Summer Makeup Heat and Humidity Survival Guide – Part One

Guest Blogger: Elise Marquam-Jahns

O.K., I hate to admit it, but last summer I experienced the ultimate summer makeup meltdown. I met a long-time friend I hadn’t seen for many months for a walk around one of the beautiful downtown Minneapolis lakes. It was, unfortunately, one of those days when you feel like a blanket of water has been wrapped around every hot pore on your body.

I’ve never reacted well to the combination of heat and humidity. In fact, on several occasions, I’ve felt like I couldn’t catch my breath and have actually fainted. Because of this history, I normally check the heat and humidity level before heading out the door for a walk, but in this case I was running late, had just arrived for a visit in Minneapolis after spending the previous year in the hot, but very dry, Arizona Sonoran desert area of Tucson, so I was unaware of the off-the-charts humidity level that day. 

Not surprisingly, about ten minutes into the walk I knew that my makeup was in meltdown mode. Twenty minutes later, sweat—along with my makeup–was literally dripping off my face.

Luckily, I have an understanding friend and we quickly headed to her air-conditioned car and house. You can be sure I’ll never fail to check the heat and humidity level again before heading out the door for a long walk. 

Fortunately, there definitely are some steps that can be taken to avoid the kind of summer makeup meltdown I experienced.I f you have any weddings, special events or other occasions during these warm summer months when you want to wear makeup, here are some ideas on how you can look cool as that proverbial cucumber.

First, let me say that the steps you choose to do to help your makeup look cool and fresh depend completely on what will work best for your skin. If your skin is quite dry, you may only need to do a few of these steps.I f you have combination or oily skin, you may want to try most or all of these skin preparation steps.

Be Judicious When Deciding What Products to Use

The “less is more philosophy” is a good one to adopt on hot and humid days. You may just want to even out your skin tone, fill in your eyebrows and go with mascara on your eyes. Or perhaps you just want to concentrate on your eyes and lips. Highlighting your best feature(s) and evening out your skin tone will go a very long way to help you look your best.

Skin Preparation Steps

1. Consider starting off with a gentle oil control cleanser.
2. Take a fresh ice cube and very gently—and with a light hand—quickly rub it around your entire face except your eye area. Keep the ice cube moving without applying much pressure so the ice won’t irritate the capillaries in your skin. This will help close your pores.
3. Apply a toner over your entire face and neck area with a cotton pad. 
4. Apply a small amount of Milk of Magnesia to your face with a cotton ball. It acts as a primer and will help keep your makeup in place. It has a whitish cast, but this will be covered by your makeup. The two key words here are small amount.
5. Spray your face with a setting spray (not a finishing spray) (Urban Decay’s “All Nighter” is a cult favorite.)

Check out the upcoming Part 2 of the “Summer Makeup Heat and Humidity Survival Guide” which will focus on specific steps you can take with your makeup to keep it looking fresh during those sweltering July and August days to come.

Since these articles on beauty are specifically meant to meet your needs, I’d love to hear from you directly about the makeup topics you’d like to learn more about in upcoming articles. Please feel free to email me at [email protected] with suggested topics. I can’t promise to cover all of them, but I’ll give it my best shot!  Thanks, Elise

About The Author:
Elise Marquam-Jahns is an author, speaker, radio host and makeup artist. As a makeup artist, her passion is helping women 45+ get their glow back. In addition to her work as a makeup artist for a major cosmetics line, she founded Boomer and Beyond Beauty which offers makeup consultations, applications, classes and makeup parties. As host of Normandale Community College’s monthly Learning Well Blog Talk Radio Show, she interviews a wide cross section of health and wellness experts.