Instead of resorting to your usual summer makeup foundation product (which may be last year's bottle, hiding in the back of your makeup drawer), this year try switching to a more sheer makeup--which includes SPF protection of at least 15, and a facial moisturizer. Women need all three, and several cosmetics' companies offer a three-in-one product. You can select all three elements of your personal elixer independently if you prefer, but you can have all your needs covered by one product--and save time and perhaps a bit of money. The most expensive cosmetic is not necessarily the best--for anyone.
Note the ingredients in products that you like, and look for them in new products that come out this spring. There's always a new seasonal offering when you want to expand your skin's options for cleaning, moisturizing, exfoliating, and other essential face care. When summer heat brings on sweat, pollution, serious UV rays, and environmental exposure, now is a good time to develop a regular system for meeting the needs of your face: daily (or twice daily) cleansing, once or twice daily moisturizing, and exfoliation and masks--some women with delicate skin need to deep cleanse only once every two weeks, while other women benefit from exfoliting as often as every other day. If exfoliating makes your face red, you're doing it too often. Use logic. Don't exfoliate a sunburn--ouch!
If your face gets oily and breaks out from summer heat, using a tinted moisturizing makeup product may help clear up your complexion woes. More important than covering break outs, is keeping skin clean. Acne beings with cells that become irritated, and then inflamed around pores, and thereby become magnets for collecting excess oil and environmental grime buildup. When dirt sticks, you have a blackhead. Whiteheads are producing infected skin cells, and may have a blackhead at the core. Keeping skin clean is so important! Select products labeled "non-comedogenic"--meaning it's not supposed to cause blackheads.
Using cleansing products with alcohol or other excessively drying ingredients actually causes skin to produce even more oil. When sensing a drying effect, the skin system increases oil production to compensate. If you experience summer oil on your skin, professional makeup artists insist that you will still benefit from cosmetics with some type of SPF protection against sun damage. Try a sheer makeup like Elizabeth Arden's "Lights Illuminating Tinted Moisturizer." You'll love the feel and the look!
If you're planning to use any self-tanning products, the PROS always exfoliate before using a self-tanner. The idea is to clean out your pores before your skin layer gets tinted with a skin dye, basically. Scrub before, moisturize after. Don't just jump into a product without reading some online reviews. Women have posted what works for them, and the April issue of "Self" magazine has an enormous list of reader selected top picks (search them online).
Read the labels on this season's new cosmetics by Revlon, Maybelline, Neutrogena, and all the other cosmetic companies that will be tempting you to invest your hard earned money in their new products and colors. Study the products in the displays at the drug stores and the retail department stores to determine the new season's trends. And compare prices! Don't blow your summer beauty budget in one afternoon, because there will be more offerings each few weeks.
The new colors for the season will be available in all the brands--they'll just have different names and different proprietary formulas. Unless you are sensitive to certain ingredients, or particularly allergy prone, the can pick women's secret potions from all over the world, by investigating options on the Internet.
My favorite, most recent treasure chest item for great feeling and grat looking summer skin is a tinted moisturizer. They are available in both oil-free and regular formulas, with several shades available in each. The feel of a tinted moisturizer is much lighter, and the moisturizing properties help keep a healthy glow to your complexion--a much healthier and more natural look. With a tinted moisturizer, the trick is to select the correct tint for your skin tone. You may have to try several brands before you find a perfect match, but don't settle for less. Any foundation needs to match your skin tone exactly!
Cosmetics manufacturers have different delivery methods to assure you achieve the foundation color that matches your skin tone. Matching your skin tone exactly with the color of your foundation is the key to getting face makeup right. As your skin picks up some color with outdoor sun exposure, you should invest in a couple of shades of your chosen foundation product (whether it's liquid or powder based)--one lighter and one darker--and continue creating your own perfect skin tone match by mixing differing proportions of lighter and darker.
No need to measure and try to fill bottles of your own brew. Mix and match your products in your palm, or on a sanitary surface, and apply with fingers or sponge. Mix it for that day, use it, and create again tomorrow. And do experiment this year. If you've always applied your foundation with fingers, try a makeup sponge--try it dry, and then try it damp. If you're adept with a sponge, give a try with your clean fingers (clean fingernails too!). There may be a better way for you to apply your makeup, but you won't know if you don't experiment!
Tints are very light feeling compared to liquid and cream makeup, but still provide adequate coverage of flaws. Add a bronzer to complement your facial coloring--and selecting one bronzer is unnecessarily restrictive. Notice the different undertones in bronzers, and try to add a variety to your beauty arsenal this summer. Bronzers have it all over blush for sensational summer skin!
Look natural, but a little better, by adding a nude lip color, perhaps with a dash of lip gloss or wonderful lip balm, and you'll be ready to take on the world--and the worold will notice. Smile!
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provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice
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