Product Review: Lorac Tantalizer Body Bronzing Makeup

This review is going to be fawning over Tantalizer like 13 year old girls fawn over Justin Bieber, so bear with me please. I've been using Tantalizer for years now and I have my best friend to thank for introducing me to it. Though I loved the idea of a body bronzer (more tan AND coverage of flaws, sign me up) I had negative initial experiences with products like Nars Body Glow and the Scott Barnes one that he apparently uses on J-Lo (in general I tend to obsessively try to look like that woman, so it's easy to sell me something if I believe I will achieve her look). Basically all the body bronzers I had tried before tantalizer were basically body lotion with color, and wound up transfering to all my clothes, leading my perfect applications to look streaky and my clothes to look muddy.

One particular day, my best friend had insisted on going out and I tried to back out due to not being tan enough (I had been testing a gradual self tan product). Mind you in my books, it really is a valid excuse not to leave the house if I'm looking too pale, such is the extent of my tanorexia. She didn't let me off that easy though, she gave me some of her tantalizer and I lamented that those products always sweat off. There it was, though I was skeptical at first, I perused the ingredients list and saw that the top few ingredients were of the blend and evaporate rather than the emollient type, so I decided to try. Let me tell you, after an entire night of dancing and sweating, my tan was still perfect. This stuff is nearly waterproof, although stepping in the shower, yes, does remove it. The texture is super thin, silky and blendable, and within a few minutes of application it's dry and you're ready to be dressed. There is a strong scent of vanilla (and it does slightly sting the skin on my legs if I've just shaved, but that's worth it) which is generally a well liked scent, but there are a lot of girls that aren't fans so by all means consider that prior to purchasing.


It isn't particularly moisturizing, which is good, because if it was it would definitely rub off. The color is more akin to copper than bronze, which I like because I find that I use less of it than if it were truly Tahitian looking - I still get the darker effect but the expensive tube ($30+) lasts me longer than it would if I were applying it heavily. For haters of shimmer, stay far away, this stuff is almost metallic looking. If you've ever tried the baked tantalizer facce bronzer from Lorac, it's the exact same color and sheen. I am a big fan of shine, so I'm automatically predisposed to loving this stuff. Lastly I want to mention that the coverage of small flaws on the body is a lot heavier with this stuff than with most body bronzers, there's a lot of pigment. I have lot's of KP on my arms, scars and stretch marks on my legs and more cellulite than my mother and this stuff manages to make all that stuff nearly invisible. Which in my books makes it the body bronzer of the Gods.

Ingredients:

1. Water: Everyone knows what H2O is
2. Butylene Glycol: Used as a solvent and to decrease viscosity (thickness) of finished product. This is where the silky blendability comes from.
3. Isohexadecane: Used partially as a solvent and as a dry finish emollient. Similar to the evaporative silicones, it lubricates the skin, increases blendability of product and then finishes dry and powdery.
4. Glycerin: The classic humectant, always sinks right into skin and makes it silky.
5. Tribehenin PEG-20 Esters: Emollient and emulsifier
6. Tricaprylin: Fatty substance similar in composition to coconut oil, used as an emollient and emulsifier
7. Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride: The most commonly used emollien/emulsifier
8. Isopropyl Isostearate: An emollient and humectant.
9. Magnesium Aluminum Silicate: Helps enhance slip and opacity of final product
10. Xanthan Gum: Thickening ingredient
11. Boron Nitride: Commonly used in makeup to make it blend and adhere to skin better, has the great property of being a somewhat lubricating powder and temporarily masking textural issues. Would have loved to see it in a higher concentration.
12. Octyldodecanol: Emulsifier and opacifying agent
13. Sodium PCA: One of those NMF style moisturizing ingredients.
14. Aloe Barbadensis leaf extract: One of the most recognizeable ingredient lists sprucer-upper ingredients. In high concentrations it's humectant and soothing, but pointless in this amount.
15. Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) flower extract: A great anti-irritant, were it present in higher amounts.
16. Symphytum Officinale leaf extract: Also known as Comfrey root extract, another anti-inflammatory that would be even better in higher concentrations
17. Propylene Glycol: Solvent and slip enhancer.
18. Vanillin: For that warm vanilla smell!
19. Tetrasodium EDTA: Preservative.
20. Isobutylparaben: Yay, a paraben preservative.
21. Butylparaben: More goodness.
22. Methylparaben: Now Carol Shaw is just teasing me.
23. Propylparaben: Bless you cosmetic chemists.
24. Phenoxyethanol: See how nice it is to use minimal amounts of formaldehyde releasing preservatives when you have enough parabens.
25. Fragrance: Probably there to enhance the vanilla, but this is such a small amount that I'm still happy.
26. May Contain: Titanium Dioxide (CI77891), Mica, Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492)- This I always find annoying, the may contain lists. They can get away with doing this in makeup products, but I wish I could tell approx. how much is present. Then I would be able to guesstimate the approximate coverage and shimmer level just by reading the ingredients without having to test the product. Just for your reference, this product is extremely shimmery and extremely high coverage.