Pari Beauty Mineral Highlighter Bronzer Duo: Review and Swatches

Pari Beauty recently sent us some of the 2013 Summer Collection. One of the items they have come out with is their Mineral Highlighter Bronzer Duo. 

Here's what the Pari website has to say about the Mineral Highlighter Bronzer Duo:

This mineral highlighter bronzer duo combines a soft and silky bronzer colour with a hot, fresh and luminous highlighter. The silky-soft bronzer glides effortlessly onto the skin and provides skin conditioning, long wear and anti-oxidant properties. The soft and luxurious highlighter provides a satin smooth finish and is designed to be worn by all skin types. It also provides skin conditioning and give a flawless look with long wear. 

The packaging has a kaleidoscope quality to it, hence the rainbow effect that comes across in the photos. 

Photos of the compact.

The compact is on the thinner side and comes with a mirror inside. No applicator is included.

The Mineral Highlighter Bronzer Duo comes in only one shade, but inside there are two colourss in the compact. A creamy warm champagne shade and a deeper copper-gold shade. 

Both shades are highly frosted. I wouldn't use either of these compact as a bronzer since they're so highly shimmery, but they definitely work as highlighters. Bronzers should be matte or with little shimmer to look natural, which is how your skin would look if naturally tanned - not sparkly. 

Here they are swatched on the back of my hand (NW15 skintone). The darker shade is VERY orange and eeeek, this isn't an easy shade for most of us to wear. It'd work as an eyeshadow colour or on the lips, but it's not a very natural colour for the skin. The lighter shade is pretty - a gold-pink shimmer that makes an easy shade to wear for many skintones. 

Texture-wise, these are both fairly heavily pigmented and frosty. Blended down, they're wearable but definitely for evening, not for daytime. It feels light on the skin and is easy to blend. They're pretty colours, but the orange-gold is just not natural-looking. Bronzer mimics the sun's effect on the skin and Oompa-Loompa tans are not natural-looking. Just say no to orange tans!

I like the idea of a duo bronzer, since you can blend the two shades for multiple colour options, or use just one, depending on what effect you want. This is best applied with a brush, or with your fingers in a pinch.

To sum up: the lighter shade works fairly well as a highlighter, but the darker shade is not wearable.

This duo would suit medium to medium-dark skintones best. 

The Mineral Highlighter Bronzer Duo costs $24 and is available on the Pari Beauty website, as well as at Sears stores in Canada. 

Grade: C 

Catherine