Inside Belly’s Season 3 Look From The Summer I Turned Pretty

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When “The Summer I Turned Pretty” jumps ahead four years in season three, Belly’s story isn’t the only thing that matures: her beauty looks do, too. No longer the high school student viewers first met, she’s now a young woman trying to find her footing in college, and her makeup had to reflect that. Enter Tara Sall, the makeup artist behind Belly’s soft-but-sophisticated transformation, who collaborated closely with creator Jenny Han to craft the character’s most grown-up season yet.

“We knew Belly was more mature now — this is a time jump — and we wanted to show her coming into her own style,” Sall says. “She still has her little signature things she likes to do. She’s not try-hard, but you can tell she’s now putting in effort.” Han, Sall explains, had a crystal-clear vision of Belly’s look from the start. “She’s so in touch with what’s trending, what she wants to pull from, and how she imagines her characters. We tested looks until we landed on something that felt right for Belly’s age and storyline — a little more polish, but it still feels soft and natural.”

Every character has what Sall calls their “hero look,” the everyday makeup that anchors their appearance on screen. For Belly, that meant a softened cat eye, luminous skin, and lips that looked natural but defined. Sall’s go-to was Inglot’s AMC Eyeliner Gel ($18) in #90, a black-brown shade she applied with MyKitCo’s My Sharp Angle Brush ($24). “It builds up the lash line beautifully, you can smudge it out, wing it out, and it never moves,” she says. “I’ve tried every angled brush out there — this one is the holy grail.” To soften the effect, she blended in shadows from Surratt, like the Beyond Beige Palette ($102) and her well-worn Makeup by Mario Master Mattes Palette ($52). For lashes, she relied on Thrive Causemetics Liquid Lash Extensions Tubing Mascara ($32). “There’s a lot of crying this season,” she laughs. “This one doesn’t run. The tubes come right off, so you can reset without messing up her face.”

The skin was just as intentional as the eyes. Sall mixed shades of Koh Gen Do Maifanshi Moisture Foundation ($108) to get the perfect match, setting everything with the brand’s Maifanshi Natural Lighting Powder ($80). She added Stila Convertible Color Lip & Cheek Cream Blush ($25) in Petunia for a believable flush and finished the lips with Burt’s Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Red Dahlia ($12). “It just looks like your lips, but more,” she says.

Before any of that, though, Belly’s glow began with a spray tan. Sall credits co-makeup artist Lindsay DeSarno, who handled weekly sessions for the cast. “If Belly wasn’t spray-tanned, we wouldn’t have that believable beachy look,” Sall says. “She’s active, she’s outside, she’s tan, that’s the foundation.” To amplify the effect, Sall often brushed on Westmore Beauty Body Coverage Perfector ($49). “It gives this reflective sheen and camera-ready coverage,” she says. “If you needed her legs or arms to catch the light in a dress, this was the secret weapon.”

Not every look was restrained, though. For the frat party in episode one, Sall leaned into a more sultry approach. “That was her most glammed up look,” she says. “We swapped the brown liner for black, added more lip color, and tapped the Dior Backstage Glow Face Palette ($48) across her cheeks. It’s still the DNA of her hero look, but built up.”

Sometimes the most important touches were ones viewers might not even notice. Sall explains that blush tends to vanish quickly under lights. “You think it’s enough in the trailer, but then under the sun or camera, it’s gone. So I’m constantly reapplying,” she says. Her secret weapon became Tarte’s Maracuja Juicy Blush in Apple ($30). “It mimics blood flow under the skin. If Belly’s excited, upset, or crying, it looks real.” She even used it on the lips. “In that promo shot of her in the red dress everyone asked about the lip. It was actually blush. It stays longer and just looks juicier.”

Because much of the show films outdoors, Sall also needed her makeup to survive Cousins Beach weather. She reached for Melanie Mills Super Lite Long Lasting Setting Spra ($40), as well as Sun Bum’s Sunscreen Mist ($15) and Supergoop’s (Re)Setting Refreshing Mist Sunscreen ($34), which allowed SPF to be reapplied over makeup. To control shine, she kept Black Opal Invisible Oil Blocking Pressed Powder ($29) and a puff on hand. One of her favorite tricks was spraying the Kopari Sunglaze Sheer Body Mist SPF 42 ($39), which “gives a pearlescent glow that’s not glittery, just luminous,” she says. “Everyone on set ended up buying it.”

Episode five stood out to Sall as one of her favorite moments on set. With so many close-ups, she wanted Belly to look “dreamy, like she was really letting her hair down,” she recalls. To help nail that effect during the dinner table scene, Sall reached for Tower 28’s SuperDew Shimmer-Free Highlight Balm ($18), dabbing it along the high points of her face. “Jenny wanted Belly to look glowy, like she’d had a glass of wine and was loosening up,” Sall says. “That product gives you that sheen without frost. Just real, sweaty-looking skin.” Watching it back later, she felt the effort paid off. “I thought, ‘yes, that helped tell her story.'”

For Sall, Belly’s look this season is about signaling growth through subtle changes. “She isn’t just rolling out of bed anymore,” she says. “Her makeup shows she’s lived a little, maybe picked up tricks from friends in college. You can tell she’s thought about how she wants to look.”

Olivia Tauber is a freelance writer based in New York, pursuing her Master’s in Journalism at NYU. She’s the contributing assistant beauty editor at PopSugar and contributor to New York Magazine’s The Cut, Interview, Bustle, SELF, and HuffPost. Her career began in corporate publicity at Showtime, followed by production for “The Pivot,” an Emmy-nominated series.