Cream Bronzers You'll Want To Try Before 2022 Is Over

If you live in a tropical climate, it's easy to always have sun-kissed skin. But if you're mostly working from home or it's the cooler months when you spend more time indoors, you need a trusty bronzer to fake that natural glow.

Bronzers are amazing at giving your skin a radiant look, but you'll want to choose the right color to complement your skin tone. Celebrity makeup artist Hung Vanngo told Cosmopolitan, "you're looking to add warmth with bronzer, not color." For fair skin, look for cool tones; for medium skin, gold and coppers are best; and try something with golden or red undertones for deep skin.

You should also consider your skin type when picking a bronzer. If you have dry skin, whether year-round or only during colder months, cream bronzers are a great pick. "Powder bronzers can tend to grab on to dryer areas of the face, resulting in a blotchy look," celebrity makeup artist Victoria Stiles told Well+Good. "For a soft luminous sun-kissed glow, cream bronzers are perfect as they glide seamlessly onto the skin and can be used alone as a natural flushed look, under foundation for an inner glow, or on top as a highlight, contour or general blushed tan look." Here are the best cream bronzers of 2022 that you need in your makeup collection.

If powder bronzers can do wonders for oily skin by helping absorb excess oil, cream bronzers work in the opposite way by adding and retaining moisture. If you're looking for a lightweight cream bronzer for your dry or dehydrated skin, Saie Sun Melt Natural Cream Bronzer is a great option. With its velvety finish, it feels like a second skin, per Cosmopolitan.

A winner of Allure's Best of Beauty Awards in the clean beauty category, Saie's bronzer feels like a balm when applied. And it's more than just makeup because it's enriched with colloidal oatmeal to soothe and moisturize your skin and grapeseed oil, and is rich in antioxidants. Available in four shades, there is sure to be one to perfectly complement your skin tone. Hello, sun-kissed radiance!

The bronzer has over 75,000 likes on Sephora.com. One reviewer wrote, "This bronzer is super creamy and easy to use. I'm honestly not the best at makeup, so I like that this is beginner friendly. It's very buildable, and you really don't need much. It gives such a nice natural glow to the skin."

For a fairly new beauty brand, Tower 28 Beauty has some impressive products. Their Bronzino Illuminating Cream Bronzer is one of them. The gorgeous radiant finish it gives you will make you look like you just got back from vacation.

Celebrity makeup artist Mary Irwin loves this bronzer, which has a balmy texture and is great for a glow-from-within look, for the good-for-you ingredients it includes. Irwin told Well+Good, "You can put more skin-care benefits in a cream bronzer." The Tower 28 bronzer is made with green tea extract (an antioxidant that has a calming effect) and mango butter (ultra-moisturizing and nourishing). It also does not contain mineral oil and is fragrance-free and vegan. No wonder it's a winner of Allure's 2020 Best of Beauty Awards.

A super-pleased reviewer on Sephora.com wrote, "This is honestly everything I could ask for-for a bronzer!!! It's creamy, easy to apply, long-lasting, layers well over other products, and is natural!!!!"

Is there anything Rihanna can't do? Her makeup brand Fenty makes terrific products and is so color-inclusive that you can find your perfect shades no matter your skin tone. Kudos to that! Cosmopolitan chose Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Bronzer as having the best shade range, because there are seven colors to choose from. This bronzer is also non-greasy, feels super light, and goes on sheer, so you can build it to your preference.

When it comes to application, cream bronzers are surprisingly easy to apply as you don't need a fancy brush or be a beauty influencer to get it just right. Bobbi Brown makeup artist Amalie Russell recommends simply using your fingers or a flat foundation brush to lightly apply it where the sun hits you naturally, like cheeks, nose bridge, and brow bone (via Women's Health). Russell said, "Cream bronzers should look like you have spent the day out on the beach or outdoors."

With 124,000 likes on Sephora.com, reviewers are loving the Cheeks Out bronzer. One wrote, "This cream bronzer is the bestttt as far as shade ranges, and it blends so well without looking chalky, or patchy. I love it!"

Cream bronzers don't need to be expensive to give you that unbeatable glow. A drugstore favorite that won't cost you a fortune and is as good as higher-end brands is Physician's Formula Murumuru Butter Bronzer. Chosen by Byrdie as the "best overall" drugstore bronzer, it has a dewy finish, applies perfectly, and has soft-focus pigments to make you look flawless. The hybrid powder-to-cream bronzer was also chosen by the New York Post as one of the best bronzers because it "seamlessly blends, creating a gorgeous goddess glow." 

Made with a combination of three kinds of butter: murumuru, cupuaçu, and tucuma, the hypoallergenic formula will nourish your skin and not irritate it if it's sensitive. The brand is also cruelty-free. It is available in eight shades, so you'll have no problem finding the right one for you.

With over 34,000 reviews on Amazon, one reviewer wrote, "Wife loves this stuff...bought 2 different ones, but this is one she really likes! Great for dry skin and gives you a healthy glow! She will be buying this again!"