Makeup Artists' Playbook for Carrying Summer Glow Into Fall
Makeup artists Christian Briceno and Tim Quinn tell ELLE how to carry summer glow into fall: hydrate with glycerin and ceramides, skip aggressive exfoliation, and replace fading tan with cream bronzer.
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The takeaway
- Briceno recommends glycerin, hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and squalane over aggressive exfoliation to maintain luminosity into fall.
- Product picks include Dolce Glow Blush Me Self Tanning Blush, Westmore Beauty Body Coverage Perfector, Bondi Sands Technocolor Sapphire, Isle of Paradise Self-Tanning Drops, and St. Tropez Self Tan Express Bronzing Mousse.
- Retinoids, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, and frequent scrubbing accelerate tan fade; ESW Beauty's Papaya Milk Glow Serum offers a hydrating alternative.
"The goal shouldn't be to keep your August complexion frozen in place," makeup artist Christian Briceno tells ELLE. "Summer glow is an effect, not just a color. Keep the luminosity, soften the bronze, and let your complexion evolve into fall."
That framing anchors the seasonal transition strategy two working makeup artists lay out for readers holding onto summer skin: preserve luminosity and skin quality, not the tan itself.
Glow Is Not a Tan
"Glow is really about the way healthy skin catches the light," says Tim Quinn, makeup artist and co-founder of Halo42 Skincare. Briceno adds that you can lose color and still have better-looking skin.
The foundation of a natural glow is smooth, well-hydrated skin. As weather changes, layers of dry skin accumulate. Removing dead skin prevents dullness, but over-exfoliation backfires.
"What takes away glow for me is dehydrated, irritated, or over-exfoliated skin. Then you start losing that smooth reflection of light that makes skin look alive," says Briceno. His ingredient shortlist: "For glow, hydration does a lot of the work. I like glycerin, hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and squalane because they help keep the skin from becoming dry and dull as the weather changes."
Replace Color, Don't Preserve It
Briceno argues a smarter approach is to preserve skin quality and add fading color back on demand. "I would much rather see beautifully hydrated skin with a little strategically added warmth than dry skin desperately hanging onto a tan," he says.
Makeup is where you control the transition. "One of the easiest ways to make makeup look wrong in fall is to keep wearing the foundation shade you matched when you were at your most tan," Briceno says. But makeup should not replace moisturizers: "I would never compromise a good skincare routine to make a tan last a few more days. Let the color fade naturally and add it back cosmetically if you miss it."
For warmth, Briceno recommends cream bronzer, blush, and a touch of luminosity placed exactly where light naturally hits. "Whatever warmth you add should still feel believable against the neck, chest, and any exposed skin. I want the skin to look alive, not simply darker," he says. His product pick: Dolce Glow's Blush Me Self Tanning Blush, a blush-meets-self-tanning multitasker that develops over time to keep cheeks flushed and sculpted.
For a more natural finish, Quinn recommends a face or body oil like Halo42 Face & Body Elixir. "Oils are wonderful because they give skin that healthy, conditioned quality that naturally reads as radiance. I press it into the skin rather than rubbing it around, so the finish feels cared for and luminous, never greasy," Quinn tells ELLE.
On the body, the options are self-tanner or Briceno's preference: body makeup placed strategically on legs, shoulders, and the décolleté, "rather than making your entire body darker." His go-to is Westmore Beauty Body Coverage Perfector, which evens skin appearance and adds luminosity or a bronzed effect depending on the shade.
Self-Tanner by Skin Tone
Quinn points out that skin tones tan differently, but every skin tone can glow. "I've worked on every complexion imaginable over the years, and what I'm always looking for is vitality—that light coming through the skin," he says.
Briceno's rule of thumb: start with the skin in front of you rather than deciding in advance what color it should become. Quinn concurs. "One shade for everyone is a lovely idea in theory, but skin is much more complex than that. My philosophy is to work with the complexion you have and make it look its absolute best."
Natural skin tone affects how visible a tan is more than how long it lasts, and melanin levels influence how skin responds to UV exposure. "Still, it doesn't simply mean one skin tone 'holds a tan better' than another," Briceno clarifies.
With self-tanner, skin condition and moisture matter most. "Dryness, exfoliation, bathing habits, and normal skin cell turnover all affect how evenly color wears and fades," says Briceno, noting that "more tan" shouldn't be the automatic goal for every complexion.
For fair skin, both artists recommend a slow build. "The Hampton Sun mist works beautifully because you can control the depth with each application. I also like Bondi Sands Technocolor Sapphire, which was developed specifically for fair skin to keep the result from turning orange," Quinn recommends. Medium or olive skin tones can enhance existing golden or bronze tones. For deeper skin, Briceno says self-tanner is less about dramatic darkening and more about enhancing warmth or adding a just-back-from-vacation finish.
For customizable options, Quinn suggests Isle of Paradise Self-Tanning Drops, mixed with moisturizer and adjusted by the drop. "Their Light, Medium, and Dark shades make the concept very easy to understand," he says. He also likes St. Tropez Self Tan Express Bronzing Mousse, which works off a time-controlled developer: one hour for light, two for medium, up to three for deep.
Preventing Fade
Anything that accelerates cell turnover—retinoids, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, frequent physical scrubbing—will make both a natural tan and a self-tan fade faster, especially where self-tan develops.
"Too much exfoliation, too many acids, and too much scrubbing will quickly take you from St. Tropez to February in Connecticut," Quinn says. Acids will have their season in the months ahead; for now, he advises restraint.
The middle path: a hydrating exfoliator like ESW Beauty's Papaya Milk Glow Serum, which uses papaya enzymes to remove dead skin while a hyaluronic acid complex keeps skin hydrated and glowing—a formulation logic that mirrors the artists' whole argument for the season: moisture first, color second.
Source: Elle Beauty; Source: instagram.com
Rebecca Stone
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Market editor covering media and advertising at Eurasian Beauty Journal.
