Summer Beauty Must-Haves

For me, there are 7 Beauty Must-Haves for the Summer, all of which are perfect for transforming your look from everyday to summer day! Through this post, I will tell you my seven secrets to achieving the ultimate (and super easy!) summer look and letting you know the products I have fallen in love with this summer. The heat is really rising in the UK right now, so I felt the need to bring the summer back with this must-haves post, before those long nights start to draw in (should I be excited about autumn this early?) 

1. So, when I think summer, I think getting a tan... well, for those people who actually leave the house, that is. I love how I look with tanned skin but I also love staying indoors because the heat is my enemy, the only option I have is to self-tan and after years of being tempted, I finally tried it! I bought Avon's Sun + Magic Tan, a self-tanning mousse with a light, tropical fragrance. 

I love that it's a mousse, it makes the application so quick and easy, I simply stood in the shower and rubbed this product wherever I wanted to look tanned and then let it dry (it doesn't really need showering off, but I found applying it in the afternoon and then showering the next morning worked well). I can't say one bad thing about it, it smells so nice, it's quick to apply, it bronzes the skin visibly but naturally, and it lasts a good week before fading.   

2. The second thing I think of when summer is on it's way is fruit. Fruit salads, fruit fragrances and, fruit smoothies are three things I love most in the summer. Therefore, this I Love... Mango and Papaya Moisturising Body Lotion I found on the Superdrug website was in my basket as soon as I laid eyes on it. 

This lotion is super smooth and moisturising and smells like a fruit heaven, it's perfect to lay over my newly tanned skin to help bring moisture back and to make my skin smell like summer all day. It claims to moisture, leave your skin silky and smooth and to give you a beautiful fragrance and I cannot agree more (plus how cute is the packaging!). If you're looking for a body lotion for summer, you should definitely try out this personal favourite! 

3. Now onto makeup! I'm going to start from the base, I truly think primers and makeup bases hold the most power in changing and boosting your look. I really got into highlighting and looking luminous this year and the product that helps me achieve that summer glow is the Bourjois Happy Light Luminous Serum Primer.

This pink serum applies thinly and smoothly to add a beautiful and natural glow to your skin, some primers add way too much light for me, to the point where you go from glowing to oily. This primer is perfect, it gives your face more light but in a way that looks healthy, rather than greasy or glittery. If you have oily skin and try to stray away from this kind of product, Bourjois also have a Matte Serum Primer which I haven't tried but I imagine would be great! 

4. What goes hand in hand with glowy skin? Bronzed skin! And that's exactly what I focused on for number 4 of my Summer Must-Haves. Bronzers have slowly made their way into my everyday makeup but for summer, I feel the need to amp this up for that super sun-kissed look. Two products I use on an almost daily basis are the Maybelline Dream Bronze BB Cream and the Bourjois Bronzing Powder and Highlighter.

The BB Cream can be used alone as a BB Cream, under foundation to add a bronzed glow from within or over foundation as a cream bronzer. I recommend the latter as it can be way too dark for lighter skin tones and can become too cakey and thick for summer makeup.

The Bourjois powder duo is a little magnetic booklet with bronzer and highlight in. I use the bronzer to set the BB Cream and brush the highlighter over my cheekbones and cupid's bow. Both powders have tiny gold shimmers in them, they are hardly noticeable but I know that this can put a lot of people off. 

5. In the summer, I love having really bright and light blush, I just think it works  so well with all the bright colours that surround summer. I chose the Bourjois Blush in Healthy Mix, the Rimmel London Stay Blushed! Blush in Pop Of Pink and Collections' Speedy Blush in Cheeky.

As you can see, all of these blushes are beautifully bright and eye-catching pinks. The Bourjois blush has a really nice orange tone to it and colour-wise, it is my favourite of the three. 

I prefer to wear liquid and cream products in summer, it gives the whole face a more natural, glowing finish that looks beautiful in the sun, that's why the second two blushes are my overall favourites. The Collection Speedy Blush and the Rimmel London Stay Blushed! Blush hold very similar and desirable qualities, they both blend into the skin for that naturally blushed look and they are both gorgeous colours! 

6. For my sixth Summer Must-Have, I have strayed from the generic and gone for the more experimental. I think for a lot of people, this isn't a must-have but I think summer is a time to try new things, wear more colour and go out of your comfort zone. That's why I have picked out coloured mascara, this is a new thing for me (excluding the gold and silver mascara I got from a kids magazine way back when) and I am head over heals for it! 

Loreal Paris have recently added two coloured variations to their Miss Manga Mega Volume Mascara line: green and indigo, and wow, I am loving them! They are both bright but opaque so they coat your lashes wonderfully with a pop of electric colour! My tip is to just try wearing the colour on your lower lashes with black mascara on your top lashes: one, this helps get you comfortable with the colour, and two, this looks super cool. 

7. Wow, we already reached the final must-have product for summer!? I had a hard time narrowing this down, I knew I wanted it to be something for the lips, but would I go bright lipsticks? Liquid lipsticks? Lipgloss? Nope, I went with lip balm! But not the colourless kind (although you should really get a lip balm with SPF in it for summer, lips are really sensitive!). I chose Rimmel London's Colour Rush Intense Colour Lip Balm in Make Me Blush, Sunkissed and Rumour Has It (oohoohooh). 

How pretty are these right? What I love about these, and what I think makes these so fundamental for the summer, is that not only do they offer beautiful summer colour but they're balms, so they're gonna keep your lips nice and moisturised in the blistering heat. They have a wide range of colours in this line and I would definitely go check them out! 

And we're done. Now you're all clued up on the wicked beauty products that are perfect for the summer, thanks for reading and, while the suns still here, it would be great to know what your suggestions are!