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I wake up, clean my teeth, and go straight into my skin and makeup routine before I do anything else. Not after coffee. Not after checking my phone. So when the beauty world declared this the summer of skin-minimalism, I read every article with interest and then quietly kept doing exactly what I already do.
It has been this way for as long as anyone in my life can remember. So when I started reading about the skin-minimalism trend taking over this summer — tinted serums replacing foundation, twelve-step routines cut down to three — I nodded along, and then did not change a single thing about my own morning.
Why I am not
switching
There is a real and sensible idea underneath skin-minimalism, which is that heavy, matte coverage has never done ageing skin any favours. It sits in texture rather than smoothing it. It photographs flat. I agree with that part completely. Where I part ways is the assumption that the answer is less product rather than better product.
My full routine is not heavy. It is intentional. Every step earns its place, and the result is coverage that still looks like skin, not a mask, because the products underneath the makeup are doing real work before the makeup ever goes on. Less product is not automatically better product.
What has actually
changed this year
The shift I have made is not about doing less. It is about what my foundation is doing while it sits on my face. The newer generation of long-wear foundations has quietly become far more skincare-forward, built with hydrating and protective ingredients rather than just pigment and hold. Mine now does a job that used to require three separate products underneath it.
The other genuine change is sun protection. I used to treat SPF as a separate, slightly annoying step. The newer tinted, serum-based sunscreens layer under a full routine without disrupting it, which means there is no longer a reason to skip it or resent it. That is the one piece of the "skinification" trend I have fully adopted, because it costs me nothing and protects a great deal.
Coverage that behaves like skincare instead of fighting it — that is the real story of 2026 beauty for me, not less product, but smarter product.
The part I will not
apologise for
I do not think less makeup is a phase for me. It has been a genuine relief to stop treating my base as something to build and start treating it as something to support. There is something grounding about a full face done properly rather than a five-minute swipe and out the door. If that makes me the opposite of on-trend this summer, I am genuinely fine with that.