Givenchy Poudre Croisière Healthy Glow Powder in Extrême Croisière Plus Comparison to Ambre Croisière

Givenchy's new Poudre Croisière Healthy Glow Powder ($50) is a talc-free bronzer that's a baked gel (according to Sephora). Forget all the razzle dazzle about the bronzer being a gel. I think that description has confused some readers. Healthy Glow Powder looks and acts like a powder.

I purchased Ambre Croisière (#3), the only shade that was originally available at Sephora, the exclusive retailer, a couple of weeks ago. Then I saw Extrême Croisière (#4) online at Sephora, and I wanted it too. I had a feeling that Extrême Croisière, described as bronzed light brown and shown at the top of this feature, might be a better shade for me - even though it looked darker, and my skin is fair.

I think Extrême Croisière is slightly better for me, but the differences are minimal - not nearly as dramatic on the skin as the shades look in the compacts, shown immediately above. Ambre Croisière is shown on the left, and Extrême Croisière is shown on the right.

If you missed the swatches of Ambre Croisière, you can find them at this link. I was able to get swatch photos of Extrême Croisière in today's brilliant sunshine and took a few comparison swatch photos too.

I applied Extrême Croisière extremely heavily at the top of my arm, using a sponge-tipped applicator. Then I applied it heavily with a brush, but supplemented the swatch below with a light pass with the same sponge-tipped applicator to even the edges. That swatch photo is shown immediately below.

Givenchy's Poudre Croisière Healthy Glow Powder applies so lightly with a brush (beautiful for buildable color), that it was hard to get a decent brush application photo of Extrême Croisière - and even harder to get comparison photos using a brush. I snapped many, but finally gave up and swatched the two shades on my arm using a sponge-tipped applicator.

I can see the differences in tone on my skin much more clearly than I can see in any of my photos. Here's the best photo. I'm bummed that it was so hard to capture the differences in a picture. Ambre Croisière is shown at the top of my arm, and Extrême Croisière is shown below. Both were applied fairly heavily. You can see that Ambre Croisière is slightly more golden than Extrême Croisière, which is slightly darker in intensity and more "pure brown" in its hue. Are the differences dramatic? No.

I like Extrême Croisière ever-so-slightly more than I like Ambre Croisière. I felt a little obsessed (you think?) making another $50 online purchase, but I'm glad I did. I was able to see the differences, so I put that obsession to bed. I will be using both shades, varying their use by the time of year and the colors of my outfits.

You will find this lovely new Givenchy Poudre Croisière Healthy Glow Powder at Sephora online. Today I did get photos of other new Givenchy products, and I'll start posting them tomorrow. Yes, I bought both new blushes. That's what I do when I can't decide.

Photos by Best Things in Beauty