthy-looking glow but have to opt for a matte finish due to our skin types.
The bronzer is sheer but buildable; a little goes a long way. We tested it both on bare skin (minus our favourite glowy primer, Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood filter, £34, Feelunique.com) and on top of foundation, and the bronzer performed well on both bases. As with most of Glossier’s products, solar paint does seem to suit bare skin best – we slightly preferred the finish without foundation as it lifted the complexion, making us look far more luminous and fresh. But don’t let that put you off if you’re an avid foundation wearer, as this still layered well without disrupting our base underneath, unlike some other Glossier products we’ve tried.
After applying ray as a bronzer, we loved adding extra depth with the darker heat shade in the hollows of our cheeks for extra definition. The subtle sheen it delivers looks very natural with no chunky glitter in sight. After wearing it for an hour, the bronzer felt weightless on the skin, maintaining its glowy finish without breaking down any of our base products.
The verdict: Glossier solar paint
As someone who typically opts for a full coverage make-up look, we’re usually daunted by Glossier’s products as they are geared towards that natural finish. But solar paint has truly converted us. The versatile gel bronzer allows anyone to create a healthy, glowy bronzed look without any extra oiliness. It’s a dream to apply and doesn’t need setting, even on oily skin. Glossier has perfected this hybrid formula to deliver a truly radiant bronze and we’ll certainly be reaching for it in our make-up bag.