22 new beauty launches worth clearing shelf space for this summer

Summer has a way of rewriting the beauty routine entirely, pulling attention away from heavy coverage and toward products that can survive humidity, sun, and the general chaos of a season spent mostly outdoors, and this year’s crop of launches seems to understand the assignment better than most, with formulas built for glow rather than concealment and textures designed to melt into skin rather than sit on top of it.

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From Guerlain’s Terracotta Joli Teint bringing its cult bronzing heritage into a tinted moisturizer to Tower 28’s back-to-back appearances with a plumping lip jelly and a lengthening mascara, the lineup spans skincare-makeup hybrids, cream-based color, and hair treatments engineered for the specific damage that sun and salt water tend to leave behind. What follows is a rundown of the 22 launches earning a permanent spot in the summer rotation, along with guidance on how to layer them so none of the effort goes to waste.

How to Layer Your Beauty Products for Summer

Getting summer makeup to last through heat and humidity comes down to the order products go on rather than how many are used, since layering the wrong textures against each other tends to cause pilling, sliding, or a finish that looks heavier than intended by midday.

Start with hydration: A lightweight serum or gel moisturizer should go on first and be given a few minutes to absorb fully before anything else touches the skin, since applying makeup over a half-absorbed base is the most common cause of product sliding off by noon.

Let tinted moisturizer replace foundation entirely: Something like the Guerlain Terracotta Joli Teint works because it’s formulated to sit closer to skin than a traditional base, so it should go on with fingertips in thin layers rather than swiped on with a brush, which tends to disturb the finish.

Cream products go before powder products, always: A cream bronzer like Too Faced’s Sun Bunny should be blended in before a water-based formula like REFY’s Water Blush, since applying a water-based product over cream can cause both to break down and shift throughout the day.

Balms and glosses come last, and get reapplied often: Hourglass’s Phantom Blur Balm and Tower 28’s ShineOn Plumping Lip Jelly are both built to be touched up rather than applied once and forgotten, so keeping them on hand through the afternoon matters more than getting the first application perfect.

Hair treatments belong in the routine before sun exposure: A leave-in mask like K18’s Molecular Hair Mask is most effective when applied before time outdoors, since it works to protect the hair’s structure from heat and salt damage rather than simply repairing it after the fact.