We did it. We reached summer. After snowstorms and rainstorms and exams and college applications, we reached summer. March came and we started counting down the weeks, and then the days, and then we went crazy and counted down the hours before we walked out of our school and never would come back. And then we came back for finals, and then it was done. Finally.
But the weather was awful. It was raining, and it was cold, and we were tricked into thinking summer was far away, it was a pipe dream.And then, in some miraculous event, the weather broke, and we got this heat wave. This heat wave that screamed at us to go to the beach and to get ice cream and drive with our windows down and jump into pools has taken over. So hi, summer. It’s been a while.
I do the same thing every summer, and I know that I’m not the only one. I sleep, I sleep and try to make for all of the sleepless nights and early morning I had over the seemingly endless school year. I change every aspect of my life. I am lighter, somehow. My makeup is lighter, and my hair gets lighter, and there is aspect of light all around me.
My beauty routine changes every summer, but there have been staple items and processes throughout the years. I always let my hair air-dry as much as possible, and I try to use the smallest amount of heat possible, even though I want to. I suggest it. My hair grows and it almost repairs itself from the months I spent blow-drying and straightening the life out of it. I switch from my regular, every day conditioner to a leave-in, a tip a friend of my mom gave me(a former hair stylist herself) years ago. My personal favorite, a gift from said friend, is Paul Mitchell’s The Conditioner™. My hair thanks me for it.
I reduce the amount of time I wear makeup by half, sometimes more, because my skin needs to breathe. The sun that I get over the summer makes me hate the idea of wearing foundation, and really, the idea of buying a new one to match my skintone, and I put it off as long as I can. If I do wear a foundation, I wear a tinted moisturizer with SPF in it, my current favorite being the NARS Velvet Matte Skin Tint. My taste in makeup is clearly higher than my current tax bracket, but I do know that a lot of drugstores have tinted moisturizers as well. I’ve always been a fan of the Maybelline BB cream, and I’ve heard only good things about E.L.F products.
I tend to use eyeshadow sticks instead of regular powders or eyeliners, finding them easier in the morning-when it’s summer, I want to spend more time just doing things, not getting ready. My favorite came in a Birchbox about a year ago, the LOC One and Done Shadow Stick in the color Peachy Sheen. My main goal over the summer is to make everything easier. I wear my hair in braids to keep it off my neck, and to keep it easier to deal with; I stick to the bare minimum when it comes to makeup because it is summer and that makeup doesn’t matter anymore.
It’s summer. Let’s enjoy it.
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