Hello sunshine: the products promising to inject some sunshine into your beauty routine

Ah summer. You finally made it.

After a start to the month so soggy it was dubbed Monsoon June, the season has begun to behave, as demonstrated by the little sun symbols multiplying on weather forecast apps across the capital.

 Of course, nothing lasts forever. And as much as we’d like to, you can’t bottle sunshine. Though that hasn’t stopped the beauty industry from trying.

According to a host of the most covetable brands on the planet, sunshine itself is summer’s hottest ingredient — at least, so say the labels — with products promising to leave you radiant, sunkissed and shining bright without a UV ray in sight.

Gen Z beauty blue sky thinker Milk Makeup’s Sunshine Oil (£32.50, cultbeauty.co.uk) is a good place to start. Laced with skin-loving oils like avocado, grapefruit, mandarin and lemon peel, use it anywhere to impart a subtle sheen. Plus, the perfectly portable pen lets you take a little ray of sunshine with you wherever you go. 

Cult “clean-clinical” skincare brand Drunk Elephant is also brightening up our make-up kits with its D-Bronzi Anti-Pollution Sunshine Drops (£30, cultbeauty.co.uk). “I’m inside most days. I don’t wear foundation, but I really wanted a little something I could mix into my other products to give my skin some colour,” says founder Tiffany Masterson. For a healthy, post-holiday glow, add a drop or two to your serum, sunscreen or moisturiser. Along with omega-rich virgin marula and blackcurrant seed oils, the formula comes with the added benefit of containing a chronopeptide which mimics the antioxidant effects of vitamin D.

Other glow-getters can be found in the form of Decléor’s Sun Kissed Cream (£58, decleor.co.uk) — a lightly tinted moisturiser packed with vitamins, citrus essential oils and beta-carotene to energise dull, tired complexions — and Chanel’s Soleil Tan de Chanel sheer illuminating fluid (£32, chanel.com), a weightless and universally flattering bronzing make-up base boasting light-reflecting pigments.

For hair, Oaui’s Sun of a Beach ombré spray (£20, spacenk.com) is formulated from pineapple juice and lemon-infused coconut water and is designed to be spritzed onto hair before sun exposure for natural highlights.

For lips, there’s Lipstick Queen’s Mornin’ Sunshine (£22, spacenk.com) which appears bright yellow in the tube but transforms to your perfect peachy-pink by reacting your individual pH level when applied.

Of course, all this sun worship doesn’t mean you should skip the SPF before stepping out of your front door. So for that, high-performance holistic brand Kypris has you covered with its ingeniously named Pot of Shade (£87, net-a-porter.com). Boosted with zinc oxide and moisturising botanicals — but without essential oils, making it ideal for even the most sensitive skin — this broad-spectrum and beautifully translucent cream will turn sunscreen application into the best part of your morning ritual. 

Glow on.