Keep Your Face On! (Ways to Sweatproof Summer Makeup)

Many of us are accustomed to doing some minor touch-ups to our makeup in the course of the day. When summer hits, however, touch-ups are rarely quick or easy. This time of year, the sun just seems to melt our faces, turning beautifully-applied makeup into puddles that drain into places nowhere near where they were put originally. It's amazing how quickly this happens too, whether the day is spent on the beach, at the family barbecue, or just doing the simple walk from the car to work. My solution for beating the heat in terms of your makeup wear is much more about prevention rather than repair.

Use Primers on Both Face and Eyes: Even if you don't need a mattifying primer to keep your foundation from settling into your pores, using an oil-controlling foundation primer for the summer, is quite helpful to keep your makeup in place and also to keep extra oil that seeps through your pores at bay. You will only need to apply a small amount to the sweatiest areas (usually the forehead and the sides of the nose). By adding just a pea-sized amount, you are still free to layer moisturizer and SPF without worrying about the surface pilling or adding extra weight to the skin. By also priming the eyes, you keep your shadows from creasing and cut down on any extra eye irritation from your eye makeup running when they eyes are already sensitized by outdoor allergens and the extra-bright sunlight during summer.

Sheer Out the Base Makeup and Embrace the Power of Powders: Sheerer coverage base products not only look more natural in the blaring light of summer sun, they also hold up better when you start to sweat. Try ditching the heavy liquid foundations and opting for a sheer tinted moisturizer or, better yet, a mineral powder foundation instead. Powder products, just by their nature, are more resistant to running than their liquid counterparts, especially if you like to cool yourself off with spritzes of water or a face mist throughout today. Also, powder products are less likely to pill up or feel extra heavy when you have an SPF underneath them. In short, the more weight you can take off your face and the more your skin can breathe, the less you'll sweat and the less your makeup will be disturbed.

Create a Cake Mascara Using Black Eyeshadow: Mascara is a liquid substance and can be notoriously runny, especially when you sweat and in high humidity. Although there are many waterproof mascaras out there, many feel sticky and heavy on the lashes, and most all of them are difficult to remove. To accentuate the eyes and eyelashes without the fuss, you might try taking a matte black eyeshadow, and using a lightly dampened lash comb to stroke that through the lashes to darken and define them. This tip is reminiscent of the old- fashioned cake mascaras popular in the 1920s and 1930s, especially on film sets where makeup had to look flawless and last all day under hot lights. This method may not be as quick as swiping on your typical mascara, but it will provide longer-lasting and more smudge-proof pigment to the lashes once the shadow sets and dries, and as with anything, the process does get faster with practice.

The only things to keep in mind in using this tip is, the lash tint that the cake mascara creates, while very sweatproof, will not stand up well to a full dousing in the pool, and as much as I recommend primers, often the white tint in most lash primers will show through the coating of eyeshadow.

Whatever the summer holds, the focus should be about having fun, not worrying about how our makeup is holding up in the heat. Luckily, just making some small tweaks to your routine will do a lot to keep your look intact and you looking and feeling fresh and fabulous in all the sunshiney days ahead.