Blush is one part of your daily makeup routine that is extremely important because it gives you that vibrant look of health and happiness that all our pretty faces need. Equally important to applying blush is the knowledge of where to put blush - sorry Pat Benatar blush contouring is staying in the 80’s.

Here’s a few great tips for achieving the perfect flush every time.

Think of your face as a blank canvas. Each day you can paint on a new face that highlights your mood, your outfit or maybe just your natural beauty. The purpose of blush is to enhance our body’s appearance of natural flushing. Flushing is typically a slight glow or pinkening of the skin caused by an involuntary response of the nervous system. A little glow always does a girl good!

If you’ve taken one of our classes at Pretty Lane, you know that foundation creates the base layer for the rest of your makeup. It’s great for creating an even canvas and consistent starting point, but in doing so, blocks natural dimension and color in your face. As a result, you need to apply color back to your skin to avoid looking washed out.

Where To Put Blush

Blush should be applied to the areas of your face where normal flushing would occur. Think about the rosiness you see after a great workout. That’s what you’re going for! 

It’s easy to go from rosie to full-blown red faced though if you apply too much blush or put it in the wrong spots. The most common mistake we see as Pretty Pros involves blush placement.  In fact, 90% of people place blush in the wrong place by either contouring with it (think 80’s) or putting it too far back from the apples of their cheeks.

How To Apply Blush

To properly apply blush, start by smiling in the mirror. Place blush on the apples of your cheeks and sweep towards your temples. Use your nose and eyes as the start and stop points to keep in mind. Blush should not be applied below your nose or above your orbital bone.

It’s perfectly fine to make a few sweeping passes with your blush brush. More than likely, you’ll need to in order to achieve that healthy glow. The finished result should provide your cheeks with a natural, subtle hint of color.

Pretty Pro tip: Loading the belly (or flat side) of your blush brush rather than the top of it will give you the perfect blush application.  Choose a blush brush that is feathered or tapered for an even blush application. 

What Color Blush To Apply

As with any pigmented makeup, you need to be mindful of your body’s natural skin tone. Your skin tone and undertones dictate complementary colors to incorporate into your makeup routine. 

We cover this in our Pretty Party classes, but if you haven’t had a chance to pop in yet, here’s a few blush selections that work well for almost every skin tone:

Orgasm from Nars or Ritz from Dollup Beauty are the perfect blend of warm and cool to brighten any complexion.

Pretty Pro tip:  The most important thing you can do when finding a blush color is to decide if your look is going to be a warm, cool or neutral. You literally cannot go wrong with any blush color if you’re matching the tones of your eyeshadow and lips. For example, if you’re wearing a warm gold and brown on your eyes and neutral brown nude on your lips than you *must have a blush color that is warm based. Check out this warm based color called Clever by Dollup Beauty.

Life has many mysteries. Where to put blush no longer has to be one. Follow these tips and you’ll be blushing with confidence in no time. You can bet your pretty pennies on it!

Looking for more great advice from the Pretty Pros on how to perfect your pretty routine? Sign up for our next Bubbly & Beauty class. It’s open to the public and promises an evening of laughter, lipstick and all things beauty.