The best cooling beauty essentials to see you through a heatwave

It’s very hot. You don’t have aircon. You don’t have clothes for this weather. You don’t know what to eat in this weather. There’s a pressure to be enjoying it somehow, while not actually being allowed to go anywhere, and also having to work. We’re not complaining, we’re just not prepared, or built for it. Look, at least you don’t have to be on a bus/train/Luas in this heat.

Thankfully, cooling beauty products exist and they can just about take the pressure and heat out of everything. Keep a thermal spray desk-side, bedside or just on your person at all times. Just about every brand makes them now, but find one in a spray can for extra chilliness. They’re skin plumping and full of goodness – try Eucerin, Avène, La Roche-Posay and Uriage – but most importantly, they’re reviving and cold.

If you’re already burnt, keep your cool with an after-sun mask. Clarins SOS Sunburn After Sun Mask is instantly cooling and relieving, with aloe vera, and Garnier makes a post-sun tissue mask that’ll resuscitate skin left feeling dry or tight from sun, sea or sand.

Something I start looking forward to using in summer from about February every year is Milk Makeup Cooling Water. It’s basically water-on-a-stick, which I know sounds like the ultimate gimmick, but it’s so refreshing. It’s a cooling balmy hydration booster that boosts circulation, heals a hangover and generally just calms you down. It also comes in Cooling Water Under Eye Patches, €24.20, which are the same principle, but with added caffeine to de-puff your tired eyes.

If you’re ready to commit to something hardcore for major cooling down, welcome to the world of ice tools. Monica Tolan Cryo Globes, lift and tighten the skin, reduce puffiness and instantly wake you up, but best of all, they are bitingly, numbingly frosty on the face.

A very important caveat to all of these products: when not being used, store them all in the fridge. It makes every cool spritz, dab or mask ten times more bracing and instantly refreshing – it’s as close to a swim in an icy too-blue swimming pool on holidays as you’ll get in your own home.

Shop our cooling beauty heatwave heroes below.

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