3 Surprising SPF Tips We Can Actually Get Behind For Glowing Skin

I’m going to be honest with you: One of my personal biggest obstacles to reapplying sunscreen is I don’t know how to do it over makeup. Sure, you can reach for powders to pat on midday (and they are a good fix, if I do say so), but sometimes I’m looking for that soft, dewy look that loose minerals tend to blot and mattefy away. 

Well, as beauty writer Hannah English shared on a recent Instagram post, you can actually achieve that soft-focus filter look with an SPF and a microfiber beauty sponge. In the video, she takes a makeup blender and applies her SPF of choice directly onto a dry sponge (dry is key, she notes, as a wet one will dilute the potency). Then she gently pats and presses the formula into the skin, over the makeup. Remember: SPF’s purpose is to sit on the skin, protecting cells from UV damage, so it doesn’t matter that it’s sitting over makeup.

After she does this for the whole face, she lets the product set and dry for a minute or so—before going back over it with her bronzer and blush with powder brush. This helps blend the product in, while also fixing any makeup that the sunscreen may have messed up.