My grandma told me to never reveal my beauty secrets... but I figured... what the heck! You know for a while I had lots of my friends convinced that my sweat sparkles? Yes yes, the lovely shimmer is what happens when I sweat. Now I will reveal what it really is, sorry grandma, this is just too good not to share!

Let's talk summer skin...
You're showing a lot of it during the balmy summer days so making sure it's looking wonderful is pretty important. Enter: Organic Bronzing Oil.

I've been using bronzing oils in the summers for a long time after I accidentally discovered a bottle in a tiny local pharmacy. Bronzing oil is just what it sounds like, it's an oil to which tiny golden sparkles are added. When you apply it to your skin it gives a beautiful overall shimmer. The sparkle particles are really tiny so it doesn't look like you've spilled glitter all over yourself, it just gives your skin a light sparkle when the sun hits it.

As I "grew-up" I've modified my choice of bronzing oils and now I use only the organic versions made with lovely, good for your skin, oils. My current choice is Huile Prodigieuse OR by NUXE. ($34.96 here worldwide.)

NUXE, meaning Nature plus Luxury, is a French bio-cosmetics company started in 1989 by an entrepreneur Aliza Jabes with the help of her research pharmacist father. It's made with oils of: borage, St Johns Wort, sweet almond, camellia, hazelnut, and macadamia and Vitamin E. These lightly moisturize the skin and also have a very pretty scent. Now perhaps it's misleading to call this a "bronzing" oil because it does not actually change your skin color, but simply make it more glowing. You know, it gives you that je ne sais quoi...

What I love is that it's so light, you can use this on your face AND your hair for the ultimate sun kissed just returning from a day on my yacht look!

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More all natural choices

Nuxe falls close to the middle of this line-up in terms of price. The difference lies in the different mixes of oils and of course "brand mythology".

1 - Monoi de Tahiti Precious Dry Oil from Yves Rocher another French cosmetics brand, is also a delicious choice made with Monoi de Tahiti oil. I've always been a huge (HUGE!) fan of their regular Monoi de Tahiti Oil so I have a feeling this shimmery addition is going to be a huge hit for the brand as well. (A steal at $20 for 100ml bottle, and seems to be perpetually on sale for $12 on the Yves Rocher world sites. )

2 - Acorelle Organic Glittering Dry Oil from Acorelle again a French bio cosmetics brand. Made with jojoba, and vitamine E oils, scented with calendula extract and ylang ylang oil.(13.90 Euro. Worldwide here. The delivery cost however to the USA is a hefty 19 Euro so this will only be worth it if you're buying a few more hard to get items.)

3 - Organic Bronzing Shimmer Oil from LucyB Cosmetics, a company inspired by bush flowers of Australia, is made with organic coconut, jojoba and sunflower oils. It's scented with LucyB's signature Australian Bush Flower Essences.
($28 for a 50ml bottle. Rest of the world here.)

4 - Gold Shimmer Oil from Omorovicza, a Hungarian Company with roots going back 2000 years when the Omorovicza family set up a spa after the healing properties of Hungarian thermal waters were discovered. Coconut, rice germ, apricot seed and calendula oils were scented with ylang-ylang to create this.
(A splurge at $80 for a 100ml bottle in the US here. Rest of the world here.)

Or make your own organic bronzing oil!
Grab yourself a bottle of organic sunflower oil and some gold and bronze mica powders. Mix the gold and bronze powders to achieve the color of your choice and measure about 1 tsp of mica powder for 1 oz of oil. Add some essential oils to scent it. The below supplies will last you for more then one portion.

• Sunflower oil ($6.50 for 16 oz)
• Gold and bronze mica powders ($12.60)
• A little glass bottle for your creation

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The final step in pulling off this beauty secret is to know exactly what to say when you receive numerous complements and inquiries about why your skin is shimmering. I suggest something like this: "What? Me? Sparkling? Where?" Look really surprised and pretend to inspect your skin carefully... "Oh hmm... I don't know, I am a bit sweaty, I guess that's what it is...I'm so embarrassed..." Look appropriately embarrassed because someone noticed you shwitzing. Practice this little performance in front of the mirror a few times to perfect it.

• • • WHAT ABOUT YOU? • • •