Here’s How You’re Applying Blush Incorrectly

We’ve all been there – you walk into a department store and see all the gorgeous, candy-coloured blushes. The brightest shades are fun and pretty, and it can be tempting to reach for those bright reds, oranges, and blue-based pinks. But these can easily look harsh and unnatural, especially on skin as light as Katy Perry’s.

RELATED: 8 contour mistakes and how to fix them.

Instead of picking bright shades immediately, blush neophytes can try out a mid-tone blush. Often overlooked, a mid-tone pink with a pinch of shimmer works well on a variety of skin tones and is harder to overdo. Cara Delevigne’s vampy, edgy shows how versatile this kind of shade can be. If you do want to try a bright blush, use a big fluffy brush and apply with a light hand.

Bubblegum pink looks gorgeous in the pan, but you take it home, put it on, and are sadly disappointed. Why? We pay close attention to undertones in our foundations, but the undertone in our skin should help us pick out all our makeup, from foundation and blush to brows and lipstick. Bubblegum pink blush has a cool, bluish undertone, so it’s going to look particularly bold and bright on someone with warm, golden undertones, like Christina Aguilera.

Zendaya’s look is gorgeous in part because her coral blush complements the golden undertone in her skin. To find your undertone, take a look at the inside of your wrist. If your veins are green, you have warm, golden undertones; choose peach, coral, and orange blushes for a natural look. If your veins are blue, you have cool, pink undertones – those blue-based pinks will look most natural on you. Can’t quite tell? Chances are you’re neutral – you can’t go wrong!

You go to Sephora, pick out a pretty cream blush, come home, and wonder why it’s applying patchy with your big fluffy brush – we’ve all been there! You don’t need to buy a whole new set of tools to apply your blush, but you should be mindful of formula when choosing an applicator.

See more: 10 easy fixes for common beauty mistakes.

Powder blushes – which are probably the most common formula – apply best with a brush that’s fluffy to blend, but angled for precision. Cream and liquid blushes work well with duo-fibre brushes, sponges, or even your fingers.

The cheek is a wide, open area – it can be super easy to put a stripe of blush in the hollow of the cheek, where your contour might go. Low blush can be pretty for an edgy, editorial look like this one, but can sometimes drag the face down, giving makeup a dated look.

Brie Larson’s higher blush placement gives her face a sculpted, lifted look. Angle your blush upward along the tops of your cheekbones, blending together your bronzer or contour and highlight.

Classic blush application method has us smile, then sweep blush onto cheeks while smiling. When you do this, you place the blush perfectly – but unless you literally smile constantly, your face will relax, and your blush will suddenly be too low.

RELATED: 12 tips for a whiter smile.

Instead of making a particular facial expression while applying blush, relax! This’ll give you a better idea of how your blush will look when you’re relaxed throughout the day. Rihanna’s sultry stare at the camera shows that her blush is still perfectly-placed, even when she’s not smiling.

This is another classic blush application technique. Often used together with the smile-and-sweep, we’re told to place blush right on the apples of our cheeks. This usually means that blush gets too close to the nose – like in Mischa Barton’s case – which reads more porcelain doll than effortlessly chic.

More beauty mistakes you're making: the 12 worst eyeliner mishaps.

To keep from putting blush too close to your nose, use your eyes as a guide: don’t put blush further in than the pupil of each eye. Selena Gomez’s blush is nice and high, and stops right at blush stops right at the centre of her eye.

It happens to the best of us – we blend our foundation like our lives depend on it, but when it comes time to blush, a heavy hand can leave a harsh stripe. You can try to fix it, but going back in with the same blush brush that caused it only makes matters worse.

Instead of trying to blend out a stripey, patchy, or heavy-handed blush application with your blush brush, reach for your foundation brush or beauty sponge. Lightly go over the edges to get things blended, or the whole cheek to tone down a heavy application.

Foundation tones down redness and mutes out dark spots, but it also gets rid of all the face’s natural dimension. That’s why we contour, highlight, and – yes – blush. Only blushing on the cheeks can look unnatural, though, if there’s no rosiness in the face anywhere else.

See more: 19 products that will make you look and feel more attractive.

If you go to a spin class, get embarrassed or excited, you don’t just flush in the cheeks – your nose, chin, and temples also get red or pink. Lupita Nyong’o’s makeup artist often puts leftover blush on her nose, temples, and chin for a multidimensional look.