When it comes to the searing heat and merciless humidity of a Karachi summer, your beauty regime has got to be seasonally savvy. As you lighten up your wardrobe with light cottons and breezy fabrics, your hair and make-up need to change too.

Beyond the Blow Dry

There is a need to have summer hair and winter hair that go with your summer look and winter look. Translation: don’t only live in the land of the straight blow dry.

Karachi girls have started to have a predictable uniform: LV bag, bouncy blow dry, designer sweats, scrawny (albeit very enviable) bodies, light streaks, designer glasses, and no make-up other than liner and lipstick. Its so 90s, girls! I love a good blow dry, but summertime calls for more relaxed, flowing waves. Try a less severe blow dry and follow it up with a good tonging or a smaller Velcro roller. Keep the smooth shiny hair for the more severe colours of winter. Just because our seasons barely vary doesn’t mean that we should persist in being monotonous too. Relaxed and colourful now, severe and smart in the cool.

Bases that Beat the Heat

The success of a summer base relies on you keeping it matte, keeping it light and keeping it cheerful. Choose colours for the summer that will create your “look of the season.” Coral blush, peach lipstick, gold eyeshadow all make up a nice sun-kissed palette, but a greasy base will put an end to all of that. With this in mind, the crucial cog in the wheel of summer hotness is that heat-defying base.

One success story in this climate has been the mineral base. I have reviewed mineral bases before, but with more experience comes more advice. A mineral base is a wonder of modern make-up technology: thick, dense, clingy powder swirled over your face (in circular motions) gives you natural but intense, oil-free cover. To use as a concealer, simply dab with a finger tip, and for more coverage, swirl another layer on. There are some pitfalls to mineral bases, though:

• Buy a colour a shade lighter than your skin, as it darkens substantially over time.
• Do not use the brush attachment; the bristles are cruelly rough.
• Start with a thin layer. For more coverage, add another thin layer. You can look cakey fast, so beware.
• Start with clean oil-free skin, or else you will still break out.
• I have found mineral bases to cause an increase in white heads, though regular cleansing will circumvent this issue.

Modern make-up marvel: A good mineral base. Photo: Bina Khan

All these issues aside, a powder that turns into a base to give you one-step coverage remains a miracle. I like L’Oreal “True Match” the best.

The other base that works well here is by an Italian company called Karaja. Unsurprisingly, since southern Italy can be as hot and as humid as Karachi, their bases handle heat and humidity extremely well. The “Stop Shine” range does just that and you don’t even have to powder it if you don’t want to. Plus Italian skin and ours are very good matches for each other (as opposed to foundations for Asian or black skin, which can get a little too yellow). A light powdering for the evening is advisable, though in the day a bit of dewiness is no bad thing. This is my favourite base of the moment and perhaps the best base for our skin and climate that I have used so far.

If your base does its job quietly, then you can feel free to add that little bit of shimmer here and there with a swish of peach and a splash of gold, leaving you looking dewy but un-wilted, and summery yet serene.