Five Ways to Summer-Proof Your Skin
If you’re having difficulties maintaining your commitment to planet glamazon in this hot sticky weather, look no further. Cincy Chic has the top five summer beauty tips to make certain you, and your look, don’t wilt in the heat.

Lighten Up!
Although some makeup devotees may feel the need to pile on the product, the opposite is the savvy lady’s answer. Instead of liner, how about nude gloss? Rather than lining the eyes, why not sweep on some mascara and go? The quintessential summer look is fresh and sun kissed.

“I wouldn’t recommend anything deep colored,” says Penny Dunlevy, owner of The Fairfield Salon, Spa and Boutique in Bellevue, Ky. “It’s all pretty light this year.”

The colors of summer are subtle Dunlevy says, especially pinks. A sheer liquid eye shadow is ideal for the season, this variety have staying power without packing an intense color punch.

Golden Strokes
A product friendly to both summer time and a variety of skin tones, bronzer is a summer essential that should be in everyone’s bag. Dunlevy says bronzer is great for giving a little bit of color to the otherwise nude summer palette.

Aside from the color, however, bronzer produces the illusion of just arriving home from a vacation in Brazil; when applied correctly, almost every woman looks a bit like Gisele Bundchen. And who could argue with that?

SPF, Please
Once you’ve found out about the summertime beauty colors, an important consideration in the choosing of your makeup is whether or not it has SPF or Vitamin E in it, Dunlevy says.

“You’ve got to have a skincare line that has SPF in it,” she says. “I’d say as little makeup as possible, but anything with an SPF is good.”

SPF protects the skin of your face, preventing wrinkles, redness and the usual bad effects of too much sun exposure.

Almost every beauty product is available with SPF and/or Vitamin E, such as a variety of foundations and lip products.

Poolside Beauty
Again, product lovers may be tempted to soak in the pool with a fully made-up face, but the summertime (and the pool) is not the time, or the place, for showing off your makeup skills.

But you can still take care of the problems that may have made you want to wear makeup at the local wading pool. If you have blotchy skin, use spray-on foundation or liquid foundation. The liquid version of this makeup staple has real staying power. If you look like a rabbit without mascara, pick up the waterproof kind.

However, foundation and mascara is where the too-much-makeup line is drawn at the pool. Leave your blush, eye shadow and lipstick at home. Let your natural, radiant self shine through.

Damage Control
For those misguided ladies who have already hit the beach or even walked outside without SPF-enhanced makeup and have felt the burn, we can help. Dunlevy says a common mistake people make is covering up sunburn with foundation. Applying foundation over damaged skin only makes it worse, she says. The solution? “A tinted moisturizer because you want to keep the skin moist but still give it a little bit of color,” Dunlevy says.

Another way to help keep your skin healthy is to use organic makeup, Dunlevy says. She uses Envy Eco in her salon. “It goes on nicely, and doesn’t crease because it doesn’t have talc in it,” she says. Organic makeup also has Vitamin E, which protects the skin. “Natural and organic are your buzzwords,” Dunlevy says.

Mineral-based make up is another good choice for summer, because the titanium dioxide and/or zinc oxide present in these pressed and loose powders, bronzers or eye shadows protect the skin from the sun. Think of these products as a colorful sun shield.