I've always been suspicious of bronzer - largely because it was often the only thing make-up artists could think to put on my skin when they didn't have any face powder dark enough. Then they'd have the cheek to try to flog me the stuff, despite the fact that instead of giving me an airbrushed complexion, it made me look like I was a glitterball with a bad case of jaundice.

As a result, I avoided bronzer for years and got increasingly miffed when white friends would joke about how I didn't really need it. "I wouldn't mind a bit of the sunkissed look, too," I'd think. And now I can, and do - and so can you.

"The most important thing when you choose a bronzer is to make sure you understand the difference between the two types on the market," says Frédéric Letailleur, head face designer for Giorgio Armani cosmetics, whose Fluid Sheer (no 8) was the bronzer that brought me in from the cold. "There's the all-over face bronzer, which is very brown and usually a liquid, and the terracotta sort, a rusty-orange powder that's more like a blusher."

The mistake most people make is using the terracotta type all over their face, hence the orange look, says Letailleur. If you have light to medium dark skin (and it's not too dry), you can use powders, but if you are darker, then the right liquid or cream bronzer will give your skin a beautiful, dewy effect.

With a liquid or a cream bronzer, use a foundation brush, going horizontally from the middle of your face outward (avoiding the T-zone and any other oily areas, because it will make them appear worse), but never going forwards and backwards, otherwise you'll be removing the shine. If you're using powder, apply with a large brush from the top of your face to the bottom, on your forehead, temples, cheeks and nose - "These are the more prominent areas of your face and you're emulating where the sun's rays catch it," says Letailleur.

Who says we can't all be sunkissed?