In this regular series, Ageless Beauty, The Telegraph’s beauty experts Annabel Jones and Lisa Armstrong tackle the conundrums they’ve been searching for answers to, and share their favourite tips and tricks. This week, they discuss the best tips and techniques for achieving natural-looking rosy cheeks. Ask them your questions below...
For such a simple invention blusher is mightily confusing. I recently met Laney Crowell, the American founder of cosmetic brand Saie. When I asked Crowell, who has a vast community on social media, which question she gets asked the most, her eyes lit up. “Oh that’s easy – how do I apply blusher properly?”
Crowell then handed me a make-up case full of blushers, half liquid, half powder. When we’d parted ways I dotted a blob of Saie’s Dew Blush Blendable Liquid Cheek Flush in Chilly, a polite mauve, on my apples and smeared it in with a finger. I added another and repeated the action. Then another. It’s illogical but it’s practically impossible to overdo it – a formulation feat that merits high praise from me. And if you trade up your fingers for a buffing brush, it fuses nicely with your skin like a stocking.
The powders are new and claim to be high-performing – still I was doubtful. Many powder blushers blank out every last flicker of light your skin has going for it – you get a hit of colour but lose something far more valuable.
But credit where credit’s due; many newer formulas have improved upon the powder category considerably. Hermès’s Silky Blush powder in shade Rose Dore, £66, is as sheer as gauze. As is Jones Road’s The Best Blush and Dior’s Rosy Glow Colour-Awakening Blush, £35.
According to the website, Saie’s SuperSuede is a lightweight powder that’s “hand-whipped and baked in a terracotta using traditional Italian techniques”. What all that means I’m unsure but it goes on like satin.
After playing around with the full ensemble (there are six shades) I found it extremely buildable – go slow and you’ll get to your desired degree of flush in multiple layers. Or you can apply it as a final flourish atop of Dew Blush to intensify the colour and seal it all in.
Another plus: despite how popping the colours appear at first glance, you can achieve a delicate finish with every one – including Bella, a fluorescent Barbie-pink which is shockingly flattering on a mature complexion. An interesting fact: red is one of the most flattering hues on cheeks. So long as you blend to oblivion, any take on red from merlot to pillar-box brings the complexion alive far better than any nude can do.
With a cream or liquid blusher, I smile widely, pop one dot at the crest of the apples of my cheeks then blend outwards and upwards in (light-handed) circular motions. Smiling isn’t necessary; I suspect it’s a personal quirk, but it does raise the cheekbones to their highest pitch which keeps things elevated. Young’uns needn’t bother as their cheekbones need no anchoring.
With a powder blush the only useful nugget I can offer is to shake the excess off of your brush before you strike – and try not to pick up a lot of pigment in one go. Make-up artists are masters at this; they build a face in dozens of fine layers.
Some pros argue you should skip the round squishy apples and go for a 1980s-style racing stripe as Gen-Zers tend to do, but I like to mimic a pinched-cheek look. It might be old fashioned but the thing about getting older is you care far less what others think.
Somehow, in my 60s, I’ve gone from someone who never used blush – over not under blushing was my problem – to being, if I say so myself, quite the pro.
Part of the transformation is down to Charlotte Tilbury’s make-up artistry which taught me to pop it high on my face – top-of-the-cheekbones-high – tapering out to the temples. I’m not talking about iridescent wings à la 1980s, but soft and sheer and ultra blended.
I’ll try some of that at home I thought, 90 per cent expecting it not to work, as is generally the case when you try to replicate a make-up artist. Blow me down, it’s magic. So flattering, fresh and, in every sense, uplifting. I’ve had quite an uptick in people telling me I look younger. OK, some of this may well be the usual well-meaning BS, but I’m taking the wins where I can. Blush is firmly in my canon.
Bronzer too, which I also never used. I blend it along my jawline. (Remember when we all laughed at Boy George for painting a dark band on his neck to minimise a double chin? This is the 2025 version.) I also swoosh it under my cheekbones, across my forehead and down the sides of my nose. Blend, blend blend. All those years I steered well away from contouring, and now that no one talks about it anymore, I’m all in. Blush and bronze go hand in hand for me now, which is another departure, because for 40 years I didn’t go near either. Oh, and I’ve switched from pinks – heaven knows why I thought they worked on my face, just because pink clothes worked on me – to peach.
Modern formulations are so clever, user-friendly and natural-looking, that even when you’re older, and rosy cheeks seem a lost wonder of the world, it’s perfectly possible to achieve them in a believable way. RMS Beauty’s ReDimension is a wet powder, sugar-derived technology that doesn’t look at all powdery on, but makes you look radiant. I also adore Merit’s Flush Balm. It comes in a dozen shades, some of which look crazily strong in the pot, but gorgeously natural on.
Another one to check out, especially if you like powders, is Et al’s versatile compact palettes of four colours that can be used on eyes and cheeks. I’ve also recently discovered Ere Perez’s Carrot Colour Pot, another little hit of sheer colour, which also serves as a skin balm. You can buy it online, or pop into Alexandra Soveral’s salon on London’s St John’s Wood High Street where she offers world-class facial massages and a curated selection of pure beauty products.
All the above probably class themselves as clean: a vague term that doesn’t do them justice. All provide state-of-the-art colour and functionality, contain nourishing ingredients and come in recyclable or refillable packaging. Blushers have improved beyond imagination since my teens. So has the intention behind them.