Two to Tan-go: Vita Liberata Trystal Self Tanning Bronzing Minerals in Bronze

Since our last meet up around Christmas, Angela generously gifted me many good stuphs, including this tanning powder. By Asian standards I am a shade of “too-dark” so I think she’s just trying to foil my good looks. Ahem. Also she’s reviewed it here (in the lighter shade Sunkissed), but this is my second professional opinion.

Behold the Vita Liberata Trystal Self Tanning Bronzing Minerals in No. 2 Bronze

Apparently these minerals are self-tanning crystals that “creates a tan lasting up to five days—the world’s first self-tanning bronzer.” I was thrilled to try it because I’d been thinking about tan-touring. You know, contouring your face with self tanner so that you don’t have to do it every day. You think they’ll come up with tattoos for Kardashian-style contouring soon?

The container is elegant and the powder comes in a pretty large shaker jar, similar to that of Bare Escentuals. The Kabuki brush is included and it’s quite soft. The bristles are tapered to a conical shaped tip which is supposed to be good for more precise application. Advertisements say “product is vegan and cruelty-free” but that brush looks like NATURAL animal hair to me, just so you know. I like natural bristles because of the way they pick up powder pigments, but this may be a sore point for vegan-product seekers.  [Interjection from Angela: They’re synthetic and they’re fabulous.  Or at least that’s what I thought, but Renee is making me doubt myself.  UPDATE: Vita Liberata says the brush hair is synthetic.  That Renee thought they were natural says a lot about how high quality the brush is.]

To prevent from dispensing way too much, I only peeled off enough of the plastic covering to expose 3-4 of those holes in the shaker. I still think it was way too much product if you’re not going to bronze the entire face.

So the brush, even though it’s supposed to be precise, sort of puffed a lot of bronzing product on my face. As you can see from the picture below, my whole face looked tanner, and not just the contoured parts. The contouring did not work that well either, because it’s not dark enough to create that chiseled look.

And….IT DID NOT do any self-tanning. By the time I washed it off, the “contours” were totally gone. Might as well just get those streaky face tanners to do this.

I love the idea of tan-touring though….so stay tuned for the next candidate.

Pros:

Looks like a pretty natural tan if you like/need such assistance. I get dark AF (by pale Asian standards) so I’ll have to pass this to Roxy maybe.

Cons:

Does ZERO self-tanning, which is the whole point of this product.