Wear Your Stripes This Summer

The only place I will be wearing animal prints this summer is on my face. Now before you all think I have taken adventurous makeup to a new extreme, allow me to explain. I recently received the Annabelle Zebra Bronzing Pressed Powder in the mail along with the great news that it will now be added to Annabelle's  permanent line! For the past two summers this bronzer has been released as a limited edition product, but the consumer response was so enthusiastic they decided to give us a bronze glow year round!

As you have all seen, I am extremely pale. My mom sometimes jokingly calls me "the fairest one of all" as a sort of play on words from my favourite Disney movie (not in the vain sense). I have a phobia of the sun because this Italian's skin seems to have a penchent for cherry tomotoes in the sunburned skin variety. Thus, my only way of achieving beautiful sun kissed (not sun singed) skin is via bronzers.

Finding the right bronzer for your skin tone can be tricky. You really need to pay attention the the base colour of the product to make sure that it is not orange and you don't spend the summer looking like an Oompa Loompa. Also, you don't want the bronzer to be too brown or you can look like you took an extended mud bath and forgot to rinse. Bronzers with golden and rose undertones are the most universally flattering, which is exactly what Annabelle has achieved with their Zebra Bronzing Powder. Below I have swatched both the dark and light colours:

Dark Colour

Light Colour

On The Skin (not blended)

The gradient of colours in this compact make it suitable for various skin tones. Colour strips can be used alone or swirled all together to achieve the perfect bronzer shade for whatever stage of tan your skin is in.
The texture of this product is very refined, smooth which is optimum for blending the product for a natural and healthy glow (read: NOT Jersey Shore tan!)

For the look of the day below, I drew inspiration from Whitney Port's makeup and tweaked it to make it more wearable for work.

I used the Zebra Bronzer as my only cheek colour by swirling Annabelle A-13 Pro Powder Brush (pictured above) in all the colours, tapping off the the excess, and lighlty buffing it along my cheekbones. This brush is made of natural, premium quality High Goat hair that is very soft and evenly distributes and blends the product. It is small enough to use for cheek colour, but still big enough to use on your decolletage (because bronze face and white neck is not the kind of stripes we are going for). I went for a more sheer wash colour because I wanted to make sure to keep this a day look and wanted just a healthy glow to my skin.

I also used the Zebra bronzer as my eye makeup (so versatile). I applied the lightest shade all over the lid and lightly contoured my crease with the darkest shade. The continuity from the eyes to cheek tied the look together. A little navy eyeliner (Petrol Blue pearl glide liner from MAC) and a neutral lip colour from No 7 and I was ready for work.

**Note: Hay fever=swollen eyes**