Estée Lauder: Bronze Goddess Illuminating Powder Gelée Review

Estée Lauder have killed it with their Spring 2015 Collection, which included the famous "Courrèges" highlighter, that almost everyone raved about! In their Summer 2015 Collection, they have yet another highlighter coming out! This one in fact looks similar to the famous Heat Wave! I sadly don't own Heat Wave (heartbreaking!), but I'm on a mission to get something similar!

Estée Lauder Summer 2015 Collection

So, I'm one of those lucky people that were able to snatch the Bronze Goddess Illuminating Powder Gelée when Sephora had a glitch online! But don't worry, it hasn't officially launched yet! I believe it will be available starting April, so lookout for this, because it's LIMITED EDITION! So, lets start off with the packaging. The compact is very similar to the Bronze Goddess Bronzing powder. It comes in a brown tortoiseshell shell pattern. It's a nice small compact that you can easily travel with. This product comes with 8g of product and it will retail for $44CAD , so something that's not really cheap.

The Compact

When I first received this product

The inside is just like Heat Wave, it comes in a wave rippled pattern. The color in the compact looks like a light bronze peachy color. When swatched, it appears more as a light bronze rose gold, but you still see the peachy color (it really is a hard color to define), but very natural looking! This color will suit any skin color, because there is both cool and warm undertones. If you have light skin, this will really show up as a bronze highlight on you, but not too overpowering! However, if you have medium to deep skin, it will be more of a neutral color. It will not appear as a bronze highlight since it is light!

When swatched from the pan (no edits)

Swatched on my hand (no edits) I have medium skin

The highlighter is finely milled with a gel base! It applies so smoothly to the skin (like butter!). It leaves a beautiful soft radiant sun kissed glow! The shimmer found in this highlighter is really tiny and fine! So, it's perfect for those of you who don't like a lot of shimmer in your highlight and love that natural glow! This product is pigmented, but very easy to blend (blends like a dream!). I like to use my Bare Minerals fan brush or the small Elf tapered brush to apply this product. 

No edits 

So that being said, this highlight is nothing like Heat Wave (from swatches/videos I have seen online). Heat Wave leaves more of a metallic shine, while the Bronze Goddess has a subtle glow to it, meaning it's more natural. It almost is more of a Beauty Powder, since it's not too overpowering and leaves a glow within! Therefore, if you're used to Heat Wave or even the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfectors, you may be disappointed by this product. It doesn't leave the same finish as those highlighters, but it's gorgeous!

I had this product for almost 2 weeks now. I personally love this highlighter, because it's perfect for a everyday use! Let's say, there's a day you want minimal makeup, this highlighter is perfect and will just give you a natural glow, instead of a intense highlight! I also have nothing like it and most of my highlighters are overpowering. I normally pack on 2 layers of this product, because 1 layer is not enough for me. Again I have medium skin, so since it's more of a neutral highlight for me, I have to build up the highlight to get my desired look. However, this is a highlight I would not wear at night, because it's a bit too subtle for me, so it's a day time use for me. I personally recommend this product, it's not too shimmering and so natural looking! 

This is one layer of the Bronze Goddess, a very subtle glow as you can see!

Another note, just because it's nothing like Heat Wave, doesn't make it a bad product. I have seen on Instagram people complaining about how it's not what they expected. I don't think Estée Lauder is going to bring back Heat Wave (I hope they do though), because they did say it was limited edition. Therefore their newer highlights (even if they look like Heat Wave) will not have the same shade or finish. But, if you're a Makeup Junkie like me, you know you will purchase them regardless (makeup addiction problems for real!). So, what are your thoughts on the Bronze Goddess Illuminating Powder Gelée? Is this on your list?