Blush, Blush, Baby! Blush colors for every skintone, plus how and where to apply!
January 25, 2010 by uvkitty
Filed under Beauty and Hair How-To's, Tutorials
Blush can be a tricky thing to master. If you aren’t precise or are at all unsure of what you are doing, you could end up with a big, rouge , blotchy mess all over your cheeks.
If you aren’t sure what color would flatter your cheeks, you may end up looking like an Oompa Loompa when you go out into the sunlight.
In this article UvKITTY is going to show you where to apply blush, how to apply blush, and what colors are good for your skintone.
We’ll start with…
Where and How to Apply Blush
There are two main places to apply blush.Of course there are different variations and blending of the two, but we’ll cover
those after.
The first – is directly on the apples. (please excuse the dead stare of my example images).
I’m sure you have often seen women smiling broadly into their compact while dousing the apple in a pink, sugary powder.
This blush style is bright and cheerful. It is perfect for a day makeup, as it adds soft color to the face.
To apply, take a light color on a big fluffy blush and apply liberally to the apple of the cheeks. Be careful not to let blush fall too low, or off the apply as it can make the rest of the cheek look muddy.
Many women, either because they had attempted blush and were not successful, or just not willing to try it – don’t wear blush. The problem with this, is that after we’ve covered our entire face with foundations, concealers and powders we’ve completely masked any natural color or definition in our skintone. Sure, we’ve covered some blotchy flaws, but not that our palette has been completely covered to a clean even skintone, we must add definition, or else the face looks flat.
This may be with bronzers, or shaders, – but it is most commonly, and can be most easily achieved with a soft, well placed blush.
The second shape is blush in the contour. It is perfect for a more dramatic night look or for anyone who wants to empasize their cheekbones and add clean definition to the face. This is also a really good shape for women with very round, or underdefined cheekbones as it cheats definition there.
To apply in this style, you will need an angled blush brush. You want the color to be most opaque and most concentrated near the ear, and to fade into the -mid-cheek.
The color should fade up onto the cheekbone, but should remain solid in the hollow area of the cheek. If you need extra help finding the ‘hollow’ part, suck in your cheeks like you are making a ‘fishface’.
To add a little variation, you can use multiple colors in the contour. Pick a darker color for the hollow, and a lighter shimmery color for the cheekbone and blend the two.
You can also do a combination of a contoured cheek and an apple. If you are going to use lots of pigment on the cheeks though, it is best recommended to play down your other features, like your eyes, or lips.
What Colors Will Work With Your Skin-tone
Keep in mind there are a wide variety of colors that will work for each skin tone. There are mattes, skimmers, pinks, bronzes, coppers – TONS. UvKITTY has created a chart that matches the most basic neutral blush that will work for every skin tone. These colors should be seen as a starting point, and not as the only color that will suit. Feel free to try out different types of shades in this colors same hue and level of light/darkness. Maybe choosing something in the same color that has a gold or pearly shimmer, or a really matte shade depending on the makeup look you are trying to achieve.
To find your color, you will first need to analyze your skin tone. Our chart has 3 different levels of lightness/darkness, and two different color bases for that level. So look at your skin. Is it predominantly yellow toned, or does it have more of a pink base? How light or dark is it? If there are 3 different levels of lightness, which level would it fall under?
Once you’ve figured out your base tone and level of lightness, find your skin tone (it may not be exact, these are just computer generated paint colors) and see the colors that would work for DAY, and for NIGHT!
Drawings Copyright UvKITTY.
Brushes Copyright Pershing/PhotoXpress.
Crushed Blush Copyright YeKaterina Choupova/PhotoXpress.
