How to Apply Blush Like a Professional
Tips from a “Saturday Night Live” cast member, a ballet dancer and a makeup artist.Beauty School answers common beauty questions with help from creative people who’ve become experts on the job. Sign up here to find us in your inbox once a month, and send any questions of your own to tmagazine@nytimes.com. Find more of T’s beauty coverage here.“Blush is trending,” says the makeup artist Ernesto Casillas, referring to the product’s ongoing popularity on TikTok. “A lot of people are calling it ‘blush blindness’ when someone overapplies it.” For advice on creating a more nuanced look, we turned to three people well attuned to the product’s capabilities: the comedian, actress and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Chloe Fineman, known for her uncanny impressions; the American Ballet Theatre principal dancer James Whiteside, who returns to the stage this month for the company’s fall season; and Casillas, whose clients include the actresses Zendaya and Ayo Edebiri. Here are their tips.Clockwise from top: Charlotte Tilbury Cheek to Chic in Pillow Talk Original, $42, charlottetilbury.com; Tata Harper Cream Blush in Peachy, $45, tataharperskincare.com; Victoria Beckham Beauty Cheeky Posh in Fever, $42, victoriabeckhambeauty.com.Photo: Justin Bettman. Products courtesy of the brandsChloe Fineman, 36, comedian and actressBlush is a survival tool for me, in terms of being like, “I’m healthy! I got sleep! Right…?” I’ve tried almost every cream blush. I’m packing at least two versions in my purse right now. My tried-and-true is Tata Harper’s Peachy, which is also the name of my dog. The bronzy, peachy color makes me look not ill. And Victoria Beckham has amazing stick blushes. I follow the makeup artist Jo Baker and she used this bright orange one on [the actress] Daisy Edgar-Jones. I do have to blend it out, but I like the way it looks.I spread one or two fingers of blush on the apples of the cheeks, then continue up to my temples. If I have any left over, I put it on my eyelids. And if I want to be like all the makeup girlies, I put it on my nose. I might as well look like the sun touched me for once in my life in New York.I have the best makeup artist, Daniela Zivkovic, [for “Saturday Night Live”]. For Saturdays, we do powder blush [which can be set] because we have makeup at 8 p.m. that has to last us for the live show at 11:30. Charlotte Tilbury has a highlighter-bronzer that we use; she also makes lovely blush-highlighter palettes. I love Charlotte Tilbury. Her videos are so charming and iconic. Today a package came, and it was a wig like Charlotte’s hair that I forgot I ordered at three in the morning, being like, “Oh, I should do an impression.”Clockwise from top left: Sephora Collection PRO Blush Brush #93, $34, sephora.com; Fenty Beauty Cheeks Out Freestyle Cream Blush in Petal Poppin, $26, fentybeauty.com; Sephora Collection Colorful Blush in Over the Top, $14, sephora.com.Photo: Gregg DeGuire/Variety, via Getty Images. Products courtesy of the brandsJames Whiteside, 40, dancer and choreographerI use Sephora’s Colorful Blush for pretty much everything — for the stage, and if I want to look polished for red-carpet events. I keep repurchasing because it’s so easy and cheap. I call it Sunburn, and I put it anywhere I would get a burn: my cheeks, the bridge of my nose, my brow bone. Bella [dancer Isabella Boylston] makes fun of me because it’s such an extreme color — it’s called Over the Top — but I apply it really sparingly with an angled brush.Onstage I also use a tritone bronzer that has highlight, shadow and sort of a rouge. I apply it at the top of my forehead, under my cheekbones — all over, basically — to give myself more of a living-creature look as opposed to pale zombie, which is very easily achieved under the bright stage lights. [A good option is Guerlain’s Terracotta Light.]There’s also a Fenty Beauty cream blush that I adore. It’s a standard grannyish blush color — very natural-looking, no shimmer.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More