Latte-inspired makeup has been popping into our social feeds for a month now and for good reason. It’s gorgeous, flattering, straightforward to create, and works with any skin tone. Essentially latte makeup is about creating a beautiful, bronzed makeup look, similar to the colour of your morning latte - in any strength. Celebrity makeup artist Tobi Henney believes it’s universally flattering; because browns can be cool or warm and come in different depths, there is a brown tone that everyone can use to achieve the latte makeup look.”
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Choose your hue
Whether you wear matte or shimmer bronze makeup, selecting products in similar shades is the secret to a latte look. Made to warm up any complexion, a good rule to follow when choosing these hues is to go for colours that are only two shades darker than your natural skin tone. Makeup artist Henney suggests, “Lighter skin tones should look for beige, tan, and light caramel shades; those with medium skin tones can go for darker caramel, medium brown, and olive tones; while those with complexions can pick dark brown and rich caramel shades.”
Prime your skin
Start by priming your skin with a hydrating serum; this helps create a luminous canvas for foundation and bronzer. Dry skin never looks good with makeup plastered on top of it. If you have areas prone to redness (it’s common around the nose and the chin) or shine, or you want to boost skin clarity, opt for colour correcting, oil controlling and skin illuminating pink-based primers, like MAC Cosmetics Strobe Cream in Pinklite. Skin primers give you the perfect canvas to show off those natural-looking hues.
Add moisture
Jane Iredale HydroPurE Color Correcting Serum with Hyaluronic Acid & CoQ10, $103.
A double dose of skincare goodness and complexion-perfecting colour. This new hybrid serum is your skin hydrator and redness relief. For anyone with dehydrated skin that suffers from redness, this neutralises that high colour with a sheer green tint while boosting hydration with that moisture-magnet hyaluronic acid. Adding CoQ10 increases antioxidant protection, and olive extract maintains the skin's moisture barrier, locking that moisture in. While calendula, aloe, algae, and willow bark extracts keep skin calm and reduce flare-ups - it's a game-changing complexion enhancer.
Start with foundation - in any finish
Latte makeup enhances your natural colouring, so use any foundation formula that flatters your complexion. Satin matte makeup is on trend, winning combination with strategically placed shimmer bronzers. Lightweight skin tints with an SPF are also a great option if you want your skin to have a dewy glow. Tiktoker Rachel Rigler, who first coined the trend, was. Inspired by an image from 2018 (who said trends are cyclic), she says, "Aim for a milky, effortless foundation to create a radiant soft-focus glow similar to a summer tan."
The latest foundations with skin caring benefits
Chanel Healthy Glow Foundation Hydration And Longwear, $113. Hermès Plein Air, Complexion Balm, $145. Revlon Illuninace Skin Caring Foundation, $48. MAC Cosmetics Strobe Dewy Skin Tint, $75.
Bronzer
Blush is having a moment right now, and there is no reason you can add a pop of rose pink on the apples of the cheeks, but latte makeup is all about bronzer, right? It’s time to find your perfect match in any shade of brown, and then apply it where the sun would naturally hit your skin, forehead, brow bones, cheekbones, and down the bridge of the nose and chin. Matte formulas allow you to contour too. Hug the brush under your cheekbones buff in a circle to get that glam, chiselled look.
Summer Fridays Blush Balm Stick, $51.
The fastest way to give your skin an even bronze sheen is with a bronzer formula that melts into the skin. This beauty balm can be used on the cheeks and lips, blended into the skin with your fingers or buffed in with a large fluffy brush. There are four new colours; pictured here is Warm Desert.
Best powder bronzers
Jane Iredale PureBronze Matte Bronzer Refill, in three shades $89. NARS Laguna Bronzing Powder, there are nine shades $73. Stila Heaven’s Dew All Over Glimmer, in Copper Lake, $54. GXVE BY GWEN STEFANI Check My Glow Multi-Dimensional Illuminating, in Homegrown Glow $53.
Chocolate Mascara
Yves Saint Laurent Lash Clash Mascara, in Brown $75.
The finishing touch to any makeup look is a bold lash, and this trend heroes brown mascara. The latest from YSL is the colour of melted chocolate and boasts a volume-expert formula with a brush that loads up the lashes in one swipe. An oil-in-water wax with film-forming polymers, it loads lashes with colour in one swipe, while the Iris Florentina extract helps nourish every lash.
Bronze lids
Showing off an even, creamy-looking complexion emphasises the eyes. The eye makeup colours to wear with this trend should be rust, gold, tan and bronze. Mixing makeup textures helps keep this look current, such as a matte eye shadow base, with a shimmer liner or dust the lids with sparkle shadows. Try and keep the finished look soft and hazy, the most important aspect of latte makuep is seamless colour, so make sure you blend, blend, and then blend again.
Hourglass Voyeur Eyeshadow Stick, $55. Guerlain Ombres G Eyeshadow Quad, in 214 Exotic Orchid, $158. Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Colour Matte in Brick, $51. Giorgio Armani Eye Tint Liquid Eyeshadow, in colour 36, $57.
Chocolate Liner
Most of us own a black or brown eye liner, but do your have a liner that will brighten and define your eyes?
Charlotte Tilbury The Super Nudes Liner Duo - Nude Brown, $47
This eye liner duo is makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury’s, “Backstage secret to exaggerated, bigger, brighter-looking eyes.” Once the lids are defined with the bold chocolate the richly pigmented beige, is the ideal shade to rim the inner eye line and create that wide-awake look. Not only is this liner perfect for the latte makeup look the emollient oils and waxes mean it glides on effortlessly won't smudge during the day.
Bronze lips
The options for sunkissed lips are endless, from balms to gloss and satin matte lipstick, there are no rules with colour as long as it’s got a hint of gold, beige or bronze.
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