Body Bling Original

In my never-ending search for the perfect slightly imperfect (but imparting nice color and some water-resistance) bronzer, I bought Body Bling Original by Scott Barnes. I purchased it from skinterra.com for $38 plus $6.95 shipping. I did have a 15% off code, bringing the price of the product from $38 to $32.30.

(On a side note, skinterra.com has super-fast shipping!)

Nice packaging, but to be honest, the mirrored tube just annoyed me because it showed every fingerprint! I wanted to keep buffing it to keep it shiny. Annoying.

When I first saw the bronzer, I had less-than-favorable reaction. It looked extremely metallic with fairly large pieces of sparkly glitter. I briefly wondered if the Twilight vampires use this stuff to make themselves sparkly in the sun.

As you can see, other than there being a lot of sparkle on my legs (click on the pics to enlarge them and see the sparkle), there really wasn't much of a change in color. Which is odd, because during application, the bronzer appears to have a lot of color. But once it's applied - it was just all sparkle. I used my bare hands to apply the product to my legs. The bronzer was easily removed from my palms with soap and water.

I was a little surprised to see how the water beaded on the back of my hand - indicating that there was at least some water-resistance. When I patted my hand dry with a paper towel, there was virtually no rub-off of the product. However, when I rubbed my hand dry with a paper towel, there was visible rub-off.

I tried to capture the sparkly glitter so you could see just how sparkly it is (click on the pic to enlarge it) - but it was difficult to make it all shimmer at once. When Gus & I were riding in the car, he looked over at me and said, "You're really sparkly" - not what I really wanted to hear. It really reminded me of an eye shadow that has large particles of glitter in it.

And as you can see in this picture, in the bright sun, there is no visible bronzer on my hand. It's totally pale. The sparkles don't show in this picture, but trust me, they were there.

To summarize:
PROS

• some water-resistance
• easy to apply
• absorbs/dries fairly quickly

CONS

• no color pay-off
• way too much large-particle glitter
• doesn't show up in bright sun
• high price

REPURCHASE? 
Absolutely not. And I'm returning this one.

I believe that this product is being misrepresented (not intentionally) by a lot of people. They refer to it as a bronzer, but that isn't what the product description says...

"Essentially, it's a tinted body lotion that gives skin golden tan-like glistening highlights that last all day." (copied from the product description on skinterra.com)

I would agree with that description. It's a lightly-tinted shimmer lotion with glistening highlights. Even the product packaging says "Body Bling Original - Moisturizing Shimmering Body Lotion". It's not a bronzer.

The search continues...