I entrust my skin to nothing but blush. This product shields me from questions about my post-hangover eyes and softens my aura a little bit. But nothing compares to the well-endowed, rose-flushed cheeks of influencers on Instagram — almost always doused in a lot of sunlight with their skin scintillating with flushes of pink.
That leads me to buff my cheeks with more product than normal, and, still, nothing comes close. I look more like a cartoon whose face turns vermillion. Since the internet is aflutter with blush-related techniques, and I have long surrendered my skin to the colour lender, I did a little sleuthing. And, yes, I landed something — something that had my cheeks glistening and gleaming from every angle. Here’s what I’m talking about.
In The Words Of DJ Khaled, ‘The Sun Is Shining On Me’
If You Apply With Wild Abandon, Stop
This aptly-named application involves tracing a ‘W’ on the face — spanning the temples, swivelling down to the cheeks, and migrating to the nose. These are spots that catch the light, and lend a natural-looking flush to your skin — unlike the ‘C’, aka draping, that focuses colour on the cheeks, migrates up toward the outer eye, and comes into bloom on the temples. Or the ‘O’ that pumps colour into the apples of your cheeks. The W technique deposits colour onto your cheeks, nose, and forehead — which other techniques don’t do — and since these are areas where sunlight falls naturally, your face looks the right amount of flushed and sunkissed. It’s like a second-skin finish that got us swooning.
It Lifts & Sculpts
If you’re not too fond of contouring, this technique softly sculpts and chisels your features; and because you’re blending the product upward, you’re playing into the illusion of a ‘face-lift’. Many find the application of blush on the apples of the cheeks too purposeful and heavy to achieve a natural-looking effect; but since this technique disperses blush all over without concentrating too much on the cheeks, it’s perfect for the minimalism-loving.
You’ll Need To Do It Like This
Picture a ‘W’ plastered smack in the middle of your face — that’s it. That’s where the blush goes. You might want to enlist the expertise of a stick-based blusher for this hack. It’s easier to draw the letter that way. Make sure you’re using a medium-sized angled contour brush to blend the pigment outward and upward into your skin.
Try These Blushers To Draw The Perfect W
Featured Image: Instagram
