This is an SB Verified post.
If your summer beauty bag needs a refresh, Sephora is where it starts. The beauty retailer has become the go-to destination for cult products, viral finds, and the kind of brands that genuinely live up to the hype. From dewy glass-skin serums to the lip glosses that are all over your FYP, it's all under one roof and with our Sephora student discount, your summer beauty budget just got a lot more manageable.
We headed in to test, swatch, and see what's actually worth your money right now. Here's the summer edit we came out with.
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Why Sephora is a student beauty essential
Sephora isn't just a shop. It's the place where the brands you've been seeing all over TikTok actually live in real life, where the products you can never find anywhere else are just sitting there on a shelf waiting for you to swatch them. It's one of the few places you can pick up Rare Beauty, Fenty Beauty, Glow Recipe, and Sol de Janeiro all in one go.
For students, it works because:
You can try before you buy in store, which means fewer expensive mistakes.
It stocks some of the most viral, talked-about products in beauty right now.
New launches and limited editions drop regularly, so there's always something worth looking at.
Our Sephora student discount makes the splurge-worthy stuff feel a bit more doable.
Summer beauty is all about glowy skin, glossy lips, and products that work harder in the heat. All of the picks below tick at least one of those boxes. Most of them tick all three.
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Our Sephora summer beauty picks
We headed down to our local Sephora to test out our student discount so check out our review and what we're loving below!
As for our summer beauty picks, here are the things we've loving that you need to add to your basket asap.
Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush 7.5ml — £24.00
If one product has genuinely earned its hype over the last few years, it's this one. The Soft Pinch Liquid Blush from Selena Gomez's Rare Beauty is pigmented in a way that requires genuine restraint on application (one dot per cheek, trust us), and it lasts through everything. The formula is featherweight and blends like a dream with just your fingertips, giving a natural, flushed finish that reads like you've just come back from somewhere warm and wonderful.
Available in 16 shades across matte and dewy finishes. Happy, Joy, and Bliss are the summer ones to go for.
Save with your Sephora student discount
Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer 9ml — £22.00
The lip gloss. Not just a good lip gloss. The Gloss Bomb has been one of the most talked-about beauty products since it launched and for very good reason: non-sticky, insanely glossy, and with a peach-vanilla scent that makes wearing it feel like a treat rather than a beauty step. The shades are universally flattering, which is exactly the point. Fenty Glow is the classic summer choice (a sheer golden nude), but Diamond Milk (sheer pink shimmer) is giving everything right now.
Wear it alone for a barely-there gloss or layer it over a lip liner for a fuller finish.
Save with your Sephora student discount
Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops 40ml — £34.00
The serum that gave the internet the glass skin obsession and absolutely earned it. Glow Recipe's Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops are a lightweight, radiance-boosting serum that works both as a skincare step and a makeup-base hybrid. Niacinamide brightens and evens out skin tone over time while watermelon extract and hyaluronic acid keep things hydrated and dewy.
Wear it under SPF on its own for a no-makeup makeup look, or press a little onto the high points of your face over foundation for a lit-from-within finish. It also smells like watermelon, which in summer is basically a bonus.
Save with your Sephora student discount
Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream 240ml — £48.00
If you haven't smelled this yet, go and smell it immediately. The Brazilian Bum Bum Cream from Sol de Janeiro is a rich, fast-absorbing body cream with an iconic salted caramel, pistachio, and vanilla scent (Cheirosa 62, officially) that you will be thinking about for days after you first try it. People notice it. People ask what you're wearing. It's that kind of product.
Beyond the scent, the formula is genuinely great: it absorbs quickly without feeling greasy, leaves skin feeling incredibly soft, and has a subtle glow that catches the light in summer.
Save with your Sephora student discount
Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer 45ml — £30.00
Summer and makeup longevity do not naturally get along, which is exactly why a good primer matters more in June than it does in January. The Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer is the one that makes everything else stick: a gel-like formula that grips foundation and concealer to your skin and keeps it there through whatever the day throws at you, including actual heat. It's also hydrating rather than pore-filling, so it gives a plump, healthy base rather than a flat, cakey one.
If your makeup has a tendency to slide off by lunchtime in warm weather, this is the fix.
Save with your Sephora student discount
Huda Beauty Faux Filler Shiny Non-Sticky Lip Gloss 3.9ml — £25.00
A lip gloss that actually delivers on the non-sticky promise. The Huda Beauty Faux Filler is a high-shine, plumping gloss with a cushiony, comfortable formula that wears like a lip treatment and looks like a professional job. Available in shades from barely-there nudes to peachy pinks and deeper tones, there's a Faux Filler for every summer look.
The name comes from the subtle plumping effect, which is real and visible without being uncomfortable. Great as a standalone gloss or layered over a lip liner for extra dimension.
Save with your Sephora student discount
What is SB Verified?
Sephora is officially SB Verified!
SB Verified (Student Beans Verified) means we've tried and tested the product, service, or experience that we're writing about. We want to make sure that we're giving you advice and reviews on what really works for your student life, whatever that may be.
SB Verified means we've tried it and deemed it useful for students. Student Beans is your student saviour, trying before you buy it.
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