Ninja Beauty Secrets, Part 7

This month we’re going to learn some basic and advanced blush techniques and determine where and when to use them.

Let me preface this article by saying that my series of Ninja Beauty Secrets articles are not meant for makeup novices, but experienced trans girls who have more than a basic knowledge and understanding of makeup. If you want a basic and intermediate treatment of makeup, please order a copy of Secrets to an Awesome Makeover and Natural Makeup Techniques from the videos section of my web site (will open in a new window).

Blush is the easiest makeup item to apply yet often the most abused. The easiest rule to remember with blush is “less is better than more.” When you have too much blush on, it looks very noticeable.

The way you apply blush also affects your overall look. The first biggest mistake I’ve seen is making red circles of blush on your cheek like Raggedy Ann or a clown. I’ve seen a lot of elderly women do this so it must’ve been some look they liked from long ago.

The second biggest mistake is to make dark looking triangles on your cheeks with the points aimed at your nose. Nobody has cheek shadows like this in real life.

The third biggest mistake, and no less disastrous, is filling in the entire cheek with blush. Somewhere these girls learned that blush color makes things recess, so they fill in whole areas of their face with it in the hope that it does. Ummm… sorry to burst anyone’s bubbles, but applying blush this way actually gives you the opposite effect of what you intended. It emphasizes rather than deemphasizes your cheeks!

Once you realize that blush is used to accentuate rather than deemphasize, you’re well on your way to becoming a blush expert.

The most important makeup tool for makeup ninjas is the retractable blush brush. This brush allows you to control the amount of bristles available so you can go all out with big sweeps of color to thinner lines of concentrated color. It’s $20 well spent.

I like NARS blush in Orgasm. It’s a subtle shade of peachy pink that looks good on me. There are 35 shades of blush to choose from so you may have to experiment with the different shades until you find one that looks good on you.

The first thing I want you to do is pull all your hair away from your face so you can really see your cheekbones. See picture 1. You may need to suck in your cheeks a little to see them.

Some beauty guides suggest applying blush on the cheeks in circular motions, but I can assure you nothing good can come of this. It’s safe to say that following this advice is probably the reason why some women look like they have red circles on their cheeks. A better way to apply blush is in straightline strokes out to in and in to out across the length of the cheekbone. See pictures 2 and 3 for an illustration of this. Picture 4 illustrates retracting the brush halfway for a stronger concentration of color.

Starting from the position in picture 2 and ending in the position in picture 3, brush two back-and-forth strokes of blush just below the cheekbone. Follow with a back-and-forth stroke of concentrated color as in picture 4. Brush one more back-and-forth stroke of blush over the concentrated color to diffuse the color. Use gently strokes. Just because I said “concentrated color” doesn’t mean you should easily see the color on your face. In fact, each stroke should just put another minimal layer of blush on your cheek. Repeat this on the other cheek.

Sometimes I want to obtain a little more control over my brush so I pinch it in the shape of a “U” with my thumb to give me a different head to work with as in pictures 5 to 8. I may also pinch the brush head with my thumb and first three fingers to make the head even smaller for greater concentrations of color.

Finally, I brush a unidirectional stroke of blush across the jawline to soften it as in pictures 9 and 10. Do this twice for each side of the jaw.

When you’re done, the blush shouldn’t stand out. It should enhance your cheekbones by accentuating them. Blush should look somewhat natural, like the look you get when someone makes an embarrassing joke and you turn a little red.

Next month, we’ll learn how to do razor sharp perfect liplining.

For more ninja beauty secrets, purchase “Natural Makeup Techniques” or “Secrets to an Awesome Makeover” from my web site (will open in a new window).

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