11 summer beauty hacks you need to know

Summer throws up a bit of a paradox when it comes to fashion and beauty. On one hand, there’s the cute summer clothes – playsuits, prints and patterns truly come into their own during the warmer months. But on the other, there’s the drippy, slippy makeup that defiantly refuses to stay put if it so much as gets a whiff of weather above 20 degrees. Hot summer style is a no-brainer but melted makeup is a fashion fatality that’s hard to miss come summer.  

So, to steer clear of the sweaty side, try giving your cosmetics bag a rethink. From setting sprays to nifty hair hacks, here are twelve summer beauty tricks you need to know to nail that hot holiday look. 

Set your makeup

If only there was a magic mist capable of setting your makeup with one quick spritz. Oh wait, there is. Enter the Setting Spray, a useful little elixir that leaves your foundation looking fresh and flawless all day. For those of us familiar with a DIY dousing of hairspray to the face, this is a safer, less cough-inducing method to get your makeup to stick. Summer secret: never leave the house without a spritz of setting spray.

Lighten up your foundation

Just as you wouldn’t rock a fleece-lined military coat in mid-July, you shouldn’t cake your face in heavy-duty cosmetics as you bask in the sun. Shelve your hardcore winter wearables and opt for lighter summer staples instead. Let your skin breathe. Try BB Creams like Garnier’s Oil Free option (£9.99) or a summer concealer like Urban Decay’s Naked Skin (£19) for breathable coverage.    

Get more from your makeup

No one wants to lug a MAC-worthy makeup kit round with them whilst perusing the beach. So, it’s time to make your beauty bag work harder. Double up your everyday essentials to get extra wear out of your cosmetics – try using a lipstick as an eye shadow and cheek colour, suggests Marie Claire. “It’s malleable, works with your skin tone (it’s your lipstick, after all), and is surprisingly sweat-proof once applied.”

Invest in non-slip makeup

To avoid a messy melted face this summer, steer clear of oil-based make-up. Instead, hunt down the formulas that are silicon-based or waterproof. There’s a host of high street beauty brands offering summer ready products worthy of beach or bar. For long-lasting lip colour, Dior Addict Lip Tattoo (£25) adds lustre to your lips for up to 10 hours. If you never leave the house without donning your brows, then the Benefit goof proof brow pencil (£20) needs to be in your summer arsenal. The glide-on formula stops brows budging for 12 hours, meaning slick brows are guaranteed, come rain or shine.  

The effortless hair hack

As much as we love getting our daily dose of Vitamin D, humidity does all kinds of horrid things to hair. Aside from looking borderline ridiculous, frizzy, frazzled hair can leave you feeling all hot and bothered. To avoid a hot mess of hair, try a quite literally cooler summer hairstyle. Pull your hair off your face, securing it by spritzing hairspray on your hands before sweeping them through your hair line.  

Get a primer

“Primers do for your skin what lingerie does for your figure,” says Vogue Beauty Editor Lisa Niven, “they smooth, flatter, conceal and hold things in place, so that everything you put on top of them looks immediately better.” Not only do primers allow you to blur out imperfections, but they offer a firm base for your makeup to stick to. Spending a couple of minutes prepping with primer could see your makeup last hours longer. Try Smashbox Photo Finish Foundation Primer (£26) or MAC Prep + Prime Natural Radiance (£30) for a high street fix. 

Skip the moisturiser

Whilst you no doubt slapped on moisturiser every waking minute of the winter months – no one wants dry, cracked skin – your summertime skin routine should be the opposite.“Summer skin in hot, humid climates has very different requirements,” warns HuffPost Beauty. “In fact, not only will rubbing body lotion on make skin look greasy, it could also cause you to sweat more.” So, if you’re suffering from super sweaty skin this summer, then skip those gloopy moisturising creams. 

Line and curl lashes with ease

If the sweaty summer weather is leaving your eyeliner efforts more smudgy than sexy, then try this easy eye-liner trick from Look magazine. Line your eyelash curler with a soft kohl eye pencil before clamping your lashes. The effect will be natural, effortless definition to your eyes, without faffing about with liquid liner. 

Make your own face mist

For a refreshing spritz throughout the day, DIY beauty gurus can try making their own face mist. Rosewater is a great choice for cooling and calming the skin, and can either be used diluted with water or neat. Refinery29 recommends sourcing your favourite essential oils in their purest form to create face mists that are free from synthetic ingredients.

Carefree curls

Easy-breezy beach waves are a go-to holiday hair style, but often the effortless look takes hours to perfect. Fortunately, you can fake those effortless Scandi-waves this summer. Stylists at Look magazine recommend cheating curls by running your straighteners over a simple plait to set your hair, or try curling your ponytail to create loose waves once your hair’s down. 

Try this summer beach waves tutorial:

Perfect the tan

Regardless of the turbulent forecast, botched tans are a guaranteed summer sighting. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with faking that summer glow, streaky, stripy tans can be an embarrassing eyesore. Thankfully, there are tonnes of DIY remedies at the rescue. Lemon juice, toothpaste and shaving foam are all DIY treatments sworn on by tanning legend James Read - aka the man responsible for the bronzed bods of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Ellie Goulding. A generous application of any of the above is guaranteed to sort out those streaks.