Battle of the Bronzes

I’m a neutral eyeshadow fan and recently I noticed the amount of bronze shades in my collection. I have a couple of single bronze shadows and in almost each of my eyeshadow palettes there is a bronze shade. I can appreciate a good bronze but there are different tones and I thought it would be fun to compare my bronze shades side by side to see how similar they are. Spoiler alert: I was pleasantly surprised at all the little differences between the shades.

There are a total of 10 bronze shades in my collection across six palettes and three single shadows.

Shades will be discussed individually in the order they are swatched.

Left to right: Bronze (from Maybelline’s The Nudes palette), Pure Ganache, Cinnamon Sugar, Hotel and Beach Babe.

1. Maybelline – Bronze (‘The Nudes’)

This is the darkest bronze out of the 10 shades and leans towards being a cool toned brown-bronze. It’s not a shade I reach for all the time but it is one of my favourites from the Maybelline palette. It is a satin formula and has micro-shimmer. It’s nice and soft and blends easily.

2. Zoeva – Pure Ganache (Cocoa Blend Voyager Palette)

From one of the darkest shades to one of the lightest! Pure Ganache is without a doubt a metallic shadow, it has quite a bit of shimmer and is a light-gold bronze. This shadow is really nice for a natural eye look and applies best with a finger.

3. Zoella x Colourpop – Cinnamon Sugar (Brunch Date)

Cinnamon Sugar is such a cute name for this shade and it describes the colour perfectly. This shade is one of my personal favourite bronzes and it reminds me a lot of my hair colour which is why I like it. The formula is metallic and slightly more gritty than Pure Ganache but it also applies best with a finger.

4. Colourpop – Hotel (Sol)

My Brunch Date and Sol palettes were purchased at the same time and when they arrived I compared Cinnamon Sugar and Hotel straight away. Hotel is a warmer bronze and more orange which fits perfectly in the Sol palette. Both shades are comparable in terms of formula and pigmentation but out of the two my preference is Cinnamon Sugar.

5. xoBeauty – Beach Babe (The Remix Palette)

Beach Babe definitely swatched the smoothest (the entire Remix Palette is excellent quality) and to me is the most pure metallic bronze. It doesn’t have orange or gold tones, it remains entirely neutral and goes with any makeup look.

Left to right: Two bronzes (from Makeup Revolution’s Iconic 1 palette), Copper Sparkle, Nillionaire and Feral Brown.

6. Makeup Revolution – Bronze #1 (Iconic 1)

This shade is quite similar to Pure Ganache as it is a light gold-bronze but this has more shine when swatched and looks more metallic. From memory this takes more building up on the lids than Pure Ganache to get colour pay off but this shade swatched better than I expected.

7. Makeup Revolution – Bronze #2 (Iconic 1)

In the Iconic 1 palette the two bronze shades are next to each other and this one didn’t swatch as well as the previous shade, you can see it’s not as pigmented. Colour wise this shade is a cross between the bronze from The Nudes palette and Beach Babe from The Remix Palette.

8. MAC – Copper Sparkle

Let me compare this shade and then I’ll talk about a few issues I have with it. Copper Sparkle has a very warm orange-bronze undertone, even more prominent than Hotel from the Sol palette. It is one of my least favourite bronzes out of the 10 because it fell short when I wore it. I have other MAC pigments and this one looks so gorgeous and glittery online but in real life it has large chunks and it’s not as finely milled as my other pigments. I had to build this swatch up the most and the sparkle of the product still didn’t come out much. When I wore this on my eyes it stayed put all day and was pigmented but it was very warm. I will try this with Fix+ to see if the glitter is more prominent but at this stage I’m leaning towards passing the shade on as I don’t find it as unique as I’d hoped. If I want warm bronze tones I can get them from Hotel or Cinnamon Sugar.

9. Colourpop – Nillionaire

Colourpop describe Nillionaire as a bronze with pink and gold ultra-glitter which is an accurate description. Nillionaire is a Super Shock Shadow so the formula is soft and bouncy. It does take a few swipes to build this up on the eye but it’s not hard work. The fact this can be applied sheer also makes it a great layering shadow. Nillionaire looks lovely over top of a warm brown matte eye look for a pop of shimmer.

10. Max Factor – Feral Brown

In terms of formula, Feral Brown is similar to the bronze from The Nudes palette – a satin with micro-shimmer. Feral Brown is a warm brown-bronze and I don’t find myself reaching for this often. I tend to wear other shades on top if I do but it will only be once in a blue moon. This is another of my least favourite bronzes and I have grown out of love with this shade. It is a unique colour but I don’t see it as essential to my collection.

Top to bottom: Feral Brown, Nillionaire, Copper Sparkle, bronzes from Makeup Revolution’s Iconic 1 palette, Beach Babe, Hotel, Cinnamon Sugar, Pure Ganache and bronze from Maybelline’s The Nudes palette.

My top three shades in no particular order are Cinnamon Sugar, Beach Babe and Nillionaire. These are all slightly different but a little bit of variety is good. They are all versatile and go with a number of looks, especially Beach Babe and Nillionaire as they have a neutral undertone. Cinnamon Sugar is warmer but still gorgeous.

---

Do you own any of these shades? Which is your favourite?

Follow me:

Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest