I also hate orange bronzers and unfortunately so many of them which I have tried out or bought ARE that hideous shade of carrot. I have actually found that Meow Cosmetics Sun Splashers are very good in this type of product. If you're not familiar with Meow, it's a mineral makeup company that has a tonne of different shades in absolutely everything. They aren't at all a typical bronzer and remind me in texture and finish of Smashbox Halo. They also come in many different colors. I got a full-sized one a while back after trying a sample last year. It's just slightly darker than my Halo in Medium and which has none of that hideous orange sparkle or shimmer to it *bleh* Really love it. It also goes a lot further than Halo as well - which I know technically is NOT a bronzer but I have used it that way from the beginning with great success. The Meow product appears to be completely matte to me, yet doesn't have that heavy matte look which a lot of bronzers have, and is very much buildable with a completely soft, natural finish. No orange tone to this one at all. Really love it. The shade I got is Medium Abyssinian.
A product which really shocked me with it's quality is Sephora's Bronzer Powder in the Shade Bahamas - S60. It's a solid in a mirrored compact, so not loose minerals, but still very good. It's just slightly darker than the Meow product above with a very good, soft finish which also looks natural and completely matte. A little gives a nice tone to the skin and it is definitely buildable without looking over-the-top. No orange in this one at all. I picked it up in one of their bargain bins for $6. A major deal for this particular product. I didn't think ANY of Sephora's store-brand products would be any good, and some really are not, but this one definitely is. I use it quite a bit.
A product I was curious about after seeing some reviews online was Hard Candy's Fox In a Box. They are blush/bronzer duos and quads for about $7 or $8, much like Benefit's boxed blushes and bronzers, and can be found in Walmart here. For the price and comparable quality, I would rather pay for this one. Benefit in Canada is stupidly expensive and after checking out their ingredients - which are in no way better than this cheaper product - and my abysmal disappointment with their Erase Paste, Posie Tint and Girl Meets Pearl, I refuse to buy their stuff. I picked up a duo of this HC product in Truth Or Dare, which is half bronzer in a very light tone and half blush in a very light pink tone. Very light. It comes in a really cute little pink & black box with a tattoo-type design on it. The bronzer has a slight shimmer nothing over-the-top with a soft finish and, once again, is NOT orange on the skin. For me it's light enough to use as a highlighter on the cheekbones, but for somebody with a fair skin tone, it would make a decent semi-shimmer bronzer. I'm a tad disappointed with the blush as it's SUPER light although a nice color, so I just use that to tone down my blush when I've put too much on, or mix them together to get a unique blush color. As this is the only blush I have in this light pink tone, I will keep it. I nearly returned this one before playing around with it.
My last favorite powder bronzer in a compact which is stupidly affordable, high quality in my books, and which I find to look very close in tone and finish to NARS Laguna is the ELF Studio Contouring Blush & Bronzing Powder in Blushed/Bronzed. I swatched this one side by side with Laguna and they are very, very close in tone and color depth. Nobody would be able to tell the difference when it is on. It comes with a blush as well, which looks to me like a dead-ringer for NARS Deep Throat when I swatched them together. The bronzer in this thing, though, really is very nice. No orange to it whatsoever, and I can't even see any shimmer to it. This product was another shock for me. Much like Sphora's brand, I expected nothing from ELF at all and nearly shoved them off before trying this product. I paid a whopping $3 for it at Target and absolutely love it. This is nothing like the ELF bronzing powders which come in quads. Those I don't like much because they have a bit too much shimmer to them, are far too powdery and don't have as nice of a fnish to them as the ELF bronzer above.
And then a cream bronzing stick - not exactly a mineral product either sorry, but I have found this one to be great as well. I find it to be very similar to NARS Multiple sticks, quite honestly, for a fraction of the price. It's somewhat darker than Laguna, though. The name is NYX Tango With Bronzing Stick in Cha Cha With Sun God. Lord some of these names are ridiculously stupid....anyways....it's a really chubby twist-up stick with castor oil and things like that in it, so it's not bad for the skin, surprisingly. It goes a long way and blends out really well with a nice, natural finish. I think it comes in 3 or 4 shades, this not being one of the lightest ones. The funny thing is, when I opened it, I thought OH GOD another super shimmery, tacky bronzer. I bought it from Cherry Culture when they were having a sale and this was the only color they had left. I obviously didn't get to try before I bought or even see it, so I almost gave it away without trying it as I expected a nightmare of orange sparkles. But I was pleasantly surprised when I swatched it and it blended out beautifully with my flat synthetic foundation brush. I really love it. Absolutely NOT orange, minimal shimmer, stays put really well, doesn't sink into my pores at all. Although some people claim that only powders work on oily skin and that creams wear off, I haven't found that to be the case at all. I have oily skin and it still is great for me. I use it with mineral foundation and liquid foundation with no problems at all. I cannot use nor do I like products like Bobby Brown Shimmer Bricks at all, of which I have two, one being a bronzer-type. Hate then because they make my pores look cavernous and the finish just looks cheesey to me. But not this product. Can't remember exactly how much it was, but it was definitely cheap. Maybe $3 or $4? Something like that. You get a lot of product for the money with this one, so I doubt very much I'll run out of it in the next couple of years.
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