Glow Like a Goddess All Year With the Best Bronzers, Self-Tanners, and Shimmers

[Photo by Leonardo Marinho]

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Summer is right around the corner and for many of us, that means long days at the beach, by the lake or in the backyard. If you’re practicing safe sun exposure and want to limit your time outdoors, there are a wide variety of bronzers, self-tanners, and body shimmer products that will give you a natural-looking glow without all the sun damage. As an added bonus, you won’t even have to step foot out of the house to achieve that “just got back from vacation” look!

The Best SPF Products to Protect Your Skin

Here, we’ve rounded up our favorite bronzing powders, tanning oils, and other must-haves that will help recreate that beach goddess glow this summer. Read on to discover and shop!

Beauty Bakerie Coffee & Cocoa Bronzer Palette ($28)

Blending seamlessly, this cruelty-free and vegan palette serves up versatile, earth-toned flavors in creamy, satin finishes for every skin tone. Get creative in the kitchen with buildable Coffee & Cocoa flavors that can be used as highlight, contour, blush, or eyeshadow depending on your skin tone and style. Features four sugary shades: Deja Brew, You’re Grounded, Anti-Depresso, and La Vida Mocha.

Bella Schneider Beauty Caviar & Carat Gleaming Gold Dry Oil Spray ($45)

This golden dry oil body spray effortlessly adheres to the body, nourishes and rejuvenates. Beautifully leaves arms, legs, and décolleté with a gorgeous golden shimmer. Smoothes and strengthens skin elasticity. Key ingredients include rosemary extract, carrot extract, and soybean oil.

Bella Spirit by Chaz Dean Self Tanning Bronzing Drops ($60)

These bronzing drops allow you to customize a gradual tan when mixed with Bella Spirit’s Ultra Nourishing Intensive Body Treatment or your favorite body lotion. Apply one drop or up to one full dropper into a dollop of body lotion, then mix together and apply evenly where desired. Easily buildable depending on how deep you want your tan. Looks gorgeous and natural!

Brown Bee H7 Face Tanning Serum ($42)

Powered by 2% hyaluronic acid, peptides, aloe vera, and vitamin E, this lightweight formula delivers a natural-looking tan while hydrating skin. A blend of multiweight hyaluronic acids hydrates every layer for plumper, smoother, more youthful-looking skin while peptides help boost firmness and elasticity, resulting in soft, radiant skin with a healthy glow.

[comfort zone] Sun Soul Hydraglow After Sun ($35)

After a day in the sun, soothe your skin with this after-sun cream, infused with illuminating particles to enhance your tan. Its dry-touch texture is enriched with HEXAPEPTIDE (Acetyl Hexapeptide-51 Amide), which mimics the skin’s natural antioxidant defenses, along with soothing Physalis Angulata extract and nourishing Abyssinian and Argan oils. The result is soft, radiant skin, perfectly prepped for your next sun-filled adventure.

Comodynes Self-Tanning Intensive & Fast Bronzing Towelettes ($18.99-$54.99)

Each towelette contains the perfect amount of color for the face, neck and cleavage. They contain a moisturizing complex that helps to eliminate the risk of skin drying out. Provides a deep tan in just three hours, with intensity adapting to natural skin tone. Lasts four days.

e.l.f. SKIN Bronzing Drops Tinted Serum ($13)

This antioxidant-rich tinted serum nourishes skin and gives you a warm, sun-kissed complexion.  Can be used on your face and body for all-over radiance or mixed with your favorite moisturizer or oil. Nourishes and moisturizes skin with antioxidant-rich vitamin E and sunflower seed oil. Glow intensity can be customized with three different shades (Rose Gold, Pure Gold, and Copper Gold.)

Ere Perez Cacao Bronzing Pot ($40)

For effortless sun-kissed radiance, Ere Perez’s Cacao Bronzing Pot features a skin-like natural formula that gives complexions the most natural glow sans shimmer. It’s formulated with hydrating cacao and shea butters to nourish all skin types, and the mousse-like texture is a lightweight cream that offers buildable coverage and is easy to blend. Can also be used as a bronzing contour to define your best features. Comes in sleek mirrored eco makeup packaging without the plastic. Available in two stunning shades: Playa (sun-kissed fair) and Sol (golden bronze).

FarmHouse Fresh Lustre Drench Instant Glow Dry Oil ($40)

This fast absorbing, feathery-light oil brings a warm golden hue to skin, leaving it feeling soft and silky. The silicone-free formula nourishes skin with U.S-grown non-GMO sunflower seed oil, which is high in omega 6 essential fatty acids. It’s also infused with vitamin K-rich micro red amaranth extract grown on FHF’s farm in Texas. Features an all-natural lemon cream scent with a beachy Piña Colada vibe!

Glo Skin Beauty Bronze ($46)

Seamless color enhancement with a hint of shimmer. This pressed mineral bronzer is infused with antioxidants to add color and contour to the face and body for a sunkissed glow. Enjoy bronze skin, no matter what time of year it is! Available in Sunkiss (pictured) and Sunlight.

Hempz Glow Getter Collection ($6.99 to $24.28)

Add instant bronze and shimmer accompanied by the sensual scent of bergamot and amber with Hempz’s Glow Better Collection, which features several products that leave skin soft and glowing! Skin sparkles with ethically sourced mica, a naturally occurring mineral. The collection includes:

• Glow Getter Herbal Instant Bronzing Drops ($21.99)

• Glow Getter Herbal Body Moisturizer with Shimmer ($24.99)

• Glow Getter Herbal Body Mist with Shimmer ($14.99)

• Glow Getter Herbal Body Oil with Shimmer ($19.99)

• Travel-Size Glow Getter Herbal Body Moisturizer with Shimmer ($7.50)

INNBeauty Project Mineral Sun Glow SPF ($36)

This lightweight mineral broad spectrum SPF 43 PA+++ gives skin a gorgeous sheer glow while providing broad spectrum protection against UVA, UVB, and blue light. The hydrating, antioxidant-rich formula is hypoallergenic, safe for sensitive skin and acne-prone skin, 100% vegan, and cruelty-free. It also works to increase skin’s hydration for 24 hours and maintains a weightless texture. Available in two stunning shades: Fair-Medium and Medium-Deep.

Laura Geller Baked Body Frosting with Body Puff ($21.60)

This moisturizing, silky smooth powder adds the warmth of bronze or pearly luminosity to your body.  Thanks to the buildable coverage and wet-or-dry application, it can smooth on a subtle hint of luminosity or build up in layers to a satin-sleek radiance. When applied wet, it gives skin a diamond-like sheen.

Nudestix Nudies Bronze ($37)

Featuring a natural, lightweight formula, these multipurpose cream bronzer sticks are the perfect solution for achieving healthy, glowing skin. They can also be used as a contour cream to create a more dramatic and defined look, and on eyelids and lips for natural warmth. The sticks are dual-ended with a soft color balm on one side and a detachable blending brush on the other for easy makeup application. Available in five gorgeous shades featuring golden brown undertones that create the perfect all-over summer glow for any skin tone. Pictured in Sunkissed.

ONYX Professional Hydrating Shimmer Mist ($10)

Achieve instantly glowing and nourished skin with this shimmer mist that contains squalane and apricot kernel oil. Made with natural ingredients, vegan, cruelty-free, paraben, phthalate and alcohol-free.Available in four scents: Sandalwood Vanilla, Pomegranate Fig, Coconut Bliss, and Rose Petals.

PHLUR Beach Skin Shimmering Body Oil ($45)

This silky, lightweight body oil with a sheer wash of golden shimmer is infused with skin-mimicking lipids and floral oils to help support a healthy-looking skin barrier. It’s scented with the fresh solar scent of Beach Skin, evoking salty air, fresh coconut milk and bright bergamot. Designed to layer seamlessly with Beach Skin Body Mist or your favorite fragrance for a soft, sunlit finish.

Salt By Hendrix Body Glow Golden Hour ($49)

This body oil offers your skin hydration and an abundance of vitamins and minerals whilst leaving it bronzed, glowing, and radiant. High in vitamin E and natural fatty acids, argan oil helps give the skin a natural boost, is non-greasy, and easily absorbed. Made from organic and natural ingredients. Vegan and cruelty-free.

Sol de Janeiro Glowmotions Glow Body Oil ($36)

This luminizing, hydrating, soft-shimmer glow oil for the body and face features a buildable, visibly blurring tint that gives a healthy-looking, visibly gorgeous glow for all skin tones. Ingredients include cupuacu butter, acai oil, and coconut oil to moisturize skin and restore elasticity. Available in five gorgeous shades, including Copacabana Bronze (pictured).

Suzanne Organics Shimmering Bronzer ($39.99)

Enhance the color and luminosity of every skin tone with this anti-aging treatment that is also a bronzer. Enriched with essential fatty acids and antioxidants, it moisturizes and nourishes skin from head to toe. It leaves a transparent layer of shimmering bronze color on skin, which intensifies with additional layers. The bronze color also camouflages brown spots, while a patented delivery of lactic acid and argining helps even out the applearance of skin tone when used regularly.

Tower 28 Bronzino Illuminating Cream Bronzer ($20)

Inspired by that moment when the sun sets over the ocean, Bronzino is a blendable, buildable illuminating cream bronzer for that effortless, summer glow from within. The silicone-free formula is made with mineral pigment and skin-loving ingredients like moisturizing mango butter and calming green tea extract to help soothe and condition skin. Tap on wherever the sun naturally shines on your face and buff, buff, blend to add warmth and dimension. It can also be used on eyes and lips for an easy wash of color. Available in two buildable shades with multi-dimensional sheen: West Coast (pictured) and Best Coast.

Well People Bio Bronzing Priming Serum ($26)

This lightweight facial serum hydrates and primes skin for makeup while imparting a subtle, sun-kissed glow. The weightless formula has a non-greasy feel and is enriched with plant-based ingredients like hydrating aloe juice, quinoa-derived peptides, and a silicone alternative. Ideal for a wide range of skin tones, the buildable formula can be worn alone for an all-over glow, under makeup as a face primer, or mixed with your moisturizer or foundation for a soft, bronzy look. Dermatologist-developed, vegan, and cruelty-free.

Whish Coconut Milk + Verbena Self Tanner ($34)

This self-tanning cream helps you achieve a luminescent, natural-looking glow without the risk of sun damage. Skin is intensely hydrated with organic shea butter, mango butter, and organic aloe, while kigelia African fruit, and extracts such as seaweed and coffee arabica help firm skin. Apply all over your body—with just a few applications, you’ll be tan in no time!

[Images courtesy of brands]

Kamala Kirk is a University of Southern California graduate and has been an editor/writer for more than a decade. She has written for E! Online, Total Beauty, TravelAge West, Malibu Times Magazine, and many more. She resides in Los Angeles and is a proud pug mom. Follow her on Instagram: @kamalakirk