Keeping your makeup from sliding off your face is no mean feat when there's a heatwave but you can try and combat it with a mixture of products. As well as opting for long-wear makeup, you could try a primer, a setting powder, spritz a setting spray, or even stock up on blotting paper for your handbag. If you find your eyeshadow creasing because of the heat, an eye primer could be your new best friend. Keep scrolling for our tried and tested beauty products…
Best makeup primers for a heatwave
A primer with SPF prepares skin for makeup, helping it apply better and last longer, as well as providing an extra layer of lightweight sun protection.
Glossier Priming Moisturizer Balance
If you have oily skin already, hot weather can be particularly tricky. Glossier's latest launch is this priming moisturiser that has been designed with oily skin in mind. The gel-cream formula absorbs quickly for a refreshing dose of moisture that doesn’t add additional shine. The formula includes Niacinamide which helps improve the look of pores and uneven skin tone, while Willow Bark Extract visibly smooths skin.
Priming Moisturizer Balance, £23, Glossier
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Laura Mercier Pure Canvas Primer
There's a reason why Laura Mercier's Primer has been a cult favourite since 1996, and now the best-selling product has been reinvented with the Pure Canvas Primer collection. With unique, water-based, silicone-free formulas these primers create a breathable, protective barrier over skin. You can choose from Perfecting, Blurring, Illuminating, Protecting and Hydrating. As it's hot, opt for the Protecting version as the formula provides invisible coverage while protecting skin against harmful UVA/UVB rays and acts as a buffer from outside elements.
Laura Mercier Pure Canvas Primer, £32, Boots
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Clé de Peau Beauté Correcting Cream Veil SPF 25
The Clé de Peau Beauté Correcting Cream Veil SPF 25 is a favourite with beauty fans online, and this primer is renowned for creating a hydrated, primed base in preparation for your favourite foundation. It feels lovely on the skin and makeup stays put for hours.
Clé de Peau Beauté Correcting Cream Veil SPF 25, £55, Harrods
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Bobbi Brown Primer Plus Protection SPF50
You could try the Bobbi Brown Primer Plus Protection SPF50. This lightweight, fast-absorbing face primer enhances the quality of your foundation while delivering invisible broadspectrum UVA/UVB protection as well as helping to prevent sun damage and premature signs of ageing - it's a win-win, really.
Bobbi Brown Primer Plus Protection SPF50, £24.50, Bobbi Brown
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MAC Prep + Prime Fix+
If you're looking for something different, try the MAC Prep + Prime Fix+ - which is the first step of your routine. It gives a lovely luminous finish and is infused with a coconut scent - dreamy. It improves the wear of makeup up to 12 hours and leaves an ultra-illuminating effect on the skin.
MAC Prep + Prime Fix+ with coconut, £24, MAC Cosmetics
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Best eyeshadow primers for a heatwave
Who wants an oily crease where their eyeshadow should be? Or worse, a feline flick that's transferred on to an oily lid. Put a stop with an eye primer.
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion
This product has almost become legendary for its super staying power as it features space-age polymer technology that fills in any imperfections on the skin’s surface, prepping your lids for ALL-day shadow. What's more, there are various shades to choose from to get the perfect match to your natural skin tone. All you do is squeeze the Potion directly from the tube or use the wand applicator.
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, £19.50, Urban Decay
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NARS Tinted Eyeshadow Base
The NARS boosted lid primer neutralizes discolouration and imperfections while enhancing eyeshadow’s true colour and prolonging its wear. You can choose four skin tints and it locks in cream and powder shadows—all day long. The humidity-resistant formula stays put without sliding, creasing, melting, or fading.
NARs Tinted Eyeshadow Base, £21, John Lewis
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Best setting powders for a heatwave
Once you've applied your foundation, give your face a dusting with a setting powder to keep your foundation in place. If you want to go next-level, you could try baking your makeup. If you're confused, don't be. Baking (or cooking) is a term that has been used in the drag community for years, and it's a technique to keep your makeup in place. You apply translucent powder and let it sit on your face for 5 to 10 minutes, allowing the heat from your face to set your foundation and concealer. Then, you dust the powder off your face and you're left with makeup that stays put all day.
Charlotte’s Genius Magic Powder
This revolutionary, light-diffusing loose powder includes ingredients to help blur imperfections, visibly reduce the appearance of dark shadows and boost radiance for mattified, smoother-looking skin. This powder is ideal for a heatwave because of the Spherical Silica, a sebum absorber that mattifies and reduces shine. It reflects the light for a soft-focus effect.
Charlotte’s Genius Magic Powder, £33, Charlotte Tilbury
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BareMinerals Mineral Veil
This Tinted Mineral Veil finishing powder is a feather-light finish that adds just a touch of subtle colour to your skin. Buff it on bare skin or over your foundation, and it'll brighten your complexion, blur fine lines, and soften your features with its natural, nearly sheer shade.
bareMinerals Tinted Mineral Veil, £23, bareMinerals
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Best setting sprays for a heatwave
Setting sprays are the perfect finishing touch at keeping makeup from slipping before leaving the house. They're also good for refreshing on the go, so throw one in your handbag if you're off out for the day. Some beauty enthusiasts swear by using a setting spray after every layer of makeup, try it and see if this works for you. Some beauty influencers almost drench the face with setting spray and then fan dry.
Charlotte Tilbury's Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray
There was a waiting list for Charlotte Tilbury's Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray - it's that good. After its initial launch, it immediately sold out so you do NOT want to miss out when it's back. The delicately scented high-performance formula has a magic matrix of complexion-enhancing ingredients from soothing Aloe Vera to hydrating Japanese Green Tea to Aromatic Resin which helps to keep pores clean.
Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray, £26, Charlotte Tilbury
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Ciate London Everyday Vacay Setting Mist
The Ciate London Everyday Vacay Setting Mist is probably one of the dreamiest mist I've ever tried - it smells like a holiday in a bottle. Infused with coconut, this luminous ultra-fine mist holds makeup while micro-pearls add a delicate glow over the skin. The delicate coconut scent and healthy glow takes you straight back to the beach.
Ciate London Everyday Vacay Setting Mist, £18, Look Fantastic
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Anastasia Beverly Hills Dewy Setting Spray
This lightweight setting spray diffuses a fine mist of hydration over makeup to instantly banish the textured appearance of powders and create a dewy glow, ideal for after baking. The mist is lightly scented with a coconut-vanilla scent to transport your senses to a tropical paradise - ahh bliss! You can use this to add luminosity after setting powder and refresh throughout the day or can be used to intensify pigments and highlighters.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Dewy Setting Spray, £27, Look Fantastic
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Best blotting sheets for a heatwave
Blotting paper is a great way to minimise shine - especially if you're out and about. You just dab and the sheen disappears.
Fenty Beauty Invisimatte Blotting Paper
Trust Rihanna to make something like blotting paper cool but it really is key to keeping your makeup looking just-applied when you're out and about. Made with natural botanical fibres in the same expert technique as traditional Japanese paper, Invisimatte is as absorbent as it is silky smooth, with a continuous pink scroll that lets you choose your perfect size sheet every time.
Fenty Beauty Invisimatte Blotting Paper, £13, Boots
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Even more beauty products that are perfect for a heatwave
There are plenty of products that will ensure makeup stays put...
Long-lasting mascara
No one wants a mascara that smudges when the temperature soars. If you're looking for a long-lasting, matte black mascara you must try Bite Beauty Upswing Full Volume Mascara which is a clean, volumising, flake-resistant mascara, with tree berry wax, that delivers major lift, length and curl, for supersized lashes. The best bit? You won't look like a panda when the warm weather strikes.
Bite Beauty Upswing Full Volume Mascara, £26, Feel Unique
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A lip product to keep lipstick from bleeding
Trinny London's Miracle Blur is a best-seller for a reason. The tiny pot of wonder is to perform trickery on your skin and its appearance. The Miracle Blur Lip and Line Filler untraceably adapts to fine lines on the skin’s surface filling in and ironing out wrinkles, leaving your skin smooth and perfectly even.
Miracle Blur, £26. Trinny London
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