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How to Make Your Summer Beauty Products Work for Fall

It’s time to go back to school, collegiettes! Time for a fresh start, new friends, fall outfit trends to try and a brand-new beauty look. But how do you afford all that fall makeup you’ve been drooling over? Don’t sweat it; HC is here to help you stretch your summer makeup into the fall. We’ve found tons of ways to make all of your bright summer hues work for autumn styles, too. Don’t put yourself into too much debt at Sephora yet, collegiettes—there’s hope for your wallets!

1. Don’t throw away your bronzer


Everyone’s skin gets lighter in the winter; instead of spending all day at the beach, you’re now cooped up in the library studying. While some girls throw away bronzer that’s too dark for them once their tan fades, you can use it for a different reason.

Sophie Dodd, a senior at Middlebury College, says, “In the winter, I love to use bronzers that are too dark … to warm up my pale skin as a contour color under my cheekbone or as a crease-defining color on my eyes.”

You can also pair a bronzed look with fall colors. “If your face is naturally bronzed by the sun, enhance that with a lightweight or liquid bronzer, but deepen the color palette on your eyes,” says style and beauty expert Elizabeth Kamm. “Soft browns, grays and purples or aubergine eye shadow give a perfect hint of fall, but you can still have a bronzed look.” Contouring with bronzer like this NARS bronzing powder ($38) will help to balance out the darker shades of fall.

Bronzer can be a great tool to give yourself a little bit more of a glow in the summer, but it also can be useful as a darker contour shade for the winter. Don’t let it go unused until next summer!

2. Keep your floral perfume and add muskier notes


You didn’t splurge on that great Marc Jacobs summer perfume for nothing! “I love smelling like candy at summertime and anytime,” says celebrity makeup artist Hasblady Guzman. “Go to Sephora and grab yourself Pink Sugar Roll-On Shimmering Perfume ($18).” Don’t feel like you need to limit your summery smells just to July and August—smelling sweet can be great all year long.

In addition, Sophie recommends layering a floral summer scent with a woody or musky fall scent to create a more complex fragrance. While everyone else is wearing deeper fall scents, you’ll have a hint of something lighter and more floral to stand out in the crowd!

3. Rock coral lips with muted makeup


Coral lipstick is a makeup staple that doesn’t have to disappear in the fall. While this color looks summery with pastels, your awesome beach tan and sandals, you can definitely dare to wear this lipstick with some of your fall wardrobe for an edgier vibe, too.

Guzman recommends wearing bright coral lip color and bronzer into the fall. Kamm agrees. “Oranges work so well with the browns, tans, chocolates and even aubergine and burgundy colors that we will start to wear come fall,” Kamm says.

Coral is a versatile shade that will look light and airy with summer colors and will be a bright splash of color with autumnal outfits. If you’ve never tried a coral shade before, check out Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick ($21) from Sephora in matte neon orange.

If you still don’t feel like a pro at applying lipstick, coral or otherwise, try these tips from HC for rocking your lipstick like a pro!

4. Make colored eyeliner work with monochromatic or muted eye shadow


While colored eyeliner has been a pretty hot trend this summer, you can make it work for fall, too. Sophie suggests using your colored eyeliner with a dark gray or black eye shadow to make the look more autumnal. Try a light blue for an “ice-queen” look; it may not be winter yet, but you’ll definitely be the coolest collegiette on campus (pun intended)!

For a pretty eye-makeup look you can wear all year, Kamm says, “Lilac and light purple are very prevalent colors for fall, so a good makeup trend to complement [one of these colors] is to use a silver metallic shadow on the inner corner of the eye.” Transition your summery bright purple eyeliners into fall with Kamm’s awesome combination!

A neon eyeliner could work as a pop of color with a darker outfit and eye shadow, too. Don’t worry about colored eyeliner going out of style, collegiettes—it looks like these great colors are here to stay. Try the 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil from Urban Decay ($20) in Abyss or Freak.

5. Pink lip gloss never goes out of style


Don’t make the mistake of swapping out of all your pink lip colors and glosses for the deep burgundy reds and purples of autumn and winter. With icy lilacs and metallic eye shadow shades, Kamm suggests pink lip gloss: “Wear a shimmery, nude lip or just barely there tawny pink … to slightly warm the look.”

Guzman says, “I also love a gloss like Stila lip glaze in Guava ($22).” Don’t ditch your pink lip gloss because pink isn’t traditionally a fall color. You can make it work with the rest of your awesome autumn wardrobe!


Just because summer is ending doesn’t mean you have to abandon your gorgeous summer corals or floral perfumes; you just have to switch up how you wear them! Try to incorporate your summer beauty staples into your fall looks instead of leaving them to gather dust at the bottom of your makeup bag. Every collegiette could use a splash of summer in her life when the weather starts to cool down; why not have yours be your makeup?

Hannah Grace is a junior at Stanford University majoring in English. In her spare time, she loves to horseback ride.