Powder bronzers tend to be a hit or miss and everytime I get a new matte bronzer I am very nervous to see how it performs. It can skip, it can be patchy or it can be the most beautiful veil of satin bronziness you've ever seen...which one are we gonna get today?
The L.YS No Limits Matte Bronzer is a powder bronzer that is supposed to have a silky formula that is going to bronze up the skin and give it sunkissed glow. Besides that, we also have skin-loving ingredients often found in skincare such as niacinamide (evening out skintone, balance sebum production), hyaluronic acid (hydration), green tea extract (antioxidant, soothing) to add various benefits to the bronzer formula. It comes in 5 shades that are said to be universal and they are spreaded across the spectrum of skintones quite well. I have the shade Motivate which is denoted as Light and it is the lightest shade. It retails for 12 Euros and I got mine at Cult Beauty.
The packaging of these products is incredible, the triangles everywhere just get me. It's a magnetic triangular compact with a huge pan and a handy mirror. It's not too bulky but it feels very sturdy. The bronzer itself is fully matte and looks darker in the pan than it looked on the swatches online. That made me immidiatelly nervous because I have a hard time picking the right depth of a bronzer. The formula is matte but not super dry or powdery which is nice. It gives more of a silky vibe than anything. It swatches more sheer than I expected but it looks like it's going to be a very evenly pigmented buildable bronzer. That sort of explains the universal shades and small shade range if you can build the bronzers up a lot. It does have a skinlike sheen and doesn't look too flat which I also really appreciate.
Wear test
I applied the bronzer with the L.YS bronzer brush because I just couldn't resist it and had to get it too. The brush is quite dense and thin so it deposits quite a lot of pigment at the same time. It's a little tricky to work with but that's the applicator, not the product itself. The bronzer went on fine with a very smooth and silky finish. It wasn't patchy or picking up on any dry spots on my face. It's a little different in tone and depth than my other bronzers so I was a little scared it's going to be too dark but I think it's fine and I just have to get used to a slightly different shade of bronzer than I usually use. Overall, I think it's a great and well blendable bronzer formula.
Wear time 9 hours
The bronzer has faded a little bit and it might be caused by the non-ideal base combination because I was trying out a new skin tint for the first time which didn't really perform that well. Still though, the bronzer is there and looks pretty decent even though it's a little faded. It just lost some of the pigmentation but it's still there looking pretty smooth and didn't start looking patchy even though I was wearing a mask for a good portion of the day. I am glad that the performance is decent and so far I am quite a fan.
Final thoughts
The bronzer looks a little intimidating and way darker in the pan than it comes out on the skin. That is why I usually don't reach for it too much. I love the packaging, the brand and the pricepoint as well so I'll just have to remind myself going forward that I actually LIKE this bronzer a lot and that it just looks a little scary.
It is velvety, buildable, not too pigmented and very smooth. It blends well with everything and just looks very nice and even on the skin. Even the tone of it is very flattering on my face I think. I would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a nice compact good quality velvety matte bronzer that's not too flat at a very fair pricepoint.
Do you have any bronzers you're kinda scared of? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!