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5 Tips for Creating a Summer Glow
As we head into high summer, a sunkissed glow will remain a frequently requested makeup look, and one we love to create. Here are some of Lou's favourite products and techniques to create radiant summer skin the conscious way.
Lou Dartford
Health + Wellbeing
Table of Contents
Introduction
Are you a pro makeup artist new to green beauty? Are you ready to choose more sustainable skin and earth-loving products to achieve your most requested looks?
There is no denying that the natural and organic makeup brands have really begun to deliver some innovative formulas over the last few years – that rival many mainstream products. However, they can feel a little bit different to products you might feel comfortable with when you first get started because they don’t contain silicone (a.k.a plastic).
In this article, Lou Dartford, a veteran green beauty pro shares her 5 top tips on using natural and organic products to achieve a timeless summer glow.
Skincare
Prep skin well with a good cleanse and gentle exfoliant if needed. Spritz the skin with a hydrating spray – a current favourite is Nourish London Antioxidant Peptide Mist. Layer a hydrating serum with another spritz and then an oil over the top. Take the time to really massage them into the skin to help boost blood flow.
Top tip – spritz the face with the mist just before shooting, for an extra natural sheen.
For this pictured look I used the Nini Glow Illuminator which contains ethically sourced mica to add a gorgeous glow.
BYBI Beauty’s Strawberry Oil which is one of my absolute favourites. It is designed to be a booster product to mix in with anything, I use it directly on the skin as well as a mixer. It is almost a dry oil, it gives the dewiness but without feeling too sticky or greasy. Beauty Cleanse Skincare Mean Green Superfood Drops are also great – they contain broccoli oil, which is often referred to as nature’s alternative to silicone.
Squalane is also a really nice one to use under make-up if you’re not so keen on an oil – I’ve recently been using one from Biossance and love it. I also love these kinds of products for refreshing make-up later in the day. A couple of drops just stippled over the cheekbones and other high points of the face can lift skin way more than applying more make-up.
Foundation + Concealer
As well as applying directly to the skin, I often mix oils into foundations. I find this helps to give base products a lovely glow, but also helps them to sit better on skin. Sometimes foundations can sit heavy on the skin and you can see them, however mixing something like this in can help it become almost part of the skin. Apply just where needed as opposed to a full face of high coverage. Just using a concealer where needed is another technique – and one I use a lot. The Absolution concealers are gorgeous for great skin work.
Blusher
A cream blush is beautiful for adding a summer glow, apply to the apples of the cheek and up along the cheekbones. Ere Perez Colour Honey Pots are staples in my kit. Check out the Kjaer Weis ones too – perfect for making your personalised palette with less packaging. Great article here for other kit essentials with conscious packaging.
You can use a lipstick for a cream blush too, great multi-tasking! For the image, I used Piha Beach by Antipodes.
Lou's Top Tip
I love using cream-based products to create a glow, I feel it looks more natural than adding sheens with powders. They might not have as much longevity as a powder product, but they are easier to refresh later on in the day; use a blotting paper to remove excess shine and then stipple over more colour as needed. If you do like using powder products, definitely use a blotting paper to remove excess shine before you apply more powder, otherwise, it can end up too much on the skin.
Bronzer
I love to do blush and bronze at the same time so they become ‘part of each other’, mimicking natural contours and flushes.
Use a big brush to apply bronzer to the high parts of the face that would naturally catch the sun. For a cream try RMS Beauty Buriti Bronzer or even a warmer deeper foundation shade if you’d like something matter.
Highlight
If you would like to add more highlight, then choose something without glitter – I find bigger particles of glitter can start to clump together on the face. Go for something that just adds a dew – I love Manasi 7’s Strobelighter or one of the RMS luminizers – I love the powder one too.
When doing a highlight, it should be seamless – you don’t want to see where it starts or where it finishes. So blend well, even if you almost blend away and then add some more and blend – it will be much better than a stripe.
Conclusion
Glowing skin will never date. It’s one of those looks that gets asked for again and again. Using these products made of gorgeous plant oils and butters, really helps them melt onto skin and become part of it, helping to create a natural radiant glow.
Image – photography Thea Baddiley, model – Krystyna Pyszko @ Elite, make-up – Lou Dartford
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