6 Summer Bridal Beauty Tips To Avoid A Makeup Meltdown

Gorgeous sunny summer weather makes for the perfect backdrop for your wedding. But the hot and sometimes humid weather can set you up for a makeup meltdown, so here are 6 tips to keep your summer wedding makeup looking flawless and staying in place until the night is over.

Use A Light Moisturizer.
Unless you have dry skin use a lightweight, gel formula moisturizer. Apply it as soon as you get out of the shower and give it plenty of time to soak in before you move on to makeup.
Blot away any residue on the surface of the skin with tissue before starting makeup.
A fabulous alternative is to use a gel sheet mask to revitalize your skin. Try Glacier Water Gel Mask from Memebox

Invest In A Mattifying Primer
Give your complexion all the help you can by using a high quality mattifying primer to keep foundation in place and too aid in fighting shine. Mattifiers have light diffusing properties that will stop light from bouncing off the smooth planes on your face.
Try Hyaluronic Hydra Primer by Terry

Check Your Foundation Formulation.
If you are being airbrushed on your wedding day ask for a water based formula rather than a silicone base. Water based is much more sheer and weightless.
If you are using traditional foundation keep your application as sheer as possible. The thicker the application the more gooey it will look as it heats up. Try Giorgio Armani Lasting Silk SPF 20 Foundation at Nordstrom.com

Be Aware Of Lash Length.
If you will be outdoors or are having outdoor photography be cautious with strip lashes and with the length of your false lashes.
A lash that is too dense will collapse your eye and make you look like you are squinting in all your pictures. (The dense black line of the lash will grab light and suck it in).
Lashes that are too long will act like an awning over your eyes in the sunlight, creating  a shadow below which leaves you looking tired and haggard.
The same applies with lash extensions - they may look good indoors but if they are too long or too dense they can destroy your look when you step  outside.

Seal It with A Kiss.
A matte lip can be a lifesaver on a hot or humid day.
Matte lips can tone down the extra glow or shine you are sporting when it's hot outside and act as a neutralizing balance.
A glossy lip can make your whole face appear extra shiny.
Matte lips don't slip, and with a good color payoff last longer too.
Try Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution in Miss Kensington

Finishing Spray.
A light misting of finishing spray can help hold everything in place on a humid, steamy day. Try Face Atelier Face Finish from FaceAtelier.com

The 10 Best BB and CC Creams For Summer

Are you in the market for a new BB or CC cream?

Check out the options that Vogue.com considers to be 

The 10 Best BB and CC Creams For Summer

The official coming of summer has us embracing a newly pared-down routine—streamlining our overloaded makeup bags in favor of multitasking options that channel the almost-bare mood of the season. Translation: If you’re still using the same creamy, medium coverage foundation you swore by all spring, it’s time to lighten up. Fortunately, the newest wave of beauty balms and color correctors—more commonly known as BB and CC creams—pack a checklist of benefits into a single tube while remaining virtually invisible on the skin for straight-from-the-beach touchups. Chanel CC Cream’s featherweight, pigment-evening formula prescription provides SPF 50 along with antiaging peach extract and moisturizing hyaluronic acid. Physicians Formula Super CC+ Eye Cream SPF 30 relieves puffiness and blurs lines—ensuring eyes remain as bright as their cloudless, sun-drenched surroundings—while Giorgio Armani’s supernaturally luminous offeringleaves skin with the kind of glow that rivals a good facialist’s work. Here are the ten tinted balms and creams we’re stocking up on this vacation season.

L’Oréal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream, $11
Chanel CC Cream Complete Correction Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 50, $55
Physicians Formula Super CC+ Eye Cream SPF 30, $13
La Roche Posay Effaclar BB Blur Cream Mousse, $30
Tarte Amazonian Clay BB Illuminating Moisturizer, $32
Bobbi Brown BB Cream SPF 35, $20
Peter Thomas Roth CC Cream, $48
Dior Diorsnow UV Shield BB Crème Broad Spectrum SPF 50, $55
Kate Somerville IllumiKate CC Cream Broad Spectrum SPF 50, $48

Giorgio Armani Luminessence CC Color Control Bright Moisturizer SPF 35, $52

Just One Thing

Just One Thing.

I am so over the makeup that I see everywhere these days.

Everywhere as in America - I'm not seeing it on my travels.

But you know what I'm talking about. Heavy opaque foundation that kills any potential for real skin to breathe, plastered on thick so that girls can contour themselves like drag queens.

Heavy overdone eyebrows, plastered on over heavy eye makeup. It's as though everyone wants to be Kardashi-bots even if they're just running to the store for milk.

I prefer to see real skin. Healthy, radiant, well cared for skin. It makes you think there is a real human underneath.

I like cheeks that glow as if kissed by the sun.
And right now I like to see just one thing.

Be it a firm brow or a bold lip. Maybe a sleek eye.

Creating a bare look that holds focus on just one thing is so fresh and powerful and modern.

How To Do Perfect Makeup For Summer ~ Beauty Tip Of The Week #17

Have you noticed that in summer your makeup doesn't look quite so good? 
Maybe your foundation looks super slimy or maybe it looks too dry, your eye shadow turns into greasy pools in the creases of your eyelids, nothing stays where its supposed to, and you look nothing like the fresh faced models in the magazines?

Here are 6 tricks to make your summer makeup work

1. Less is absolutely more in the summer.
The biggest mistake you can make is piling on too much makeup. Summer is all about looking fresh faced and healthy, which doesn't work when you're wearing mask-like makeup.
Aim for a gorgeous complexion. Start with a lighter weight moisturizer, next apply a dry finish facial SPF, and finally a really good primer to even out the texture of your skin. 
If you need some help evening out your color, opt for a BB cream rather than a foundation.

2. Down play your eyes.
Big smokey, bold eye makeup looks stupid in the summer time. Choose a lighter, more nude look, and accent it with loads of mascara. To avoid smudgy mascara use a water resistant formula, and only ever use waterproof mascara if you're planning on swimming or sobbing - waterproofs are so damaging to your lashes and can be difficult to remove.

3. Go easy on the bronzer.
Find a formulation that works with both your skin and your climate (pressed powder/cream/liquid), and then apply it where the sun would kiss your face if you were out and about all afternoon.
Bronzer does not take the place of blush, and regardless of what the you tubers tell you, it is not for contouring with.
Don't make the mistake of trying to color your face in with bronzer - you will look muddy, not tanned.

4. Accent your brows.
Use your brows to add a little structure and polish to your look.
Without going overboard, (as in don't do the brows you see all over Instagram) give your brows a little definition and a hint of color with a waterproof/water resistant brow product. It will frame your eyes and keep your look nicely balanced.

5. Focus on the lip
Add a pop of color to your look with a bright summer lip. If your overall look is glowy try wearing a bold matte lip. If your skin is looking a little dry, liven your look up with a fun colorful gloss.

6. A little highlight goes a long way.
If you are transitioning from day to night, or if your look feels a little flat, adding a tiny amount of highlight to your upper cheek bones, under the eye if your eyes look tired, maybe a hint to the bridge of your nose if you need it, can lighten and brighten your complexion.
Just don't overdo it. There's a big difference between brightening your look and making yourself look glittery-shiny.

8 Essential Items for Your Makeup Bag This Summer

For most of the year I'm all about more makeup.

During the summer months however, a face full of makeup looks ridiculous.

Step outside into the sunlight and whatever you've got going is magnified,

so an overload of makeup looks even worse.

So here is a list of 8 Essential Items for a pared down makeup bag for summer.

1. BB or CC Cream

Lose the foundation and opt instead for a skin enhancing, color correcting, tone and texture evening BB or CC cream. (if you're unsure which to choose, CC creams are more about color correction, BB's are more about skin enhancing. Both are fabulous.)

Your skin will look gorgeous and you wont look made-up.

2. ColoreScience Sunforgettable SPF 50

Protecting your skin from sun damage is crucial, and sunscreen has to be reapplied throughout the day.

This handy brush is easy to carry around and lets you reapply on the go, with no messy creams. It has the added bonus of going on smoothly and not creating a pasty, cakey layer to the skin.

3. Makeup Forever Aqua Brow

You need to tell a very simple story with your summer makeup.

Clean skin with an accent on brows and lips keeps you looking fresh faced and understated.

Makeup Forever Aqua Brow is a super concentrated (i.e. apply sparingly) waterproof eyebrow corrector.

The brows that you apply first thing in the morning will make it through humidity, swimming, perspiring - you name it, and will take you all the way through the evening.

A stronger accent on the brow can lift and open the eye, so long as you don't make it too heavy.

4. A Lash Curler.

Use a good quality eyelash curler to lift the lashes and open the eye.

5. A Good Mascara

Accent your eyes with tons of mascara. Use it to lift and open the eye, not weighing it down with clumpy lashes. 

Aim to lengthen the lashes, keeping them glossy and defined with a mascara like Clinique High Definition Mascara, making sure you comb through to remove any clumps.

If you're going swimming, running around in monsoons or battling high humidity opt for a waterproof formula, otherwise choose a water resistant mascara.

6. Bronzer

If needed, applied sparingly, use a champagne toned bronzer to add lift and warmth to your complexion.

Bronzer is supposed to make you look like you've been out in the sun, and should only hit the high points on your face - forehead, tops of the cheekbones and bridge of the nose, and your chin.

7. Highlighter 

I use the Smashbox Halo Highlighting Wand to brighten the tops of cheekbones, lift under the eyes and generally brighten the skin.

Its a fabulous transition product to reawaken your skin and make you look alive and vibrant as you go from a long day at work to a night on the town.

8. Vibrant, sexy lips

The key to making a simple, makeup free look work is to have an accent on the brows, and then balance it with a bright, exciting lip.

Try bold shades like Nars Schiap or MAC All About Orange