🌴 SUMMER ESSENTIALS – THE PERFECT BASE 🌴

Hello everyone! I hope you’re having a great start to the week! 💗

To continue on with my summer essentials, today I am going to be talking about my perfect base products which are a mixture of predominantly concealers and a foundation. These are all products which I’ve found are good for humidity, and can protect my skin in the sun!

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Maybelline Cover Stick: 

The cheapest out of the bunch, the Maybelline Cover Stick was a product I bought off Asos on sale for about £1.99 before my last holiday. It retails for £3.99 and is in stick form, a form in which I’ve always hated. This product however, changed my mind surprisingly. It promises to be waterproof, and quite honestly I think it is (as long as you don’t go vigorously rubbing your face when it’s wet). I have it in the palest shade, which is ivory, and use it sometimes when going to the beach or pool under my eyes or on my lids, just to make myself look slightly more awake. The main reason I love this product though, is how good it is at carving out the brows. I used this for probably about a year straight until I began using my pro-longwear again, and due to it’s thickness and tackiness, it carved out the brows and kept them that way. I take a tiny concealer brush and swirl it around inside, then apply it to my face and it works amazingly. You can find it here.

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Kiko’s Soft Focus Concealer:

This concealer is lovely – it’s light in formula, very highlighting and never cakes up. I bought it when my YSL Touche Eclait ran out, and I’d say both products are very comparable due to the lifting effect they both have. The packaging is simple, but feels very high-end (it’s basically the Touche Eclait but silver) and I really like the brush applicator. The colour selection however, isn’t amazing, because there’s only 4 shades so women with a darker complexion are left very limited. I like to use this when I don’t want anything heavy on my skin, and it does the job perfectly. It costs £7.50 and can be found here.

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Urban Decay’s Naked Skin Weightless Complete Coverage Concealer:

The name is a mouthful, but I agree with everything it states within it! This concealer is a dream!! It’s weightless, full coverage, never cakes and dries down beautifully, which makes it perfect for both concealing and highlighting, so no wonder every single Youtube beauty guru raves about it. I’ve purchased this too many times to now count, and would say it’s one of my two holy-grail concealers. It’s an amazing formula, has a lovely doe foot applicator and for some reason I even like the smell?! Everything about it is great – even the shade selection, and I will always continue to repurchase it! It costs £17.50, and is totally worth it, you can find it here.

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Mac’s Pro Longer Concealer:

This concealer is without a doubt is my other holy grail concealer along with the UD weightless. It’s extremely full coverage, and a little goes a very very very long way! I find this amazing for under the eyes, spot concealing blemishes but it’s also incredible for highlighting! I also use it religiously to now carve out my brows, and it will even cover stray brow hairs that I’ve forgotten to pluck! It dries fairly quick though (it’s waterproof), so you must work fast when blending it out, but other than that it’s perfect formula-wise. The only real flaw with this concealer is the packaging – the pump always dispenses way too much product than what I personally need, so I’ve somehow trained myself to dispense the tiniest amount possible using a short burst of tiny pumps with minimal pressure (please can someone confirm I’m not the only one?!😫) I feel as though I waste product, however if you’re someone that really wants a full coverage concealer and requires a lot of it, it won’t be a problem for you. It costs £18.00 and can be found here.

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Mac’s Studio Fix Fluid:

Finally! A foundation! This foundation is one I love very much, as it’s so versatile. I can have a light coverage or full, depending on how much I use and how I blend it. It’s also got SPF 15 so it protects my skin and additionally it never moves off my face! Once it’s on, it’s on! It controls my oil so well, and dries very matte so I never have to powder my t-zone at all. Also, I’ve heard many people saying Mac foundations break them out, but I’ve never once had an issue like that. I find that if you thoroughly cleanse your face (so not just wiping it off with makeup wipes/micellar water) but using a product like Liz Earle’s Cleanse and Polish or Emma Hardie’s Moringa Cleansing Balm, your skin feels beautiful and there’s no chance of any makeup residue to be left on your face, resulting in break outs. However, I’m no expert and it depends on your skin type, so each to their own, as I’ve just never had a bad experience with this product. The colour selection is as always, great at Mac, and I just can’t fault this foundation really. It costs £22.00 and can be found here.

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Maybelline’s Dream Fresh BB Cream:

I don’t have this with me unfortunately, but I really do love this product for hot weather. It’s available in fresh, pure and bronzed, dependant on your look you’re going for and skin type. Despite being combination, I love the dream fresh bb cream, as I don’t particularly mind looking a bit more dewy on holiday, and it provides a lovely light coverage as well as an SPF of 30! It’s a lovely product, and is definitely well suited to you if you’re going away on holiday to somewhere hot. It costs £7.99 and can be found here.

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Sleek’s Cream Contour Kit:

This product has been great for my holiday, as it’s so light in formula for a cream product and blends amazingly. Despite me not using the three highlight shades as much, the three contour/bronzing shades have been well loved. I’ve hit pan on all three as the deepest shade is the perfect cool toned brown to contour the face with, whilst the other two colours are more warm and when blended on the face create a sun kissed look. It’s a great cheaper alternative to the Anastasia Beverly Hills cream contour kit, at a price of £10.99 and you can find it here.

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The Classic Beautyblender:

Finally, how can I rave about products for the perfect base without mentioning the one tool that blends them beautifully?! The Beautyblender has been a favourite of mine for quite some time, although I do love my Real Technique’s Miracle Complexion Sponge too, as it’s so bouncy and soaks up water so well. You can rinse it out multiple times, and it will always be the perfect dampness to blend cream or liquid products. If I want a lighter coverage, it’s also great for swiping across the face, which I know a lot of people cringe at when they see youtuber’s doing it, but I honestly see no issue with it? – They probably know what looks best on their skin! It’s an expensive sponge yes, and I do miss the flat side that the RT sponge offers, but I don’t think anything could beat it overall for it’s general blending of products as a whole. It’s one expensive sponge at £16.00, but it’s a great tool and can be found here.

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I hope you enjoyed my favourite base products for summer! What are yours?🌞

Love, Georgia xx

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