BBAC 2011: Day Fifteen

Posted on Thursday, at bought • 641 views

Blush and I have an interesting relationship. I love the idea of adding color to my face, and there are some blushes that look really good on me, but figuring out how to best apply it has been a long trek. I could seem to figure out how to apply it satisfactorally. Sure, I could dust it across the “apples of my cheeks”, but that made me look a little clownish. I tried asking numerous MUAs and SAs at salescounters and boutiques, but either got the same old advice or didn't get anything usable at all. They'd just apply the blush and expect me to osmose their technique (or they'd do no better than my own efforts.) I suspect that my face shape just makes it less than easy to apply blush (it's halfway between square and round, I have never ever had a heart-shaped face - which seems to be the template that most makeup SAs use, regardless of a client's actual face shape.)

BBAC 2011: Day Fifteen

After cobbling together my own routine, based on the small nuggets of actual knowledge that I'd gleaned from two or three dozen professional Q&A sessions, I settled on this:

  • apply a contouring shade - something light like BE's Faux Tan - in a "3" shape.
  • apply the blush color to my face, using the "Nike swoop" to go on the apples of and just below my cheekbones. Color should go just above the contouring color, with slight overlap. Blend slightly over countouring shade, slightly upward onto cheekbones.
  • apply a highlighter, like a radiance or glow powder, to the tops of my cheekbones.

I use a combination of brushes: a flat-topped kabuki (I use BE's Heavenly Face brush, but any flat-topped brush would probably work) for contouring; Sephora's Professionel Blush Brush ($29) for blush application; and ELF's Stipple Brush for radiance / glow and blending. I had a bit of a search for a blush brush that gave me a little bit more control than the default BE blush brush that I was using, and most of the tapered blush brushes I tried (including EcoTools, Sigma, and ELF) were still a bit broad in their application. I needed something denser, but not utterly rigid. Sephora's Professionel brushes are more expensive, but I like the results I get with this one. The ELF stipple brush is good for blending without having a huge price tag.

Photos that show how the product actually performs...! See how I create my swatches

BBAC 2011: Day Fifteen Tools: ELF Studio Stipple Brush

I do wish that I knew how to find better information on how to apply blush, because I suspect that lots of people would like to know where the same information is...especially folks with face shapes that are less than ideal, but who would still like to learn how (and where and why!) to apply which blush / face colors.

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