Pssst… Summer is officially underway, which means that you and your makeup routine should lighten up and have some fun!

We know that everyone is #superbusy, but we have some colourful makeup trends that will help you get you away from your computer screen and into a summertime state of mind.

One of the most versatile eye shadow trends on the runway and red carpet this year has been copper eye makeup. The earthy metallic adds warmth to any skin tone and works with every eye colour. The shade can be worn as a neutral for day or an eye-catching party look, just depends on the tools and techniques you use.

There are a variety of shades that fall into the copper colour family, so it’s easy to find one to suit your skin tone. Fair to medium skins should choose a softer copper with golden undertones  and choose more intense red- or orange- based coppers to bring out dark and deep complexions.

Here are our favorite ways to wear copper eye shadow this summer:

Monochromatic
+ Sheer Wash or Smokey. Choose a copper cream or powder shadow and run it over the upper and lower lash line with your point XXS brush, then smudge (short back and forth strokes without lifting brush from skin) along the lid for a smokey line. Add another layer of pigment just above the last application using your point XXS and XS brush to blend up toward the crease for a sheer wash of colour, or continue to build up the pigment for a full smokey look.

Accent Color
+ Halo Eye. Apply your go-to nude eye shadow over the entire lid with your point S brush, then dip the tip of your point XXS brush into a copper shadow and press over the centre of the eye for a metallic sheen that pulls focus and adds dimension.

+ Two-Eyed Eye. Copper shades pair well with a myriad of other hues: blues, greens, browns and other metallics. Blend a copper eye liner or shadow along the lower lash line with your XXXS brush to contrast an army green or navy shade worn along the upper lid. Or, blend a copper eyeliner over one section of the lash line for a playful accent to your neutral eye liners.

+ Colour Enhanced. Instead of rimming the waterline with a black or brown liner, try a copper pencil. You’ll be amazed at how it makes the green and gold flecks in your iris pop!

Hello sunshine! 
While it’s great you’re getting more vitamin D than a few (cooler) months ago, we don’t want you to get caught with any visible makeup lines (VML).

Your makeup may look blended in ambient, inside light or when you snap a well-lit selfie, but natural lighting is far less forgiving…

Luckily, the looks of the moment are easy–it’s all about that fresh, dewy and flawless complexion–so grab your flawless base set and reassess your go-to products with these quick tips:

Prep and Prime
Starting with healthy, hydrated skin is a must for a flawless foundation application.

+ Smooth a moisturiser and/or face primer over your entire face with your buffing brush. Next, dot product onto your face or the back of your hand, and use small circles to apply product onto skin. Foundation will glide over skin easily and the bristles of your brush will be primed for a sheer application.

Creamy Coverage
Choose a sheer coverage foundation or customise your full-coverage formula.

+ Take foundation on the tips of your buffing brush and start applying product to the centre of your face (where we generally need more coverage) with small circular strokes, moving out toward the edges of the face, until product completely blends into the skin. If you need more coverage on your jawline or chin, blend down and out onto your neck, until their are no VMLs.

+ Spot conceal areas that need more coverage with a creamy concealer and your square foundation brush.

+ Set the t-zone by applying a light sweep of translucent power with your contour brush.

Splash of Colour
+ Mimic a natural flush with a sheer cream blush. Dab the tips of your contour brush into product and start at the apples of your cheekbones, blending out into the surrounding skin with small, circular strokes. Switch back to the buffing brush and blend out the edges, for a lit-from-within finish.

Flushed Lips
+ If the long winter has left your lips dry and flaky, buff a healing lip balm over your lips with your lip brush. Allow it to set in for 5-10 minutes.

Smokey eyes and winged-out liners are red carpet staples, but we noticed a lot of celebs switching it up with a new two-toned eye trend—applying a different colour on the top and bottom lids and lash line line to create an eye-catching contrast.

While many eye trends match the upper and lower lash line, the two-toned eye trend is all about breaking the “matching” rules and getting creative with your colour pairing!

Before we get into the looks, let’s go over the basics of colour theory:

Analogous Mix
Choose similar colours, but feel free to mix up the textures and style.
+ Apply a navy gel liner on your top lid using your fine liner brush, making a slight flick at the outer corner. Take a shimmery gunmetal shadow on the tip of your point XXXS brush, place onto the roots of the lower lash line and move brush back and forth, allowing the angled shape to create a soft gradient of colour.

There’s no better time than the hot and humid days of summer to talk about the power of powder!

Why is powder so powerful?
Whether you want a “natural” look or full out glam, everyone wants their makeup to last longer without smudging, creasing or looking cakey. And there is no other formula that can do it better than powder.

There are a variety of cosmetic formulas – gels, cream, lotions, sticks—but powders are definitely the OG of modern cosmetics. The first powders used in the ancient civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia where ground by hand to adorn the face and protect the skin. And while we have a wide variety of powders available to us (without any pesky grinding), the raw materials used are similar to what we continue to find in powder products today. Pretty cool, right?

What exactly is powder?
Every brand and type of powder has their own unique mix of ingredients, largely dependent on the function of the powder. There is a long list of possible powder ingredients—talc, dimethicone, tocopherol, silica, kaolin, and titanium dioxide—to name a few, but, in layman’s terms, these ingredients can absorb moisture, smooth out the appearance of skin, reflect light, protect and treat skin, and add colour. 

Whatever your powder needs may be, the PowderBleu Collection has a brush for you:

Soft Powder Brush: The super soft large face brush is designed to apply a sheer layer of powder over the face to set makeup, remove shine or add pigment.

Soft Finishing Brush: The small tapered head fits into tighter areas (under the eyes and the T-zone) and is great for controlled application of highlight and blush.

Soft Complexion Brush: The domed, dense head is designed to blend and buff powder foundation onto skin for buildable, shine-free coverage.

Soft Shadow Brush: The luxuriously long bristles pick up and lay down powder shadows with minimum fallout and can be used to create a naturally-diffused look or over cream shadows to lock in pigment and prevent creasing.

Soft Kabuki Brush: The extra large plush head is perfect for applying powders to large areas of your body.

Plush Powder Puff: The velvety texture is designed to help tap on just the right amount of loose powder to set makeup or catch shadow fall out.

Yes, unicorn makeup is a thing and it’s not what little girls wear when they play dress up. What started as a Lisa Frank-inspired music festival look full of dreamy rainbow colours and all things that sparkle, has become a beauty industry category spawning creams, soaps, nail polish and entire makeup collections.

So, what makes a product unicorn-y? Pastel shades with an iridescent sheen (varying in colour when seen from different angles) in powder, cream and especially gloss, add a touch of glitter or face jewels and the rest is only limited by your creativity.

While looking like a unicorn is not a trend that appeals to the masses, we must admit that there are some really cool products that can be worn as a fun, creative look. And we promise you won’t be mistaken for a mythical creature.

Whether you want to add just small accents or a full unicorn face, these options suit a variety of styles:

Eyes
For those who like to experiment with eye shadow techniques…

+Unicorn palettes encourage you to experiment. There are no rules but here’s an easy technique to start with: choose a colourful palette and run the neutral matte shade along the crease with your point xs brush so you have a nude base to blend into for a clean edge. Sweep a shimmery pastel shade over the centre of the lid with the tip of your point xxs brush allowing the tapered bristles to do the blending for you. Introduce a third shade to the outer (or inner half) of eye lid with for a shift of colour then repeat the process on the lower lid or introduce a new shade or shades.

+ Add definition at the lashline with a tight liner or a deep shade (deep blue, purple, black) or go for a glitter shade of liner over if you want definition at the lash line.

Cheeks
Take your love of strobing to another dimension…

+Choose a prismatic powder and sweep over the tops of your cheekbones with a damp miracle sculpting sponge or a point s brush. Or, add in smaller areas like the inside corner of your eyes or cupid’s bow with your point xs brush.

Lips
When sparkly lips are your jam…

+Grab a lip colour that looks like crushed diamonds and work over bare lips  directly from the wand or layer over a lip colour with your lip brush.

If glossy lips are more your style…

+ Slay the unicorn lip with a holographic effect, layer lips with a pink or purple lipstick, then top with a light layer of prismatic lip gloss allow the gloss to remain a glaze on top of your base shade for the most dramatic effect.

If the no-makeup makeup trend sounds like an oxymoron, that’s because it is. But calling it the how-to-look-great-without-your-makeup-being-noticeable is a little wordy, so the shorthand will have to do.

The key to no-makeup makeup is to find the sweet spot where you apply just the right amount of product to give you a brighter, healthier, younger, and well-rested look. All while keeping your makeup pretty undetectable. You’ll know you’ve mastered the look when people say things like, “You’re so lucky, you have such great skin,” or “My eyebrows don’t grow in like yours…” Whether you choose to tell them it’s makeup or not is entirely up to you…

To help you go for the natural glow, here’s our no-makeup makeup guide:

Skin Care
In order for makeup to look “natural” it needs to look like part of your complexion. And that is only possible with well-hydrated skin. So, choose a moisturiser or face oil that suits your skin type and smooth all over your face with your fingers or your prep brush. Allow enough time (2-5 minutes depending on your skin type), for your skin to absorb the moisture before applying your foundation.

Foundation
Sheer coverage is easy if you have flawless skin, but most of us need a little coverage here and there. If you have tinted moisturiser, blend over your skin with a damp miracle complexion sponge, for a thin veil of coverage. Or, you can spot conceal with a natural finish foundation (go ahead and skip the matte and luminous formulas). Take a dab of foundation on the damp point of your miracle contour wedge and press onto the area that needs coverage – under eye, eyelid, around nostrils or under your chin. Finally, smooth into the surrounding skin with the flat edge of your sponge and repeat the process as needed.

#Pro Tip: If coverage looks too heavy, re-wet sponge and press over skin to restore your skin texture.

Cheeks
Choose a non-shimmer cream blush in a muted pink, peach or berry, and work onto the apples of your cheeks with your fingertips. Then, blend into the surrounding cheek area with your blush brush or miracle finish sponge. Don’t have a cream blush? Browse your existing lipstick collection (your barely-there lip colour may work for cheeks as well).

Eyes and Brows
If you have naturally dark and defined lashes and brows, you’re all set! For those who are follicle-y challenged or light-haired, go ahead and fill in your brows (keeping them on the “light” side) and sweep on mascara. For a little more definition, run a soft brown eyeliner over the top lash line and blend into the root of the lash line with your smudge brush.

Lips
Keep it simple: Sweep a sheer lipstick or tinted balm over the lips then work into the lips with your lip blur brush.

Elaborate eye trends like unicorn eye shadow and neon eyes may be popular on Instagram, but we’ve noticed that more and more celebrities are simplifying their eye makeup looks for red carpet and television appearances. We adore contrasting colours, cut creases and dark smokey eyes, but the one shade (monochromatic) eye shadow look is a refreshingly simple style that can be dressed up or down.

Follow these steps for a monochromatic eye that can go from daytime to evening:

Step 1. Choose a neutral shade(s) slightly deeper than your natural skin tone in a matte or velvet finish.

Recommended skin tone shades:

+Fair to Light: taupe, dove grey, heather, peachy brown

+Medium: khaki, mauve, plum, terracotta

+Dark: chocolate, burgundy, olive, raisin

Step 2. Apply shadow over lower lid (on bare skin or eye primer) with your soft shadow brush. Build coverage with light layers moving up toward the crease or higher up onto the orbital bone. The ultra lux filaments pick up pigments effortlessly—there’s no need to tap off excess—and lay down and blend over the lid with diffused precision.

Step 3. For more definition at the lash line, add a deeper shadow (in the same hue) around the lash line. Take shadow on the point of your point xxs or xs brush and work over the roots of lashes letting the tapered cut blend out softly as your apply.

Step 4. Easily transition into an evening look with a layer of metallic shimmer or glitter shadow in the same shade. Use your soft shadow brush to apply a layer of sheen all over the lid or use your point xxs or xs brush and press shimmer over the centre of the eye, inner corner or accent around the lashes.

Step 5. Enlarge and open up the eyes with long wispy lashes. Curl your lashes then apply several layers of your favorite mascara. Remove any clumps with your lash brow groomer.

Our guide to choosing the perfect MultiTech tools for any makeup look

The new MultiTech Collection gives you one universal cut in multiple sizes, so you can choose the size that works best for your unique look and style.

point L: This versatile brush is all you need for flawless coverage and a healthy glow! Use to apply liquid foundation, bronzer, highlighter, blush or a setting powder. Just dip the tip of the point into product and sweep onto the skin, allowing the tapered sides to do the blending for you.

point XL: When you want a light, natural finish, use the XL to sweep on your primer, moisturiser and blush. The larger brush head will give you a more diffused application.

point XXXL: This lush and large brush is just the thing for applying powders over your neck, décolletage and body. Take a powder bronzer on the point of your brush and swirl from your chin down your neck, chest and shoulders to extend your bronzed glow. Use to dust on shimmery powders over your body or to apply sunless tanning products evenly, without staining your hands.

point makeup sponge: Use damp or dry (depending on the level of coverage you desire) to apply liquid or cream foundations. Squeeze the sides and use the point to apply cream blush with a tapping motion to press into skin for a natural finish.

small point set: Includes 4 brush sizes for precise application and blending for all your unique looks:

Point S: all-over shadow, concealer, contour lines, highlighter
Point XS: color correcting, concealer, crease shadow
Point XXS: detailed highlighting, detailed shadow, lip blending
Point XXXS: brow filling, smokey liner, smudged liner, lip detailing