Trends come and go but no matter what fashion dictates it is desirable to have a little colour in your cheeks. Grandmothers may have pinched their cheeks to create a rosy glow, but with all the kinds of cosmetics now at our disposal it is an easier and far less painful process to get that healthy look. Or is it? What should be a simple process can so easily end up going wrong. Bold horizontal stripes, bright spots of colour and overly made-up cheeks clashing with lips do not a beauty make.
The goal is for a cosmetic blusher to be the same colour as your cheeks when you are slightly embarrassed (hence the name), have done light exercise or come in from the cold. To find a colour that suits you, test it on your face before you put on any make-up, or after foundation has been applied. Do not test it on the back of your hand because that has a different skin tone. Make sure you apply the tester with a cotton pad or clean fingers.
As a rule, the lighter the skin tone the lighter the blush, while darker skins can use deeper shades. According to make-up artist Fulvia Farolfi in The 21st Century Beauty Bible (by Sarah Stacey and Josephine Fairley, $345, from Dymocks), pale ivory complexions need soft pink blushers, pink skin tones require warm peach, Asian tones look good with a peach or apricot blusher and dark skins suit auburn or bronze. The shade is correct if you can only just see it when you stand about 1.5 metres from the mirror.
Cream blush tends to be most suitable on drier skin types (it is too shiny for oily skin) and gel looks great on younger and flawless complexions. Powder, with the most popular texture, needs a light touch.
Before going anywhere near your face, tap the handle of the blusher brush against a hard surface to remove excess powder. Forget those weedy little brushes that accompany most compacts. Arm yourself with a large, soft brush.
Unless you are deliberately out to sabotage your look, do not make the common mistake of painting on horizontal slashes of colour or sucking in your cheeks and colouring in the hollows. For a natural blush, apply the product to the apple of your cheeks - the fleshy, rounded part, which appears when you exaggerate a smile - then outwards to the hairline. Some people use cotton wool to smudge the blush for a hint of colour.