BUDGET BELLE: It's Gettin' Hot in Herre

No, that's not a typo. And no, I can't say it with a straight face either. Let's face it, the summer heat is upon us. Frizzy hair (unless you're using last week's tip), sweaty brows, rosy cheeks. (Hey, at least one out of three isn't bad.) One of the things I dislike most about the heat is the fact that my make-up practically melts off of my skin. Gross, huh? In order to minimize this problem, I tend to use one type of make-up for cooler weather and another for the unbearable days of summer. My summer pick? Mineral make-up. Bare Escentuals bareMinerals, to be exact.

Let's face it, you're going to sweat. A lot. Basically, your pores are going to be absorbing a lot of the make-up on your face. The last thing you want is to have to wear more make-up to cover up the blemishes that you're getting as a result of your make-up. Not a pretty catch-22. Not to mention the fact that in hot and humid weather, some make-up can make your face feel heavy and sticky. No bueno.

I started using mineral make-up a few years ago to combat these problems and fell in love with it. Bare minerals has what they call the "swirl, tap, buff" method, where you pour a little of the powder into the cap, swirl the brush around, tap off the excess and then buff it onto your skin with the brush. The make-up goes on so incredibly light - it's amazing.

You'd think that with something this light it wouldn't do a great job of covering up flaws and blemishes, but you'd be wrong. I was incredibly impressed with the coverage quality. One of my favorite things about mineral make-up is that you can choose how little or how much coverage you want - if you want a light, natural look, lightly buff the make-up onto your face; if you want more coverage, just use more and continue the circular buffing motion. It's really that easy. I was thrown by how natural the final result looked.

If you're new to mineral make-up, I recommend the Bare Escentuals Get Started kit. You can find it at Sephora, Ulta, some department stores and Bare Minerals brick and mortar stores. The kit contains two shades of foundation (SPF 15), mineral veil (a light setting powder), a tinted mineral veil, a bronzer, three brushes (2 different sized foundation brushes and a concealer brush), a how-to DVD and a face primer - all for a total of $60. I've recommended this to both friends and family and have heard rave reviews. It's my go-to natural, summer make-up. No muss, no fuss - besides, who wants to worry about melting make-up when there are margaritas to drink?

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