The Two Makeup Products I Use to Get Glowing Skin

Warning: this post is not for you if you want a matt, pale look from your makeup… this is all about a bit of GLOW!

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Recently I was at a small all-women gathering – some of whom I hadn’t met before – and the topic of skincare came up. The friend I did know mentioned she’d been very pleased with the Seven Seas Perfect7 Renewal Advanced supplements for her skin that I recommended earlier this year.

Of course we, as women, are inherently interested in and obsessed with our skin. The conversation directed towards me and those supplements (which I still buy myself and take religiously every day), and I was told that I had “wonderful” skin, very youthful and glowing. Or something along those lines.

Aside from the fact that I was quite taken aback because I have NOT always had good skin (expect another blog post soon on how I changed that), I was very flattered – but I also knew that I had a little secret.

TWO little secrets, in fact: two products that make my skin glow, whilst still maintaining a fresh face look (no foundation or heavy mask-like makeup in fact).

A few years ago – or even six months ago – I would never have thought that possible.

But here we are…!

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That day I was wearing the lightest of makeup, and that same look is my go-to, everyday look for when I REALLY don’t want to look like I’m wearing much makeup, but I still want to look somewhat alive.

I’m not talking “the no makeup makeup look” – I mean no makeup as in no base. But with mascara and eyebrows (of course) done.

This is before the makeup products (all I have on is a little Touche Eclat around the red parts of my nose and my eyebrows are filled in)…

Now let’s look at those two products and see what difference they make – they are:

1. THIS bronzer serum

The bronzer I use is one I’ve talked about in my 12 Beauty Products I Am Absolutely Loving Right Now post: Beached Rays for Days*. This stuff is the absolute BUSINESS for anyone who wants to wear bronzer but doesn’t want that cakey, powdery bronzer look. (US link)

It’s a liquid serum, so looks a lot more natural than a powder bronzer.

I wear it in two ways, depending on the kind of look I want: I either mix a couple of drops of Rays for Days in with my moisturiser or I use it on its own. Or sometimes a bit of both.

Be warned, adding it “undiluted” will give you an even greater glow, so use sparingly and with caution or you’ll look like an Oompa Loompa who’s gone cuckoo for highlighter.

Here I added it straight to my bare skin. Can you see how the slight pastiness has disappeared? And how my skin has that lovely bronzed sheen to it?

I added small dots of it to the middle of my forehead, nose and each cheek, and bounce-blended it in with a damp Beauty Blender sponge (wet it thoroughly under the tap and then squeeze out on a towel or tissue). A little like contouring, but I add it to the parts that would normally catch the sun, like across the bridge of the nose and top of the cheeks rather than ‘traditional’ cheek contouring.

It’s an effect I absolutely LOVE – no other bronzer of any description I’ve used has even come close to this delicious. As they [the Australian brand Beached] say, the Aussies know their glow.

That’s it – no foundation. Just the Touche Eclat I mentioned earlier.

2. THIS setting powder

I know that summer is pretty much over (well okay – completely over), but the powder I wear all summer long has a slight ‘sparkle’ to it. A long-time favourite product of mine, I use bareMinerals Illuminating Mineral Veil to make my skin look dewy, and therefore glowing.

Now don’t be put off by the word sparkle – it’s not like wearing highlighter all over your face. I find that it makes your skin look dewy as opposed to sparkly, almost as if you’re not wearing any powder at all.

On the Asos website they describe it as containing “light-refracting pearls for a glowing finish” – hence the reason why I’ve included it as one of my top products for making my skin glow.

Here’s the Mineral Veil setting powder added, with mascara and a tinted lip balm:

And that’s my final look! All it took was just those two products to give my skin a lovely bronzed glow.

I tend to switch back to the (non-illuminating) bareMinerals SPF25 Mineral Veil in the colder months, but this year I might keep creating the glowing look with the illuminating version until it looks, er, wrong.

(I know it makes more sense to wear the SPF25 version in the summer, but you still need SPF in the winter and I always wear SPF in my day moisturiser anyway, summer or winter.)

What I love about this setting powder is that as well as the dewy, glowing look it gives you, it prevents oily shine. I’ve always had quite oily skin and a shiny T-zone was always the bane of my life come lunchtime before Mineral Veil. Even without a makeup touch up my skin doesn’t look like an oil slick at the end of the day, nor does my makeup slide. If you were to touch my forehead in the afternoon or evening, it’d be “dry”… not a greasy patch in sight!

I dust the powder lightly over my T-zone and then use anything that’s left on the brush on the rest of my face (job done). I can’t imagine anything coming remotely close to this product, I’ve used it for years.

Now, go forth ladies – and glow!