The Easy Way To Add Definition + Glow This Summer

Summer is the perfect time to experiment with beauty and the experts we’ve conferred with are picking up on a general consensus for fun, colourful, mood-reflecting makeup. Here Amy Heffernan, Irish Tatler’s assistant editor shows a fresh new makeup look for our newfound freedom, created using M•A•C Cosmetics products.

Change is in the air. Can you feel it? June’s blue skies have become a signifier for positivity. We’ve made it through that hellish winter and hibernated through more lockdowns than I care to reflect upon, but we’ve reached a point now where it’s not foolish to look forward, to start making plans to reunite with those we’ve missed for so long.

Despite my school days being long behind me, the rush of excitement feels a little like starting anew in September and seeing how much people have changed over the summer months. I’ll certainly be different when I re-emerge into the world post-pandemic, and perhaps, this brings with it an opportunity to look different, too. Personally, the past year has changed much about my approach to beauty and I can see myself embracing a lower maintenance look even as normality resumes. But, lower maintenance can also mean polished and pulled together, so this is my happy medium makeup look and all the products I used to get there.

An old-faithful in many makeup bags and the original product of its kind, M•A•C Strobe Cream adds a healthy sheen to bare skin, it can fake a warm glow under foundation and, when dabbed on the high points of the face, its light-reflecting properties work to create a lit-from-within glow. ‘Goldlite’ is my particular shade of choice, but there is one to suit all skin tones.

Strobe Cream, €34, M•A•C Cosmetics – SHOP

M•A•C Studio Fix Fluid Foundation is often misunderstood as full-coverage, but rather, its liquid consistency is very much buildable. The veil of coverage it lends is seriously long-lasting, with up to 24-hour wear, and for days when I fancy even more glow, I mix a drop or two of the foundation with a couple of mists of Fix + before applying – a trick I learned from Dominic Skinner, M•A•C global senior artist.

Studio Fix Fluid Foundation SPF 15, €32, M•A•C Cosmetics – SHOP

For me, it wouldn’t be summer without bronzed and glowing skin and with one sweep, M•A•C Mineralize Skinfinish in ‘Cheeky Bronze’ works to both warm up the complexion and add a multidimensional glow.

Mineralize Skinfinish, €32, M•A•C Cosmetics – SHOP

Then, to brows. While I’ve been a long-time advocate of the full, natural, boyish brow, since the advent of face coverings, I’m finding myself preferring a more angular brow, one with added lift and arch definition. After a year without our regular maintenance visits, who could blame a girl for wanting to look a little groomed? M•A•C’s brow offering is a one-two punch for perfect arches; the Eyebrows Styler has a microfine tip that fills sparse areas with natural, hair-like strokes, while the Eyebrows Big Boost Fibre Gel adds dimension and depth.

Eyebrows Styler, €20, M•A•C Cosmetics – SHOP

Eyebrows Big Boost Fibre Gel, €24, M•A•C Cosmetics – SHOP

To finish, I add lashings of a lengthening mascara such as M•A•C In Extreme Dimension 3D Black Lash, which ensures every lash gets coated thanks to its densely packed bristles.

M•A•C In Extreme Dimension 3D Black Lash, €26, M•A•C Cosmetics – SHOP