How to Keep Your Glow From Summer Into Fall

The sun may be setting earlier, and temperatures are starting to dip a bit, but with a little guidance, the bronzy, golden, luminous effects summer had on your skin can last well into the cooler season. “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.”

The glow vs. tan difference

Before fully diving into a save-the-sun-kissed-skin routine, know the difference between a tan and a glow. “Glow is really about the way healthy skin catches the light,” says Tim Quinn, makeup artist and co-founder of Halo42 Skincare. Briceno agrees and further explains that you can lose some color (tan) and still actually have better-looking skin. The foundation of a good, natural glow is smooth, well-hydrated skin, and as the weather changes, layers of dry skin start to pile on. Getting rid of dead skin will certainly keep skin from looking dull, but if you go too hard with the sloughing, it can have the opposite effect and diminish your glow. “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. Instead, he says to focus more on moisture and less on aggressive exfoliation, and gives this recommendation: “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.”

Keep the glow going

You worked hard all summer to achieve your perfect level of bronze (sun-protected, of course). But rather than trying to preserve the tan, Briceno says a smarter approach is to preserve skin quality and replace fading color when you want it. “I would much rather see beautifully hydrated skin with a little strategically added warmth than dry skin desperately hanging onto a tan,” he notes.

If you’re keeping up with the moisture, but the luminosity is still fading fast, consider a cosmetic fix. According to Briceno, makeup is where you can really control the transition—adding that if your skin is getting lighter, let your foundation get lighter with it. “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.” While a seasonal makeup switch is a quick fix for fading glow, it shouldn’t replace your 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,” says Briceno.

According to Briceno, one of the easiest ways to bring warmth back to the face is with cream bronzer, blush, and a touch of luminosity placed exactly where the 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. Dolce Glow’s Blush Me Self Tanning Blush is a blush-meets-self-tanning multitasker that develops over time to keep cheeks flushed and sculpted.

If you prefer a more natural glow, Quinn recommends a good 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.

For the body, there are two options: self-tanner or Briceno’s preference, body makeup, placed strategically where you want that summer finish, like legs, shoulders, and the décolleté. “Rather than making your entire body darker,” Briceno says. His go-to is the Westmore Beauty Body Coverage Perfector, which he notes can even out the appearance of the skin and add luminosity or a bronzed effect, depending on the shade.

Self-tanning for your skin tone

Quinn points out that while skin tones tan differently, 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.” A complexion rule of thumb, according to Briceno, is to 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.”

Briceno adds that your natural skin tone affects how visible a tan may be more than how long it lasts. Additionally, your natural melanin level influences how your skin responds to UV exposure and how visibly you develop color. “Still, it doesn’t simply mean one skin tone ‘holds a tan better’ than another,” he clarifies.

With self-tanner, what matters most is the condition and moisture levels of your skin. “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.

Both Briceno and Quinn agree that self-tanning fair skin requires a very 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. On medium or olive skin, you might want to enhance golden or bronze tones that are already there. For deeper skin, Briceno says self-tanner is less about becoming dramatically darker and more about enhancing warmth or adding that just-back-from-vacation finish.

For more foolproof options, Quinn suggests Isle of Paradise Self-Tanning Drops because they are completely customizable. Mix them with your moisturizer and adjust the number of drops depending on how much color you want. “Their Light, Medium, and Dark shades make the concept very easy to understand,” Quinn points out. He also likes St. Tropez Self Tan Express Bronzing Mousse, which works off a time-controlled developer—one hour for light, two for medium, and up to three for deep.

Preventing color fade

As explained previously, anything that accelerates cell turnover can make both a natural tan and a self-tan fade faster, so go gentle with your exfoliators. “Too much exfoliation, too many acids, and too much scrubbing will quickly take you from St. Tropez to February in Connecticut,” Quinn says. There will be a time for them in the coming months, but for now, hold back on overusing retinoids, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, and frequent physical scrubbing, particularly in the areas where self-tan develops, if you want to keep your bronzy or golden glow. Instead, try a hydrating exfoliator like ESW Beauty’s Papaya Milk Glow Serum, which uses papaya enzymes to get rid of dead skin, while a hyaluronic acid complex keeps skin hydrated and glowing.

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