It’s been a while, in fact, a long while! Yes, I admit I’ve been neglecting the cheeks. The undisputed quiet achiever in facial enhancement of the makeup kind. So it’s time to share some love for the cheeks and celebrate blush palettes, cheek colors, and all things cheeky in this week’s blog post. No matter your skin type. I’ve got you covered.
A good rosy hue is probably the single quickest way you can change or bring life to your face with a natural glow. Literally in one sweep of a makeup brush. So come for a walk with me and enjoy my picks, and hopefully some of yours, of the best blush palettes your money can buy.
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Best Travel-Friendly Blush Palette: Anastasia Beverly Hills Blush Trio
For a compact yet versatile blush option, this palette is a must-have. It features soft tones in a muted dirty pink, a lighter pink, and a peach tone. But the best thing about this palette is just how compact it is. Perfect for your makeup bag or when you’re traveling, with enough range in just three tones to give you many different looks.
Find Anastasia Beverly Hills Blush Trio here.
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Best Pigments: Juvia’s Place – The Saharan Blush Palette Vol. II
Loko at these gorgeous pigments. You can’t go past Juvia’s Place for these beautiful, rich tones – in both volumes I and II. This palette presents a variety of textures – both matte and shimmer, with many options to create contour and highlights AND your cheek hue all within the one palette. The vibrant red and purple hues are just gorgeous on darker skin tones and paired with the highlight shade, you can create such beautiful looks. So pretty!
Find Juvia’s Place: The Saharan Blush Palette Vol. II here – if it’s not sold out!
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The Popular Vote: NARS Orgasm – Limited Edition Oversized
I don’t think I know a single makeup artist that doesn’t have this cheek color in their kits. But check it out – get this oversized limited edition while you can. Presented in a rose pinky/gold case, this limited edition fixture from NARS will disappear before you know it. So best to stock up while you can.
NARS Orgasm is probably one of the single most iconic shades when it comes to cheek colors and blush tones. Not only is it one of my favorite shimmery shades, but it also’s super versatile, creates such a multidimensional look, and can be worn well by anyone!
Find NARS Limited Edition Orgasm here.
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Best All in One: Tarteist Pro Glow and Blush
I’m a big fan of Tarte and their palettes. And this Pro Gow and Brush Cheel Palette is no exception. Tarte gives you 4 blush tones in a powder formula, plus a contour and highlight bonus, which seems to be quite a thing these days.
But this is a succinct little palette that offers two pretty peachy tones, and two more flush pinky tones. So while the shade range isn’t as massive as some of the larger palettes in this collection, you get a really nice set of blushes to create beautiful looks with a lovely satin finish.
Find Tarteist Pro Glow and Blush here.
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Best Ethical Blush: Honest Beauty Lit Powder Blush
I love to include a good Honest product, in fact it’s becoming a staple member of my groupings. What’s not to like?
This single from Honest Beauty in Flirty is just gorgeous. The soft shimmer finish is so flattering on fair skin tones, and it still packs enough pigment to look like a delicate highlight on deeper skin tones.
Find Honest Beauty Lit Powder Blush in Flirty here.
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Best Cream Blush: Jillian Dempsey Cheek Tint
Okay, so I realize this isn’t strictly a palette, but how could I refuse this incredible pigment of Scarlet from Jillian Dempsey?
It’s vegan, it’s cruelty-free, and it’s made with delicious ingredients like sunflower seed wax, organic shea butter and coconut oil. So you will give your skin some hydration as well as a hue.
I love Scarlet as it is the perfect cream blush to put that natural flush in your cheeks with a single creamy sweep.
The cream formula of Jillian Demspey is perfect for all skin types, but especially if you’re on the drier side. You can’t go wrong with a cream blush.
Find Jillian Dempsey Cheek Tint in Scarlet here.
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Best Affordable Blush Palette: e.l.f. Dark Blush Palette
While not the oomphiest of pigments, this e.l.f Dark Blush Palette is still worthy of a look in. I love these quad cheek palettes for a slight shimmer on the cheeks. And with such pretty rosy pink and peach tones as well. And as always, for the price tag, you cant go wrong.
Find e.l.f. Dark Blush Palette here.
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Best Soft Beauty: Sigma Beauty Blush Palette
I decided to include this blush palette, as it’s not always about creating bright hues and dramatic glows. Sometimes you just want a soft wash of color or more of a natural look with your cheek tone. Well, this is the perfect palette for just those looks.
And you get a lovely highlighter and a soft shader tone in there as well. This is a really pretty palette for softer shades of blush.
Find the lovely Sigma Beauty Blush Palette here.
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Best Options: Flamingoals by Mia Del Mar
So, I had to include Flamingoals, as I have it. And I love it! The pigments are as vivid as they seem in the photo, plus the packaging is so pretty!
This is a slim palette and offers me tones for all complexion shades and textures. I know it’s not the most well-known, but it is truly all you need – one of the most versatile blush palettes at a really great price. And it will go a long way, too. I’ve already had mine for a couple of years and it’s still going strong.
Also, that light peach tone, top row, center is gorgeous on the right face! I love it!
This is probably my favorite selection of blush colors, up there with Juvia’s Place for sure.
Find the gorgeous Flamingoals by Mia Del Mar here.
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Best Matte Shades: L’Oreal Infallible Paints Blush Palette
The matte shades of this compact powder blush palette from L’Oreal speak for themself. Offering just four shades, this is the perfect starter cheek palette for the new makeup enthusiast. This is a hard-to-come-by palette these days, so grab these matte finishes in a perfect little cheek quad when you can.
These powder blushes are really easy to use, have great pigment, and allow you to create all depths of looks with blendable and buildable color.
Find L’Oreal Infallible Paints Blush here.
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The Rulebreaker: Perricone No Makeup Blush
Although this blushy in a bottle is only available in one shade, (yes, a bit limiting, I know) I still love the notion of this wash of color on your cheeks.
It can be applied really quickly and blended with your fingers, a brush, sponge or a beauty blender. This blush is a fab “no makeup” option for those among us who really don’t like to feel like we have a lot of product going on our faces.
The lightweight texture of Perricone’s No Makeup Blush is a great option if you have dry skin, and want to avoid adding extra powder to your face.
A top tip for an extra long-lasting cheek color is to layer this with a powder finish of your favorite blush color over the top. You’ll get an added depth to the finish, and know that it will last all day as well.
Find the Perricone No Makeup Blush here.
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Check out my collection of the best blush for darker skin tones here.
And that’s it – this was quite a fun collection to put together. Blush really does get forgotten or put to the back sometimes, but I hope this serves as a gentle reminder that nobody “puts baby in a corner”. Yep, I’m old 🙂
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Featured Image by Evangeline Sarney
