Oooh it’s quite pricey, but what an absolute treat this is: the Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette from Charlotte Tilbury. I have actually used it for a few years now** but recently my dependence on it has become quite alarming. This morning I bronzed-and-highlighted myself just to nip to Sainsbury’s!

There’s just something very glitzy and satisfying about its effects. It’s officially a contouring duo, but the bronzer is slightly too warm for a contour powder and looks better used in a more diffused way. At any rate, the overall result is far more beautiful and flattering than a stripe-it-on-and-fake-weird-cheekbones contouring product; applied with fluffy brushes and a light touch, it gives the most gently glamorous all-over glow.

Don’t get me wrong, I still apply the powders in all the standard contouring places – bronzer (or “sculpt” powder) vaguely beneath the cheekbones and backwards towards my ears, to the sides of the temples, beneath the jawline, highlight on the parts that the disco lights would naturally hit – but I don’t do it strictly. Or precisely. (God forbid.) I fluff it on and then sort of blend it together (Real Techniques B03) and in return the Filmstar Bronze & Glow gives me two levels of glam, depending on how much I build up the colour:

With a light dusting of Bronze & Glow, I’m suddenly a bit of a (I like to think) sultry siren who’s just returned from a couple of weeks in Mustique. I look healthy, beachy, better. With a heavier helping of the Filmstar palette I get the kind of look that would happily sit on the front cover of Vogue magazine. Sculpted, polished, sexy. It’s Gisele in the Missoni ads (remember those?), it’s Rosie H-W on a night out, paparazzi flash-bulbs popping, it’s Beyonce on stage with her sequins shimmering and her skin glistening.

It’s just very impressive. The bronze is warm enough to perk up the skin and add some life to a wintery, dull complexion but it’s also excellent at creating some degree of shadow. Though – as I mentioned – not the full, optical illusion sort of contour, which will be music to a lot of people’s ears. The highlighter is a champagne shade that has golden undertones, so it works perfectly with the bronzer and looks warm and convincing rather than frosty and obvious.

Anyway, Filmstar Bronze and Glow is definitely one for the Hall of Fame, which only exists in my head, but really needs to be committed to (virtual) paper. There are many, many imitations out there but I haven’t tried one with quite the same degree of brilliance. Bronze & Glow has a certain finesse; the powders feel fine and silky, they blend easily, there’s a foolproof element to them that makes the price tag totally justifiable.

It’s the sort of product that you’ll always want to use if you’re getting ready for a night out – a staple “special” – and it’s almost inconceivable that you’d go on holiday and leave it at home. I mean it’s virtually made for holiday skin.

Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze & Glow comes in two shade variants – light/medium and medium/dark. Both are available on the Charlotte Tilbury website here* (there are helpful pictures showing the products on different skin tones) and Feelunique here*, the palette costs £49.

One for the Christmas list, perhaps – and it definitely looks suitably festive, with the golden packaging and Hollywood styling. If you’re into creating makeup with highly polished skin and a hi-shine finish then this one is a must – though see also the Kevyn Aucoin Celestial Bronzing Veil for a similar effect.

**product in the photo is a new one, for obvious reasons. Looks a lot better than my current one, which I stood on and is also covered in jam.