Bronzer battle!

Yves Rocher, bronzing powder duo in light complexion vs Too Faced, Milk Chocolate Soleil


 

First up: Milk Chocolate Soleil! 

I got a deluxe sample size (2,5 grams) of Milk Chocolate Soleil with an order Jon placed for me on the Too Faced website (thanks again Jon!). 
I was actually as excited about the bronzer as I was about my actual order (Love Lights prismatic highlighter in Blinded by the Light, which you can read about here), because I had wanted to try this for a while. 
I like the bronzer in my Sweet Peach Glow palette, but I feel like it's very much a warm weather kinda thing (for me personally). 
So I wanted a bronzer I would be getting more use out of all year 'round and frankly, I wanted something matte. 
Much as I love glow, I don't want a face full of it all the time. 

Too Faced, Milk Chocolate Soleil: the stats 
- 1 colour - 10 grams 
- hard plastic packaging 
- mirror inside 
- €30,50 on sephora.fr (shipping not included) 
- matte finish 

Milk Chocolate Soleil is actually an A+ bronzer. It is very light, which is why it's marketed to fair and very fair skinned folks. 
It really does smell like chocolate, there's not enough talc in it for it to clog up my pores and cause me problems, it's long lasting and very buildable. 

I generally apply it with my Luxie blush brush, because I feel I would be far too heavy handed with one of my much denser essence powder brushes, which means I have to build it up a little, which I'm fine with. 
I like to wear it together with my favourite blush: the Too Faced Love Flush blush in Baby Love and those two colours go together beautifully. 
Because it matches my skin tone so well, I feel like I could combine it with any and all blushes, provided they're not too shimmery, which is ace. 
Especially most of the blushes I own aren't very shimmery at all. 

Milk Chocolate Soleil is a no fuss kind of bronzer. Just apply a primer (I use Too Faced Hangover primer) and it's fine. 
I never wear foundation and that's not an issue. 
You can start light and build it up using a soft brush, or go for instantly more colour with a dense(r) brush. Up to you. 
With or without setting spray, it's long lasting and hassle free.

 

I would not be happy to spend the price of a full size, but I would splurge on it because it's a great product. 
Now, of course, Too Faced is pretty expensive, so I was not averse to trying a possible dupe... 

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Enter the dupe contender!

 

Yves Rocher, bronzing powder in duo in light complexion: the stats 
- 2 colours that can be mixed together, so three in total 
- 15 grams 
- plastic packaging 
- no mirror 
- regular price is €25,90 but Yves Rocher very often has deals either in their store or on their site, so you can get it for much cheaper. I paid €14,95 for it in store. 
- matte finish 

I first came across the new Yves Rocher bronzers (they reformulated theirs to take out the parabens, huzzah) in the Ghent store, where I swatched the lightest shade (which here in Belgium and France is called hâle léger, which would translate to light complexion.)  

I feel that one individual colours and the colours mixed together are very light. The lightest in any case, is too light on my skin. I do feel that the lightest is a lot like Benefit's Hoola light bronzer, which was also pretty much invisible on my skin. 
Individually they could be nice as nude eye shadows, and it would be travel friendly to just pack this and do an eye look with the separate colours and then swirl them together as a bronzer. Or something like that. 

That said, this does not at all wear as well or as easy as you would want. I have had the same issue with a gorgeous Yves Rocher blush (which I ended giving to my friend Tiny, who absolutely adores it): but these products are made to go over foundation. 
Which I feel is just bad form on the company's part anyway, because surely, sometimes you just want to wear little make-up, and not everyone wears foundation to begin with. 
Putting it over a primer only goes so far, and doesn't give it the staying power you would want from it. 

Its also very warm toned, so if you are cool toned, this will probably turn pretty muddy/orange on your skin (I am neutral toned so for me it's not an issue, but I can imagine that it is for a lot of people). 
I also feel it is a little blotchy and it doesn't blend as nicely as it should. This may be because I don't wear foundation, but I'm putting it out there regardless.  
To be honest, if you don't wear foundation (often), I wouldn't actually recommend buying this. It's definitely not the worst, but for something that is sold, full price, at nearly €30, you would expect better.

 

You can make this work, but I feel that there are better alternatives out there, even within the discounted price range. 

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Left to right: Hâle Léger lightest shade, darkest shade, both swatched together and Milk Chocolate Soleil 

So how do they actually compare to each other? 

The darkest colour of Hâle Léger is similar to Milk Chocolate Soleil. But the difference is in the undertone also, not just in the small shades themselves. 
Milk Chocolate Soleil is more of a neutral tone bronzer, leaning towards cool tones. Whilst the Yves Rocher one is definitely warm toned. 

Durability wise, the Too Faced one will stay on your face all day, wheras the Yves Rocher one was pretty much gone by the time I got home after being out an afternoon (admittedly because I didn't wear it over foundation). 
You need to wear the Yves Rocher one over a foundation, whilst you can absolutely wear the Too Faced one over just a primer. 
I tested both with the Too Faced Hangover primer, applied both with the exact same brush (my Luxie beauty one) and combined them with the exact same blush and highlighter. 
Aside from that I have also tested Milk Chocolate Soleil over BE photo perfecting primer and M.A.C prep+prime Natural Radiance in Radiant Pink. 
With the same results, so it's definitely not a matter of it only working well over just a Too Faced primer. 
I have tried the Yves Rocher one over Benefit's Porefessional, and got the same lackluster result, so yeah. 

On the up side, both bronzers are paraben free. 
The Too Faced one is vegan and in theory cruely free (Too Faced is, but it's mother company Estée Lauder isn't). 
The Yves Rocher one is neither cruelty free (they sell in mainland China, but don't test on animals outside that, so same story as Estée Lauder) nor vegan.

My conclusion: 
Between these two, Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil is the clear winner. 
Yes, it is more expensive, but it actually works for me. 
I'm sure that there are other drugstore and high(er) end variant bronzers out there that do give it a run for it's money, but it's definitely not the one I compared it to in this post.