• Baked mineral blush is soft, silky, and airy, creating a more natural ethereal glow to your skin.
• Baking on clay tiles retains moisture and, while product is "dry," produces a very fine, almost creamy, texture that is universally flattering.
• Sheerness helps prevent overdoing it.
• You control color depth. Keep it sheer and delicate, or intensify with additional dusting.
• Excellent for light eye shadow.
• The idea is to emulate the natural flush of your skin as if you were out in the cold or after exercising.

• Fair skin: Neutral, peach, sheer plum, or pink shades.
• Medium skin: Apricot-peach, mauve, rose.
• Olive skin: Coral, peach, bronze, rose.
• Dark skin: Raisin, brick, deep rose, tangerine/coral.
• All skin tones: Bronzer for natural contours.
• Tired, dull, stressed skin: Use pink / dusty pink to perk up your appearance.

• Combo, balanced, oily skin: Powder, baked minerals, stain (work quickly w/ stains as they dry fast; more unforgiving but extremely long lasting).
• Very dry skin: Baked minerals, cream; powders followed by setting mist.
• All skin: Use combination of formats for increased luminosity.
• All skin: Experiment using lipstick as a cream blush.

BRUSH RECOMMENDATION: Soft blush brush, flat topped bronzer/blush brush.

• Dust lightly over cheekbones and apples of your cheeks.
• Apply in light layers. Increase color intensity with additional dusting.
• Feather into skin with finishing or foundation powder for most natural appearance.

Basic blush application

Half of all women do not apply blush but it is one of the most useful cosmetics for a healthy looking flush and facial contouring. The trick is to avoid intense coloration that gives clown cheeks. The steps below took longer to write and for you to read than it will to obtain a flattering glow, but stay with me on this. The number one rule is to keep color light and natural looking.

1. Choose the proper color. The idea is to emulate the natural flush of your skin as if you were out in the cold or after exercising. You can be Victorian and pinch your cheeks to see what this looks like. Or you can match your lip color. In general, recommended shades by skin tone: Fair skin: Neutral, peach, sheer plum, or pink shades. Medium skin: Apricot-peach, mauve, rose. Olive skin: Coral, peach, bronze, rose. Dark skin: Raisin, brick, deep rose, tangerine. All skin tones: Bronzer for natural contours. Tired, dull, stressed skin: Use pink / dusty pink to perk up your appearance.

2. Choose format. In general: Combo, balanced, oily skin: Powder, baked minerals, stain (work quickly w/ stains as they dry fast; more unforgiving but extremely long lasting). Very dry skin: Baked minerals, cream; powders followed by setting mist. All skin: Use combination of formats for increased luminosity. All skin: Experiment using lipstick as a cream blush.

3. Apply blush after foundation, before finishing powder. Caveat: Makeup artists often recommend blush after eye color and lipstick and some apply blush BEFORE foundation as they say it gives a more natural look. Directions that follow presume foundation has been applied.

4. Use a full size blush brush or flat top bronzer (not your foundation brush). Use a light amount of color on tips (tap brush head on tissue to evenly distribute color and prevent over-application of color).

5. Start at hairline, moving along cheekbone with light downward strokes, leaving a barely there contour of color. This gives structure to your face. Starting at hairline is insurance in case you have too much color on your brush as it is easier to correct at the far edge rather than the middle of your face.

6. Smile into mirror. Find the apples of your cheeks and using same color, or a little more vibrant one, dust lightly for a healthy flush. Use your foundation or finishing powder kabuki, without additional powder, added to lightly dust in a downward motion to feather color into skin for most natural coloration. If too much powder has been applied, use the kabuki with finishing powder added to lessen intensity. If using a cream format, dab color on with fingertip and blend with clean fingers to pick up excess color. Keep it light, regardless of depth of color used. Even deep tone blush should be applied with a light hand. When using a powder brush, no swirling. Keep strokes in same direction. For nude or most natural color, use bronzer with a light hand.

7. For a little extra evening glamour, add a little glimmer dust at the corner of the cheek and alongside the outside of the eye.

TIPS 

Softly apply finishing powder with downward strokes over blush to feather it further and provide the most natural looking glow.

Blush that contains too much sparkle for your taste can be toned down with a light dusting of finishing or foundation powder.

French milled talc*, Tricaprylin, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Magnesium Aluminum Silicate, HDI/Trimethylol Hexyllactone Crosspolymer, Jojoba Esters, Dimethicone, Calcium Silicate, Silica, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Acrylates Copolymer, Calcium Aluminum Borosilicate, Calcium Sodium Borosilicate, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Tin Oxide, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Hexylene Glycol. May Contain ( /-): Mica, Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Ultramarines (CI 777), Manganese Violet (CI 77742), Carmine (CI 7547), Bismuth Oxychloride (CI 77163), Red 6 (CI 1585), Red 7 Lake (CI 1585), Red 28 Lake (CI 4541), Yellow 5 Lake (CI 1914), Yellow 6 Lake (CI 15985), Blue 1 Lake (CI 429). *See Notes from Margaret on talc.

*TALC: Be not afraid.