Confession: I'm Always Wearing Three Different Kinds of Blush (2025)

I live for a beauty hack. It’s one way I can justify doomscrolling on TikTok; there’s always some new method of applying makeup that comes across my For You Page, whether it be getting a low-effort, grunge eyeliner look or how to make makeup last 12 hours in the dead of summer. Still, some of my favorite tricks come from working with celebrity makeup artists. While there's a lot of overlap in how artists apply makeup, the one hack that differs from artist to artist is how they apply blush.

Let it be known: I love blush. If I were on a desert island and could only use one beauty product, it would (stupidly) be blush. To me, there’s no such thing as too much. I carry enough blush products with me at all times to flush a sorority house. You may be wondering why someone would need several blushes at once, and that’s because I am constantly layering different shades and formulas. I didn’t realize how atypical this was until I was in a meeting where the rest of the Bazaar team gasped in shock when I said I use no less than three blushes.

While there are shades of blush that I always go back to, like Rhode’s coral-centric Spicy Marg or Westman Atelier Baby Cheeks in Petal, I prefer to blend a few shades to get a hue that matches the time of year, where I’m going, or what I'm wearing. I treat picking out blushes like I pick out my fragrance for the day—an accessory. I typically lean towards cream blushes that come in on-the-go sticks or pots. However, I have recently started to reignite my relationship with powder blushes because they deliver excellent pigment and staying power.

The first blush trick I ever learned was from Patrick Ta, and it's one of the methodologies that put him on the social media map. Ta told me years ago to apply my powder blush first and layer a creamy blush formula atop to give a dewy, natural, skin-like finish. He even created a whole product around the trick. His Major Headlines dual-sided blushes have a powder side and a cream side of the same shade, designed to be layered. While my first instinct is to apply cream first and set it with powder for longevity, Ta says adding cream on top of powder gives the skin a glowy flush that is music to my ears.

On the other hand, makeup artist Vincent Oquendo has the opposite approach. "Cream first, always, unless it’s a cream-to-powder blush, which exists, and they’re heaven on earth," he says. Then there’s makeup artist Kelli Anne Sewell, who applies blush akin to my layering method in a way she calls “shadow blushing.” Sewell uses a few blushes from bronze tones to more poppy pink shades to create a gradient that gives a sun-kissed, flushed illusion.

My goal is always to create long-lasting color that requires little to no touch-ups throughout the day. My favorite layering technique starts with using a blonzer hue (a combination of bronzer and blush shades) like Rhode Freckle on the high points of my cheeks, a pink shade like Dior Rosy Glow Stick in Candy in the center of my cheek, and then a cool-toned pink shade like Saie SuperSuede powder blush in Bella to add brightness and lock in the creams. The best part about blush? There’s simply no wrong way to apply it or limit of shades you can use. That's fun in it.