Blush Blunders to Beauty

Hello Beautiful People!

Do you ever get a bit carried away with the blusher?



Ever find yourself channeling Noddy after being a little too heavy handed?


Despair not, even Noddy had Big Ears to offer tips and guidance! Here I've complied a list of helpful hints, tips and tricks for applying blusher. Think of me as your Big Ears....


A rosy complexion of clear skin and flushed cheeks has long been associated with health and vitality and subsequently is a look we all seek. You will often see very fresh, rosy cheeks in ad campaigns that feature minimal makeup.

A seemingly difficult beast to tame, blusher comes in a variety of different forms: cream, powder, liquid, gel; shimmery, matte, frosted and so forth.

With so many finishes to chose from, and so many shades to chose from it's no wonder many people end up rocking the Noddy look. There are however a few simple steps you can take to ensure your blush always looks supermodel fierce and a few quick fixes for when your blush is more clown college than Chanel.

Firstly, make sure you have selected the right shade:

• Those of you with a paler skintone, much like myself and our pal Noddy, should avoid colours that are too bold. If you are going for a deeper colour such as plum then do not apply directly to your face. Instead, apply to the back of your hand first to take most of the product off of the brush.
• Those with an olive or deeper skintone can afford to be bolder with colour choices. Depending on how deep your skintone is, you can get away with anything from bright fuchsia to red! Lucky, lucky ladies. As before though, remember it is wiser to build the colour up by applying a small amount at a time.
• Peachy/coral colours will suit most skin tones but those with tanned skins may find golds and bronzes more flattering. If you're slightly more sallow then you may find peach/coral are not the shades for you.

Now we have the colour sorted, let's talk brushes. Too thin a brush and you risk those 80s-esque stripes, Adam Ant style (stand and deliver, your blusher or your life! Most apt.!), too wide a brush and you risk applying too much product over too wide an area. The size of your brush will largely depend on your face shape and preference. I tend to use a MAC 109 brush or a power brush -- slightly big but I've learned how to control it and apply only as much product as I need and only in the area I need.


So, we have the right shade and we have the right brush, now, let's not get too carried away and start aimlessly applying the product to any area that looks like it's part of our cheeks! Much like contouring, where you apply your blusher will affect how your face shape looks. You can cheek killer cheekbones, slim a wider face or widen a slim face, all with a swipe of blush!

Here are some other tips on how to apply blusher to suit your face shape:

• If you have a round(er) face, follow your cheekbones. You should find you're applying your blush at an angle that will add shape to a round face.
• If you have an oval face, bring the colour up into your temples. You should apply in a motion that looks like a rounded tick.
• If you have a long face, apply your blush in horizontal stokes. This will add some width to your face.
• If you have a square face, keep the colour concentrated on the apples of your cheeks. A circular blush will soften a square face.

I tend to apply the colour a little behind the apple of my cheeks and blend upwards in a circular motion.

The key thing to remember is to blend! Harsh edges are not attractive, nor are they natural!

Correctly applied blush should 'lift' the face.

If after all that you've still gone a little bit overboard with your blusher, here are a few tips on reigning it back in without removing all of your makeup and starting again:

• Take a clean makeup sponge or tissue and dab at the colour, removing any excess. Remember that you will be warming the skin when you do this and that will naturally cause redness so stop at regular intervals, allow any redness from heat to cool again and assess whether you need to continue taking back the colour.
• Apply a translucent powder over the top. It doesn't sound as though it would work, translucent: clear after all, but it does the trick.
• Take what is left on your foundation brush and blend!

I hope you've found this somewhat useful! It was a little long-winded but I hope you've picked something up from it :) Information gathered through personal experience and years of reading various beauty books and pages in magazines!

Oh and FYI, the 'Noddy' blush is Pomegranate by Sleek and it is absolutely stunning when applied correctly!

xoxo