REVIEW: Wet 'n' Wild Summer 2014 Color Icon Bronzer & Blush Collection

       Hey ladies and gents!  I wanted to get my in-depth review posted of these beautiful limited edition Wet 'n' Wild Color Icon Bronzer/Blushes while they are still available in many locations. These are part of the All Access Beauty collection, and my local area is usually one of the last to get these new limited edition collections in, or so it seems. Needless to say, I was really surprised to see this collection in my Fred Meyer Kroger a couple of weeks back, and I hadn't even known these products existed beforehand.



(L) Dusk Till Dawn, (R) Hold Me Close

 Hold Me Close

       'Hold Me Close' is the lightest  of the three bronzers in this collection, and the one I was most excited to try. I initially thought the bronzer portion would be similar to 'Reserve Your Cabana' in the permanent line of Color Icon Bronzers, but once I compared and swatched them side by side (not pictured), this one is definitely more yellow toned, and slightly darker. There is a faint micro-sparkle that can be seen in the pan and also when swatched, but it applies and blends out to be completely matte. The blush is a warm satiny coral-pink, and applies rather patchy. With the swatches, I had to scrape the surface of this powder and layer it on a few times to get what is pictured.

       Overall, I don't see how this could be classified as a bronzer shade for anyone, and I have the fairest, almost translucent Irish skin imaginable, and it doesn't work for me in that particular function, since it doesn't really show up at all, due to lack of pigmentation. The bronzer is also too dark to be a highlight for my complexion, but I can make this work by swirling my brush over both shades and it makes a nice, very subtle, light peachy blush. However, the dry, stiff texture of this powder doesn't sit very well on my face, so I find I have to use it very sparingly.

 Dusk Till Dawn

       'Dusk Till Dawn' is the one I think I'll be getting the most use out of, simply because the two shades are functional enough to use separately. And honey let me just say, you won't be getting the all too common 'Oompa Loompa' look with this bronzer. This would look beautiful  on light to medium skintones, being that it's completely matte (in pan and when applied) and it has a much better texture than 'Hold Me Close.' The bronzer shade has reddish (and dare I say even mauve) tones in it. The blush in this one is in fact very similar to the other one; I would say the only differences are that the one in 'Dusk Till Dawn' leans slightly more coral and less pink, has better texture/pigmentation, and has just a touch more shimmer. I did not have to scrape the surface at all, or layer multiple times, to get decent swatches for this one.

       I only selected the shades I knew that I would use, and were practical for my skin tone, so I did not pick up the darkest shade in this collection, which is called 'Everything Under the Sun.'

       You get a whopping .46 oz. of product in these limited edition compacts, which is the same amount you get with the permanent Color Icon bronzers. Something else to note is that these limited edition ones do not have an SPF, whereas the permanent ones do.

       FINAL VERDICT? Overall,  the thing that disappointed me the most was the vast difference in texture and quality between these limited edition bronzers and the permanent Color Icon Bronzers. With these, I was hoping for that same silky texture and superb pigmentation that the ones in their permanent line offer. However, the packaging of these was too adorable to pass up, and for the mostly universal price of $3.99, and taking into account that these are still highly functional products, I do recommend them to  those who don't mind more of a drier texture, because the shade selection is quite nice, and I think these can actually work for a variety of skintones.