I love summer beauty. I mean, sure, I love winter beauty, Christmas party beauty, spring and autumn beauty, too. But summer beauty is unique in its application and aesthetic. It’s a time when we literally lighten up, shedding excess make-up, like heavy foundation that feels cloying in hot weather, and complicated eye looks that steal valuable hours better spent at a friend’s barbecue.
Is there any beauty look more sexy, one that better whispers ‘luxury’, than a pared-back holiday face bearing little but natural freckles, shimmery bronzer, mascara and a blurry red lip? Pedicured nails shining like jellies, callused heels buffed smooth by sand? Limbs gleaming from gold-flecked body oil, hair damp with rich, coconutty leave-in conditioner, scraped back casually into a low knot or tied in loose plaits covered with a folded silk square? Sheer golden-hour perfection.
What are the best summer beauty products?
But whether home or away, I am unfailingly UV- responsible. Sunscreen is necessary year-round, but summer is when I become a terrible bossy boots about daily broad-spectrum SPF use. Sunscreens would be my specialist subject on Mastermind. There is not a single facial SPF that pops through my letterbox that isn’t lavished on my skin in the name of research. Sunburn should come only via this year’s craze for ‘blonzer’, a reddy brown blush-bronzer hybrid that mimics an irresponsible hour in the park. Because whatever TikTok quacks would have you believe (and I can only assume these people are lucky enough not to have known a loved one be diagnosed with melanoma), diligent sunscreen use – whether a light synthetic or one of the new breed of invisible minerals – is vital to health. UV doesn’t care if there are clouds in the sky, a strong, cool breeze in the air, or about our instinctive desire to look less peaky.
Besides, what I minimise with SPF, I can mimic with self-tan. Summer beauty prep is an exercise in faking it till you make it, and it just wouldn’t feel like holidays if I didn’t hit the airport with elbows stained and whiffing faintly of stale digestives. My new favourite is Vita Liberata’s tanning mousse, but brands like St Tropez also always deliver. Not that summer beauty is only about a bronzy glow.
Festival beauty is a whole category of its own and a challenge I relish. Multitaskers like tinted moisturiser that doesn’t sweat off in a moshpit, lip and cheek colour sticks that can be applied without a mirror and forgotten; eco-friendlier glitter that won’t still be stuck in my eyebrows come autumn. Let me feel the summery thrill of hunting down a juicy gloss that is gorgeous but bargainous enough that I won’t cry when it falls from my bumbag at Chappell Roan. This summer’s winner is Makeup My Mario’s new SuperShine, £26, in Midnight Mauve and Rose Crush. Oh, and a mini cleanser that’ll shift the whole lot without water. These are the essentials that form my alternative festival line-up, to be packed, Tetris- like, into a backpack along with wellies and cut-offs.
Summer is also when I engage in my favourite pastime – discovering new and effective beauty problem-solvers. Dehumidifying haircare that stops a ‘Monica Geller in Barbados’ frizz catastrophe (try ColorWOW Dream Coat, £27), mascara that stays on my lashes and doesn’t migrate to my cheeks (tubing mascaras such as Lisa Eldridge’s Kitten Lash, £29, or Estée Lauder’s Doublewear, £29.50, are the answer). Setting sprays that allow my make-up to withstand an afternoon in a sweaty beer garden (bliss), self-tans that don’t streak, patch or flake. Foot files and exfoliants that leave my toes flip-flop and slides-ready and fit for human consumption. Summer beauty products have to work harder, better, prettier and from April onwards.
Summer beauty isn’t just how you look, it’s about how you feel. Give me any temperature over 20 degrees and I’m reaching for lighter, brighter, sunnier fragrances to cut through smog and sticky humidity, for misting over warm holiday skin, post afternoon shower, pre-sundown gin and tonic. This is when I mist on juicy citrus scents to act as a cooling Calippo lolly for the nose; delicate musks with a powdery finish to mentally absorb perspiration; soft, airy florals to provide olfactory respite from crowded city heat and coconut, lime and frangipane perfumes that transport me to a tropical island when I’m sweating through crumpled linen on the number 38 bus to Victoria.
My top three summer scents? Ded Cool’s Xtra Milk, £71, Clarins’ Eau Dynamisante, £44, and the iconic Estée Lauder Bronze Goddess, £58. And the joy of finding your signature summer scent now is that, come November, when it’s cold and dark, you can reach for the bottle, spritz with abandon and momentarily be brought right back here, where it’s beautiful.
Sali Hughes is a Welsh journalist, writer and broadcaster. She is The Guardian's resident beauty columnist.
