Can we retire “summer bodies are made in the winter”? Because honestly, my thighs were never the problem. My foundation was.

This year, the real flex is not abs. It is walking into July wearing less makeup than you did in February and meaning it. Not because you gave up, but because you leveled up.

Somewhere along the way, we made makeup and skincare enemies. Team Skincare told us to ditch foundation. Team Makeup told us to just cover it. Meanwhile, our pores were stuck in the middle wondering who was actually in charge. But here is the truth: makeup and skincare are best friends who thrive when they stay in their own lanes.

Skincare builds the house. Makeup decorates it. Skincare is the Pilates membership. Makeup is the killer outfit. Skincare is the leading lady and makeup is the supporting actress who still wins an Oscar. When your skin is hydrated, balanced, and exfoliated properly, makeup fuses with it. It becomes seamless. It looks like skin, just elevated. Not layered, not separate, not performing. When your barrier is healthy, you naturally need less, and what you do use looks infinitely better. That is not anti makeup. That is pro glow and pro glam.

Let’s talk about what usually happens instead. A little texture shows up, so we add coverage. Coverage gets heavier, so pores get louder. Skin becomes reactive, so we add more product. Suddenly we are baking, setting, blurring, and filtering in real life, and then we decide our skin is the problem. No, babe. Your skincare and makeup stopped communicating. If your makeup is constantly trying to fix what your skincare did not address, she is exhausted. And frankly, so are you.

The women I am seeing right now are not asking how to cover this. They are asking how to not need to. They want tinted moisturizer instead of full foundation, spot concealer instead of full face correction, glow that is not glitter, and skin that holds its own in hockey arena lighting, which might be the most humbling lighting of all. They want to look like themselves, just smoother, brighter, calmer.

Makeup should enhance your skin, not hide it. If you are hiding it every day, that is usually a sign something underneath needs attention. And attention is far more powerful than camouflage.

Here is the plot twist no one likes to hear. You cannot panic your way into summer skin in June. Skin does not respond to desperation. It responds to consistency. Barrier repair takes time. Pigment correction takes rhythm. Texture refinement takes intention. Winter and spring are quiet but strategic. They are the months where we do the disciplined work so that summer gets to look effortless. And effortless is always engineered.

The real summer flex is catching your reflection in natural light and realizing you are wearing less than you did last year. Less foundation. Less concealer. Less stress. Instead of feeling exposed, you feel powerful. Your skincare handled the heavy lifting. Your makeup just showed up to enhance, edit, and elevate.

That is the energy this season. Not no makeup. Not full glam at nine in the morning. Just skin that is so well supported that makeup becomes optional instead of mandatory. And when you do wear it, it works with your skin instead of fighting against it.

If you have been feeling the nudge to reset your skin before summer, simplify your makeup, or finally understand why your foundation is not sitting right, trust that instinct. Summer skin is not built in the summer. It is built in the quiet months, in small rituals, in consistent decisions, in choosing to support your skin instead of covering it.

The women who glow in July usually started in March.

And the best part is no one sees the strategy.

They just see the skin.