Hello everyone!
So, summer is finally here! It has to be my favourite season ever, to be honest. I love not having to wear hundreds of layers and wearing light clothes. I have a lot to show you today, because in summer my skin, as well as hair need some extra care. So, I am bringing you my summer beauty must haves to share what I use on a daily basis. This is going to be a long one, so let’s jump right in!
Exfoliate
During summer, my skin (especially legs and face) crave exfoliation. I have 2 products I use on my legs and they both work absolutely great. I bought both of these products in London and will not be able to repurchase, so I’m quite frugal when it comes to these two (you can see my London beauty haul here). It’s very important to exfoliate before self-tanning (which I’m not a fan of, since I can’t do it to save my life :D) and before shaving to get a closer shave.
First is the Soap&Glory Flake Away shea butter, sugar and peach seed body polish. I adore S&G scent, it’s absolutely divine, and I really hope they will come to Croatia soon! The second one is The Body Shop shea and sugar body scrub and this seems a bit less abrasive, but is very nourishing. Love and recommend both of these!
On my face, I use my SilverCrest facial cleansing brush (review here) year-round, so I don’t feel the need to talk about it too much in this post.
Moisturize
Since I use the same Eveline moisturizer throughout the whole year, I will not talk about that either. My face routine is pretty much always the same, but you can see the products I use here.
After exfoliating, it is very important to moisturize 🙂 Even if you don’t exfoliate, your skin craves hydration and moisture, especially in summer. I have a few products I am using at the moment and really enjoy.
The first one is Dirty Works Bye Bye Dry body butter. I got this in London, as well and the pump broke off in the plane, but I still try to use up every little bit from the bottom of the bottle. I think this is one of the best body moisturizers I’ve ever owned. The smell is divine, it absorbs quickly and my legs feel silky smooth after using it. I think it was about £2 in Sainsbury’s and I mailny bought it for the cute bottle and the pump 😀 I didn’t get to use the pump, as I mentioned, but the product is great! Definitely get it if you can 🙂
Next is the Himalaya Herbals nourishing all day moisturizing cream for face and body with aloe very and winter cherry. I don’t use this on my face, but it’s really thick and creamy, perfect for the rest of my body. I love the feeling, and the smell is pretty basic, which I kind of like.
Last is a product that definitely fits in this category, but is quite a different type of product. It is Avon Skin So Soft endless touch soothing dry oil spray. The smell is quite intense, which I’m not exactly a fan of, but it feels really nice on the legs, and it’s not too greasy, but leaves my legs really shiny. Great product!
Hands
I know I almost always talk about hand creams, so you know I love them. But I’ve been using two new products from the category, and I absolutely love them, so I just wanted to share them with you. Summer beauty is also about pretty hands, and that’s what these two are all about.
First is, again, by Soap&Glory and it’s their famous Hand Food. I can totally see why it was all the rage back in the day on YouTube. It’s amazing, it’s nourishing, it basically ‘feeds’ my hands. If you can get any product out of this list, get this one. You won’t regret it. And the smell is divine, like I already said.
Second is Ziaja hand cream with ceramides and lipid concentrate. This is quite runny, but it absorbs really quickly, and leaves my hands feeling very nice and hydrated. The only thing I don’t enjoy as much is the scent, but I don’t really mind.
Face
My face skin is especially needy in the summer. It needs hydration, but it produces a lot of sebum. It’s all over the place. That’s why I needed to come up with the perfect combination of products to use on my face.
Since I get a lot of blackheads during summer, especially on my nose area, I love using my Avon Clearskin black mineral mask (review here). Every once in a while, I do my whole face, but even more often, I will put it just on my nose area and my nose is totally clear. Even my boyfriend loved the way his nose felt after I put it on him (yes, he let me do that :D).
Two products I use for refreshment during summer, but also hydration are ionic silver (water is great for refreshment, too) and Vitamin E Refreshing Toning Mist by Superdrug brand (star one) 😀 I’m sorry guys, I forgot what it’s called again. This makes my skin super glowy and hydrated, I didn’t think I’d love it as much when I got it back in February. It’s amazing and really really cheap 🙂 Try it!
Except for my moisturizer, I like using hydrating face masks, too. I have two of them which I’ve never used before, so you’ll hear more about them in my empties post soon 🙂 First is Afrodita Why Mask for extreme hydration, and the other one is Schaebens Luxus Maske with gold (sounds luxurious, right? Well I bought it for about $1 :D:D).
Hair
My hair is also quite needy in summer, so my favourite hair system products to use are those that are hydrating and preventing my ends from getting dry.
I’ve really been enjoying my La Croa Argan oil, and I recently got one from Moroccan oil, which I am still to start trying out. It makes my hair really nice and silky and hydrated. If you want to know more about argan oil, and how to spot fakes, my dear friend Kay over on Shoesandglitter wrote an entire post on that, so show her some love.
I also enjoy leave-in conditioners in summer, the one I’ve been using for a while now is Schwarzkopf Essence Ultime Mineral Strength for weak, fragile hair. It smells and feels amazing 🙂
Foundation
I’m not sure about you, but I hate wearing foundation during summer. Unless there’s a special occasion, like a wedding, you will most likely not see me wearing foundation. I either go for some light powder foundation or a BB cream. I have two here to show you.
First is Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream, and I’m sure all of you have either tried it already or heard about it. It has some coverage, but it’s very comfortable on the skin and feels really hydrating. I have it in the shade light and I will have to repurchase soon, since I have a tiny bit left. It even had SPF 15, so you’ll be protected when using it.
Second one is, again a Superdrug branded one 😀 And I’m so sorry I don’t know the name of it. It’s in the shade light, contains SPF 30 and I haven’t played with it all that much. I have tried it a few times, and I think it oxidized on me just a tiny bit, but nothing worth mentioning.
Glowy and Bronzy Skin
I think that the trend of glowy skin has really boomed this year. Everyone is strobing, highlighting, bronzing up, contouring and I love it! The only problem is… I don’t actually own a good highlighter. However, I managed to find one in the eyeshadow palette I will show you below.
In terms of what I do own and use…
Matte bronzers: Makeup Revolution Bronzer in Medium Matter (amazing for contouring) and Hoola by Benefit, which is definitely growing on me and I use it more and more (higher end recommendation).
Shimmery, glowy bronzers: Essence mosaic compact powder in 01 sunkissed beauty and The Balm Betty-Lou Manizer (higher end recommendation). I’ve been using The Balm one on my eyes, too and it looks stunning!
Highlighter: Essence soo glow! cream to powder highlighter in 10 look on the bright side, which is not my favourite, but it’s not bad either and some of the eyeshadows I own in different palettes.
Blush: Essence silky touch blush in 10 adorable, which is a very pale pink blush, great for summer
Nails
Summer is the time of year I use many different colours. I use brights, I use darks, I use neutrals, I use them all… If you want variety, I definitely recommend you check out Essence polishes, since they are extremely cheap, and pretty nice quality. That way you can have a lot polishes for cheap 😀
Eyeshadow
I know some of you will laugh, but you know I love colourful eyeshadow, but I especially love it in the summer. I have 2 of them to show you, one is high end and the other one is drugstore.
ELF cosmetics one contains 100 eyeshadows, and it has every colour you can imagine. However, I managed to find a colour I need, but this one doesn’t have. Of course. So I still need some more colourful ones, and if you know some affordable colourful palettes, do let me know 🙂 The first shade in the second row is actually stunning for face highlighting, and I really hope they have it in some of the palettes, since this one is, as far as I know, no longer available. I reviewed this palette ages ago, you can see the review here.
The Urban Decay Vice 4 (review here) is quite a bit more intense. It has some darker colours, it’s very pigmented, and it’s gorgeous. It’s definitely up there in price, but I am so happy to have it, since I really do use it a lot and I think it’s gorgeous!
What are your summer beauty must haves? Do you own any of those I mentioned? Do you think I left something out or I should own something else?
P.S. Do you like my new photo background?
Thank you for reading!
See you soon xx