The quick-fix beauty essentials for your summer makeup bag

While the brooding tones and velvet matte textures of the winter months undoubtedly have a certain cosy allure, I confess to feeling elated each spring when everything starts to lighten up. Skin looks most radiant in candlelight (it’s universally flattering as opposed to its nemesis, the fluorescent office or changing room bulb) and bright sunlight. The most critical summer beauty staple is your SPF, which should be applied daily regardless of what you are doing; regularly and with diligence if you’re in the sun. Beyond SPF, which I wrote about in last week’s column, and which is a healthcare basic as well as a beauty tool, everything is mostly decorative, but that is where all the fun is. What follows are some beauty basics I’ve consistently turned to this spring season, and which I’ll be taking into summer with me for their quick results and timeless usefulness.

Kosas Revealer Skin-Improving Foundation (€40 at Space NK) is part of a new-to-Ireland US-based brand marketed as makeup with incorporated skincare. This does appeal to me, but infinitely more appealing is the glassy skin finish with medium buildable coverage, the expansive shade range, and the way that this foundation applies with a damp sponge like a veil of silk. It really is summer skin in a bottle, exposing just enough of the character of your skin – freckles and natural skin texture – while concealing the bits I personally enjoy less about my own face, like uneven tone and the appearance of dehydration.

You will still need a concealer if you like blemishes to disappear completely, and the Kosas offering, while lovely, is fluid and doesn’t offer total coverage. I incorporate Sculpted by Aimee Satin Silk Concealer (€30 at Boots) minimally so as not to lose the loveliness of the foundation’s soft finish. I use it to pinpoint and conceal blemishes and areas of pigmentation I’d prefer to cover. It stays in place with the loyalty of a put-upon boyfriend outside the River Island changing rooms, and doesn’t cake or look heavy.

Oily roots are my grooming cross to carry. We all have one. Depending on your particular scalp, too much hair washing can make things worse. Dry shampoo has saved me from many a manky hair day, but Hair by Sam McKnight Clean Girl Cleansing Cloths (€20 at Brown Thomas) are ingenius. Don’t worry, they are biodegradable too. I don’t use them every day – dry shampoo is a cheaper and better option for a whole-head refresh, but for flights, summer festivals and fringes, they’re ingenious. They’ll bring mutinous, limp bits of hair around the face right back into line. Just wipe the hair (rather than the scalp) and blast with your hair dryer or leave to air dry for an instantly resurrected style.

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MAC Lustreglass Sheer-Shine Lipstick in Thanks, It’s Mac! (€26 at Mac stockists) is the nude lip that artist Tonya Brewer used on Vanessa Hudgens recently at the Met Gala. Scrolling through the makeup imagery from that night, I was instantly drawn to the lip colour and went on a hunt to discover what it was. It was the aptly named Thanks, It’s Mac!, which is already a staple in my daily makeup bag. It garners as many compliments as the name suggests and is the perfect pink-nude for a wide array of skin tones. It makes makeup look “finished” without effort and is the sort of lipstick you can whack on without lip liner or a mirror if you’re inclined.