What They Say: "Laura Mercier has added two more best seller's to her famous Beauty Library...Bronzing Books in Bronzed and Gilded. The Bronzed Book includes 2 Pressed Powders, 3 Illuminating Sticks (in pressed form), 2 Stickglosses and 2 Eye Colours."

Melissa's DeLush Downlow: My initial impression of these books is just how well the colors are coordinated. You do get a lot of options with these palettes due to the selection inside. First of all, I used the book in Gilded, as that was more suited to my skin tone.

The Pressed Powders (a light and a darker bronzer in each) are pretty easy to apply without looking heavy, and don't contain the heavy shimmer in some bronzers. My only complaint about them was that even when using a pretty high-quality brush, the powder seemed to leave a lot of residue all over that part of the palette afterward which I had to make sure to blow off.

The pressed Illuminating Sticks were something I've never tried but was really impressed with. The texture is hard to describe...not glossy like a lip gloss or even the consistency of a lipstick...more like that of a gel eyeliner. And laid on top of the bronzer, this gave a lovely glow. I used the more pink shade on my cheeks, and laid the more gold shade on top of the eye shadow and it gave some highlight to the center of my lid and browbones.

I wasn't overly-impressed with the Stickglosses; I felt they could have stayed on longer. But the color choices were nice, and if I had laid them on thicker with a brush over liner they may have fared better.

Finally, the Eye Shadow is something I really liked. Great combo of colors and smooth application with nice staying power. Very wearable.

Overall, I think if you're already a fan of Laura Mercier products and are looking for some new summer colors, one of these two palettes may give you the basics for your look. However, as a new client I wouldn't run out to buy one without at least testing some of the product in a store first.

Retail Price: $45 (lauramercier.com or sephora.com - UK and other international readers, help us out by letting us know in the comments if you know where other readers can purchase this internationally)

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