10 Beauty Lessons We Were *Not* Expecting to Learn This Summer
Did you know your AC could give you a better fake tan?
22 August, 2018
Hair
10 November, 2021
We’ve come to the end of a long summer of really good lewks and never have we felt so in-the-know. Our hair looks more romantic, our mascara has been retired until fall, and we have a whole new bag of tricks for our nail art Instagrams. All of this is thanks to some seriously ingenious pros and A-listers who generously donated their best tips and tricks. And we’ve still got two more months of summer to put them into action. Here, the 10 best beauty lessons we’ve learned all summer.
1. STAND IN FRONT OF YOUR AC FOR BETTER SELF-TANNER
Did you know you shouldn’t self-tan when your skin is too warm? Neither did we. We also learned, thanks to tanning pro James Harknett, we should start following self-tanning based off our hair color.
2.THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS WATERPROOF SPF
As dermatologist Dendy Engelman told us: “In a Consumer Reports study, almost half of the products failed to meet their SPF claim after water immersion—despite the fact that all featured claims of water resistance.” And there’s more sunscreen intel where that came from in our Q&A with the celeb derm.
We will spend the rest of the year drooling over the romantic updos hairstylist Allen Thomas Wood created for us (and they’re honestly possible to recreate at home), but this garden-inspired look had us running to our nearest New York City park for sprigs of greenery. And pretending we’re in Provence all the while.
Her new Josie Maran Argan Moonstone Drops is the secret to her “juicy” summer skin (though we’ll have to wait until the mid-August launch to nab our own bottle), and she finds a nice eyeliner will do in the summer—no mascara needed. She also loves to prance around barefoot.
Goop’s beauty director, Jean Godfrey June, told us all about the beautifying power of just letting go. Embrace thesweat dew. Let your hair go as wavy as it wants. And, like Josie Maran, skip that mascara.
4. JOSIE MARAN DOES “JUICY” SKIN AND NO MASCARA
Her new Josie Maran Argan Moonstone Drops is the secret to her “juicy” summer skin (though we’ll have to wait until the mid-August launch to nab our own bottle), and she finds a nice eyeliner will do in the summer—no mascara needed. She also loves to prance around barefoot.
5. SAYING “F-CK IT” IS THE ULTIMATE BEAUTY SECRET
Goop’s beauty director, Jean Godfrey June, told us all about the beautifying power of just letting go. Embrace the
Nail artist Alicia Torello created the perfect Fourth of July nail art that we would honestly wear year-round, and we found there is no better nail-modeling prop to show it off than a New York City hot dog. Ice cream cones are so last year.
After our assistant editor Hannah Baxter tested six different blond-boosting hair treatments, most of them tub-tinting purple, she landed on Drybar’s as her fave. But there were several awesome runners-up.
Always at the forefront of hair care, super-science-y brand Living Proof invented an in-shower hair styler that leaves the same ingredients found in hair spray and curl gel in your hair even after you rinse. The livin’ is extra easy this summertime.
7. DRYBAR’S PURPLE SHAMPOO IS A WINNER
After our assistant editor Hannah Baxter tested six different blond-boosting hair treatments, most of them tub-tinting purple, she landed on Drybar’s as her fave. But there were several awesome runners-up.
8. IN-SHOWER HAIR STYLERS HAVE BEEN INVENTED
Always at the forefront of hair care, super-science-y brand Living Proof invented an in-shower hair styler that leaves the same ingredients found in hair spray and curl gel in your hair even after you rinse. The livin’ is extra easy this summertime.
Yes, that stuff in your grandparents’ medicine cabinet. The Disney actress swears by Noxzema for makeup removal and, after her childhood stint as Toto in The Wizard of Oz, she would 100 percent know. We’re stocking up.
Pinterest let us in on the top trending hair colors users are searching for and saving this summer. One of the chart-toppers? Ash brown. We have a hunch this may forecast our fall hair color cravings come Labor Day.
10. WE WILL ALL WANT ASH-BROWN HAIR COME FALL
Pinterest let us in on the top trending hair colors users are searching for and saving this summer. One of the chart-toppers? Ash brown. We have a hunch this may forecast our fall hair color cravings come Labor Day.