Hey all! I’m back in your feed just in time for summer! When you live in the Chicago area things are pretty freaking cold most of the time, so I live for summer. I love that beach aesthetic and pops of bright color in the sun! This post is a run-down of products that come out of hibernation when summer rolls around. Read on for the deets!

The first products that get a lot more use in the summer are my bronzers. I have two main bronzers and while I love them all year round, I think they look their most fabulous on warm sunny days. The first bronzer I ever bought was the Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil Bronzer, which I still love to this day for its matte look and the delicious smell. However, I always reach for the Physician’s Formula Butter Bronzer before anything else. This product gives my face the most amazing shimmery finish and the color is perfect for my skin tone. You can see it at work in my Memorial Day makeup Instagram post!

There are a few other face products I find myself leaning toward in the summer as well. As many of you know, I’m a big fan of the tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes, but my favorite one for the summer is the first one I purchased, Blissful. This color is a bright peachy pink with a hint of coral, so it looks great with just about any summer look. I also have two main highlighters in my collection. Like bronzers I use these all year round, but almost every day in the summer. Benefit’s Watt’s Up is my old reliable. It is a beautiful champagne color and gives me that “wet” highlighter look. It also applies really easily. I came upon the Wet N’ Wild To Reflect Shimmer Palette in I’ll Have a Cosmo later in my makeup journey, but I’m obsessed with the way it applies! I’ve had this palette for a really long time actually, but I’ve hardly made a dent because so little product goes such a long way. Plus the palette is only about $8 so it is definitely worth a buy if you’re on a budget.

For lips and eyes there are a few colors and products that scream “SUMMER!”, specifically bright reds, oranges, and rose golds. The Colourpop Super Shock Shadow in Weenie is the most beautiful rose gold and that formula is shimmery with stay-all-day power. I also use a lot of liquid lipsticks from Colourpop in the summer because they have amazing pigment and last forever. My current faves are Ultra Satins Kismet, Come Up, and Ultra Matte Ouiji (sorry folks this one is discontinued). I love my old favorite Ofra’s Miami Fever for a deeper brown-orange. I’m a big fan of that vampy lip in fall, but there’s something so fun about wearing loud colors that draw the eye! Honorable mentions go to Mac’s Vegas Volt and Candy Yum-Yum.

That’s the run-down of my current favorites for the summer! I’ve been having such a great time showing off summer looks and experimenting with color. Check out my Instagram: @katefishbeauty for more makeup and fashion. Comment below with your favorite summer makeup staples and thanks for reading!

-Kate