Makeup Monday–Blush – Hive and Nest

Ahh, pink cheeks.  They have been popular as long as women have been alive. You’re welcome to pinch yours whenever you’d like some color (just like in all those Jane Austen movies).  Or you could just use blush (my mom always called it “rouge” when I was young.) Really, it’s something that everyone should be wearing.

The idea behind blush is not to contour your cheeks and make your face look more sculpted than it actually is.  That was a big deal back in the 80’s and I still remember my MiaMaid teacher having the most ghastly streaks of orange which were supposed to make her look like she had cheekbones. Guess what?  That doesn’t work.  Blush is about putting natural color back on your tired face.  Hence its name.

Bobbi Brown (the makeup artist not the singer who did Whitney Houston wrong) says that the fastest way to take ten years off of your face is to put a nice, natural pink on the apples of your cheeks.  Which is just where mother nature intended it to be.  I had a certain salesperson from a compnay which shall not be named try to tell me that blush should never be within two finger widths of your nose.  She’s wrong.  I’m going to go with Bobbi Brown on this one. Stick to the apples of your cheeks.  The apples are the chubbiest part of your cheeks when you smile.

Like lipstick a flush of color on the face does wonders for your skin, your eyes and your overall appearance.  Pink cheeks signify health and vigor.  They perk everything up a little.

Blush is also one of the easiest things to apply.  You have basically two choices:  powder (the most common) or creme.  If you use powder it’s best to get a nice fluffy brush.  If your blush does come with a brush it’s usually a skinny, rectangular thing; not worth a whole lot.  A big fluffy makeup brush is good for blush as well as powder so it’s a nice tool to have on hand.

I happen to have a creme blush right now.  No particular reason other than I felt like trying something new. This is the Maybelline Dream Mousse Blush. It comes in several really natural, flattering shades. It’s also a great texture. Sometimes cream blushes can be too firm and wipe off half of your makeup when you try to apply them. This one has a nice, easy-to-apply consistency. Remember those triangular latex sponges we got last week for foundation? If you use cream blush, you’ll need another one. But the one for the blush can be reused as much as you’d like. I don’t know why it’s OK to reuse them for blush but not for foundation. That’s just what seems right in my brain. You are welcome to change them as often as you like.

I have also used Bobbi Brown’s Sheer Color Cheek Tint. It’s very nice, but it’s more expensive($22). Again, there are deals to be found on ebay. Try it on in person first, though, to make sure it’s something you like and the color looks good.

Now the hard part is finding the right color for you. Actually that’s not very hard at all. If you are caucasian your blush should be a nice soft pink. You know how that’s the color of a little child’s cheeks? Just a pretty soft pinkish color? (Not orange and not maroon.) That’s what we’re going for. The paler your skin, the paler pink you should get. If you have dark skin then you’ll need a darker, more vivid shade of blush.

This is the crazy thing about blush: it almost always needs to be a smidge darker than you think (just a smidge. You don’t want to look like a hooker from the 1800’s). I’m fairly conservative when it comes to the quantity of blush I apply, but I had to do an interview with someone via webcam and I looked horribly washed out on the trial run. So I applied much more blush than I usually do so I wouldn’t look like a talking corpse. After the interview I forgot I had on the extra blush and went to run some errands. I had three people stop me and tell me how pretty I looked. That never happens. Plus my husband said I looked fantastic too. Moral of the story: pink cheeks are good.

So in order of application, blush goes on after foundation and concealer but before powder. Powder will set all your face makeup.

You can do this!