Our Hot Weather Make-Up Picks

Most of us don’t like to load our skin up with heavy foundations when it’s hot, but a little bit of something is always welcome to keep the skin looking fresh. E.l.f’s Halo Glow Liquid Filter is designed to be used in many ways – under foundation or over as a highlighter – but this summer we’ll be wearing the pretty, plumping squalane and hyaluronic acid-infused glow booster on its own for a hit of smoothing radiance. 

If you do want a bit more coverage, Charlotte Tilbury’s Unreal Skin Sheer Glow Tint is seriously impressive. A light-to-medium coverage base, its ultra-convenient stick formula is dewy but doesn’t leave the skin looking too shiny. Surprisingly, although it feels so fresh on, it has serious staying power and can therefore be relied on to take you from the beach club to cocktails with ease. If wearing a heavier base is non-negotiable, you’ll need something to make sure it stays put, even when the rest of you is melting. Refy’s Face Primer blurs pores, and offers enough grip to keep everything in place, plus it gently hydrates so skin doesn’t feel tight. Powder gets a bad rap in the heat, but how else are you going to keep your make-up from sliding off when the temperature rises? Saie’s Airset Translucent Powder is the only product for the job here, managing to lock everything in without looking cakey or causing make-up to pill. 

A full eye look can sometimes feel too much when you’re wilting in the heat, so instead stock up on soft, smudgy liners that will add impact without any effort. Hildun Beauty x Hannah Martin’s Silk to Set Kajal Liners are so creamy and blendable that you’ll barely feel them gliding onto your lids, plus the shade selection is spot on. Whether you wing them out, buff them in or wear them as a solid eye-defining line, we love Blaze, a fiery cranberry-tinged bronze, and Emerald, a regal green for sultry summer nights. For balmy summer evenings, black can sometimes feel a little too harsh, so try brown, which is softer and flattering on all eye colours and skin tones. Sisley’s Mascara So Intense in Deep Brown has a neat, separating wand that’s perfect for catching every hair and coating lashes in a lovely thick layer of cocoa-y ink. If your brow maintenance regime has got a little out of hand lately, rest assured there’s only one product you need in your holiday make-up bag. Delivering ample pigment, feathery shape and long-lasting (but not crunchy) hold, Victoria Beckham Beauty’s Feather Fix brow gel is a gamechanger.

We all know that tanning our face is a bad idea, but most of us crave just a little extra warmth in our complexion during the warmer weather. To get that sun-kissed effect without the sun damage, stock up on ILIA’s excellent new Sunshift Cream Bronzer. Formulated to be featherlight on skin while still imparting plenty of pigment, it can be layered up easily to create your preferred depth of colour. 

Blush comes into its own in summer as there’s no easier way to look like you’ve had a two-week break than a dusting of peachy powder on cheeks and over the bridge of your nose. Two formulas worth a mention are the newly reformulated NARS pure pigment blend blushers, which glide on with ease and have a high-impact colour pay-off, and Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Blurring Serum Blush. A gel-textured matte blush, the formula glides onto skin and delivers not just a highly blendable wash of fresh colour, but plenty of lovely skincare ingredients too, including niacinamide and pomegranate peel extract. Such is the love for Jones Road’s Miracle Balm that the brand has released a full-size version of the travel palette, just in time for glowing summer skin. The trio of shades comprises a deep brown, a coral pink and a lighter champagne cream, and so will work on all skin tones and colours.

Lip liners are an essential, but in especially hot climates they can slip and slide a minute after they’re applied. Kosas Hotliner Lip Liners are full of hyaluronic acid which adds moisture but also increases staying power. The satiny formula allows the colour to glide on with zero dragging or pulling. Hot bright lipstick is less forgiving if you’re constantly mopping your top lip, so stick to a good nude instead – Dior’s Rouge Dior ones are out in August. Plenty of pigment means better longevity, while the formula is soft and creamy enough to sculpt and contour lips.

Setting sprays can be a welcome refresher, but lots of formulas simply cause make-up to separate and gather in pores – not what you want when you’re already contending with the heat. Vieve’s Invisiveil Setting Spray is a first-class formula that not only sets everything down, but wakes it all up too. And finally, if the thought of getting a summer-appropriate kit together feels too much like hard work, then Holly Willoughby has done it for you. Her Beauty Pie On-the-Glow Edit is packed full of glow-boosting goodies like Supercheek Cream Blush and the excellent new Pro-Glow Liquid Dew in ‘Sheer Gold’.