PUBLISHED: 07/16/2019 | UPDATED: 03/05/2020

Gone are the days when you needed to lay out in the sun or in a tanning bed for hours to get a gorgeous sun-kissed look. Today, a good bronzer can add dimension, tone, and depth to your look without the need for the sun. Bronzers are typically applied in the spots where the sun and shadows would naturally darken the skin (temples, bridge of the nose, and cheekbones). Bronzers come in shades that are 1-3 shades darker than your natural skin tone and they instantly give your complexion a warm, radiant, and healthy glow. 

There is a common misunderstanding that wearing “too much” makeup can lead to unhealthy skin. The truth is that proper skin care habits combined with the use of natural makeup made from skin-nurturing ingredients can mitigate the common consequences of frequent makeup use (like clogged pores, blackheads, acne breakouts, irritation, and dull complexions). If flawless skin is your goal, then you should seriously consider adding natural and organic makeup products to your kit—starting with your bronzer!

The best natural bronzers are crafted from natural minerals, nourishing plant butters and oils, and yummy fruit pigments. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to find an organic bronzers made from cocoa powder, coffee grounds, natural iron oxide minerals, and dark berry pigments. Natural bronzers can also include a range of other ingredients such as anti-inflammatory aloe vera, antioxidant rich green tea, carrot seed oil, and pomegranate oil, and even collagen-boosting vitamin C (8, 9).

Just like conventional bronzers, organic and all-natural bronzers come in a variety of formulas: pressed powder bronzers, loose powder bronzers, liquid or serum bronzers, and cream bronzers. 

• Pressed Powder & Loose Powder Natural Bronzers – Powder bronzers are usually crafted from natural earth minerals such as iron oxides + ultramarines, mica, titanium dioxide, and silica. These earth minerals are responsible for the pigments, opaqueness, and shimmer of natural bronzers. Many of these pigments are mined directly from the earth and/or decontaminated/synthesized in a laboratory to remove naturally occurring harmful heavy metals. 
• Liquid & Serum Natural Bronzers: If you want a bronzer made from primarily organic ingredients, then look no further than a liquid or serum bronzer. Serum bronzers are made from a combination of nourishing plant oils, essential oils, and natural pigments. A good serum bronzer can be almost as good as applying a real facial serum treatment! Liquid bronzers can be applied by using a makeup brush or fingertip. 
• Cream Bronzers: Similar to liquid bronzers, cream bronzers are a combination of potent botanicals and natural pigments. Cream bronzers get their butter-like consistency from various waxes (such as beeswax or candelilla wax) and luscious plant butters (such as cocoa and shea butter) added to the formulation. 

Looking to buy a natural bronzer? Instead of trusting labels like  “organic” or “all-natural” on bronzer packaging, take the time to read and understand the ingredients. In today’s cosmetic industry, those terms are not properly regulated and can be used to describe products that are neither natural nor organic (1). Products made with talc (6), parabens, artificial fragrances, synthetic colors such as Red 6, Red 7 Lake, Red 28 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, and Blue 1 Lake, formaldehyde, silicones (5), petroleum by-products, and ingredients commonly contaminated with carcinogens should be avoided if you wish to switch to truly clean makeup.

To make things a bit simpler for you, we tasked our beauty experts to find, review, and recommend the best natural bronzers on the market today.  Dozens of bronzers were evaluated before settling on this list of the best of the best. This list includes a mix of truly all-natural and organic bronzers. To quickly find the best bronzer for you, be sure to use our FILTER function to sort by cream bronzers, powder bronzers, liquid bronzers, vegan and gluten-free bronzers, and you can even filter by price! In short, these are delicious, beautiful, and naturally pigmented bronzers that will give you that unmistakable sun-kissed glow. Enjoy!