Did Physicians Formula Secretly Release a Fragrance-Free Butter Bronzer?

The Physicians Formula Butter Bronzer is a drugstore staple– and one of my personal favorites– for good reason. First, their signature butter blend of Murumuru Butter, Cupuaçu Butter, and Tacuma Butter creates a super creamy and soft texture that’s somewhere between cream and powder. It blends onto the skin seamlessly and creates a smooth appearance, while actually conditioning and moisturizing with essential fatty acids and pro-vitamins.

The one polarizing aspect about it though, (besides customers demanding more shades be added) has been the fragrance. Butter Bronzers have a tropical, piña colada type scent that is pretty dang strong. Especially in a freshly-opened compact, many people describe it as overpowering, and I don’t necessarily disagree. While I personally like the scent, too much of a good thing can quickly turn bad.

While the Butter Bronzers are labeled as hypoallergenic, fragrance in makeup and skin care are common irritants, and many customers have pleaded for fragrance-free Butter Bronzers.

The brand’s most recent collection seemingly fills this request. While testing their new Breakfast Club makeup collection, I noticed that the Saturday Detention Face Palettes contained the butter blend… but with no fragrance. I was absolutely shocked and elated, as the quality and performance seemed to match up with the original formula pretty well.

The Saturday Detention Face Palettes come in two versions. Volume 1 is most suitable for light to medium skin tones, and Volume 2 will work best for medium to tan. Deep skin tones may be able to use the highlighters and blushes in Volume 2 but most likely not the bronzers.

The four ingredient differences (aside from fragrance) above are negligible, though, because the formula varies slightly between original Butter Bronzer shades and three of the ingredients highlighted are actually found in select shades. So I’m confident in saying these are absolutely fragrance free Butter Bronzers at last!

In Volume 1 (swatched above), The Athlete is a matte medium beige with a neutral undertone. Class of ’84 is a matte warm bronze.

In Volume 2 (swatched above), The Athlete is a slightly warm mocha shade, while Class of ’84 is a satin warm bronze with fine golden shimmer.

What about the blushes and highlighters?

Comparing the original Murumuru Butter Blushes and the Saturday Detention Palette blushes, there are a similar handful of ingredient differences to the bronzers— definitely a close match. The palette highlighters, however, are absolutely not Butter Highlighters. In fact, they are the only shades in the palettes that do not contain the butter blend. They are noticeably stiffer and have more of a shimmer focus versus pigment focus.

Of course, the gag is that these are part of a limited edition collection. So if you feel the shades suit you, and you’ve been on team no-fragrance, you’ll want to pick these up ASAP! They’re available at Target for $18.49. I hope what this means is that the brand is looking to release official fragrance-free Butter Bronzers as part of their permanent collection soon, but we’ll see.

Watch me try the rest of the Physicians Formula Breakfast Club Collection:

Have you been wanting a fragrance-free Butter Bronzer version? Will you try these out?