Today marks the beginning of summer and the warm, summery makeup collections are in full swing (and the fall sneak peeks are already cropping up… good grief). Elizabeth Arden has released their Tropical Escape collection, so let’s dive right in!

The first item in any summer makeup collection that intrigues me the most is always the bronzer! The FourEver Bronze Bronzing Powder is a combination bronzer, highlighter and blush in one. I have the shade Medium, but there is one other compacy shade that is deeper. I’m glad there’s a deeper shade because this Medium one is very, very pale.

It’s an easy compact to take and go with you if you need something speedy, but you may find that the pigmentation on the blush is a little bit sheer. I liked the overall effect on my face (pictured below), but in general, I do prefer a more pigmented blush. The highlighter is quite pretty, although subtle. When using the bronzer, I preferred the look of all four shades mixed together since that added a bit of bronze, a bit of luminosity and a very faint hint of pink.

The most fun product in this holiday collection was definitely the Sheer Kiss Lip Oils. They come in six different colours, but I have what I’d consider the more traditional summer colours: a juicy red and a peachy coral.

What makes the Sheer Kiss Lip Oils so fun is they’re a squeezy tube surrounded by an acrylic disc! How freaking cool is this? When you press the center of the product, the lip oil comes out the top. I find myself mushing the center of the product for fun when it’s just sitting there on my desk – THAT’S how fun it is!

Although these are billed as a lip oil, they actually have a lot of colour to them. I wouldn’t call them quite a lip gloss either though. More like a sheer but thick lipstick with oil thrown in. Weird mix, right? Overall, the formula is a tad on the streaky side if you apply too much, so definitely don’t goop it on.

Coral Caress is your traditional summery coral-peach shade.

As to be expect, the Rejuvenating Red has that “red popsicle” look on the lips. Very juicy!

I saved my favourite for last! The Dare to Bare Body Bronzing Oil took me by complete surprise – I really had not anticipated loving this at all. It’s not labelled as such, but this is essentially a dry oil packed with glitter.

Don’t worry about it looking incredibly deep in the bottle – once you get it on your skin and blended out, it leaves behind a very faint tint of colour and a little bit of a glittery glow. It’s not so much that people would be overly conscious of the fact that you’re wearing glitter, it’s more of an overall healthy sunkissed glow.

What took me by surprise about the oil was just how good it felt on my skin. I could take or leave the scent (it’s not particularly heavily scented – but it does smell like just regular “oil”), but the way it sank into my skin and actually made the texture feel silky smooth and hydrated was really, REALLY lovely!

Let me know what summer collections you’ve been looking into! And I’m especially curious about summer glittery body oils – do you wear them?

The products featured in this post were sent to me for consideration.