Meet the Staff: The Sketchbook
· Blog Home
· Profile
· MySpace
· Contact Us
· FAQ/TOS
Older Articles
· Beauty Notes: Serge Lutens Iris Silver Mist
· Beauty Notes: Wishlist! (10.14.05)
· Beauty Notes: A moment of silence...
· What order...
· Beauty Notes: What order do you put on makeup?
· Beauty Notes: Serge Lutens Vetiver Oriental
· My Holy Grails volume 2: Eyeshadow
· Beauty Notes: Where to begin?
· Odd notes
· Beauty Notes: Fall Fragrances
Comments
· October 29, 2005 1:07 AM by
Colleen Shirazi
· October 29, 2005 1:16 AM by
Colleen Shirazi
· November 17, 2005 10:12 PM by
sherri
Archives
· Beauty Blog (2003-2004)
· Fashion Blog (archive)
· New Releases Blog (archive)
· Beauty Articles (archive)
· April 2005
· May 2005
· June 2005
· July 2005
· August 2005
· September 2005
· October 2005
· November 2005
· December 2005
· January 2006
· February 2006
· March 2006
· April 2006
· May 2006
· June 2006
· July 2006
· August 2006
· September 2006
· October 2006
· November 2006
· December 2006
· January 2007
· February 2007
· March 2007
· April 2007
· May 2007
· June 2007
· July 2007
· August 2007
· September 2007
· October 2007
· November 2007
· December 2007
· January 2008
· February 2008
· March 2008
· April 2008
· May 2008
· June 2008
· July 2008
Recent blog posts:
Links
Barneys
refinery29
The Sartorialist
Jargol
Perfume Shrine
Ambre Gris
Polyvore
The Fashioniste
The Powder Group
LA-Story.com
Dain's Literary Attempts
Colleen's Beading Blog
Colleen's Adult Acne Blog
The Beauty Blog Network
Eponym Blog Directory.
TBF Project:Blog
Posted by Dain, Wednesday, October 19, 2005 9:56 AM (Eastern)
Someone has asked me, "How do you choose the right blush?" This is a delicate question. For one thing, if you don't choose the perfect blush for yourself, most modern blushers are designed to be sheer, blendable, to (varying degrees) melt into your skin tone. But on the other hand, choosing the right shade of blush requires a deeper understanding of color theory than, say, choosing the right shade of eyeliner or foundation might. It is, in short, harder to find the right blush, but you won't be penalized very much for it.
There are two factors: skin, and contrast.
The first is obvious. The darker the skin, the stronger the color—otherwise it wouldn't show up (or, conversely, it would be too strong). So a woman with ivory-pale skin ought to look into MAC Angel (a pale pink, touched with a little beige), while someone with dark skin might NARS Sin much more to her liking (a mauvey plum pink with shimmer). So much for the INTENSITY of the blush. What about TONE/COLOR (why choose peach over plum, or mauve over pink, etc.)? It is generally a matter of contrast. Yellowish skin tones adapt better to cool colors, like pink or plum. If you have olive skin, a lovely apricot may sing your praises, but if you're darker, then a sheer orange may be gorgeous. Those with a balance of warm and cool in their skin, better termed as "neutral", can wear virtually any color, but of course complex, neutral colors like rose or mauve are good options. Those who are already quite pink, or cool undertoned, may not need to wear a blush at all. And finally, the question of PURITY of color: because there are pinks and there are pinks—there are pure colors like NARS Desire, and there are mostly-neutral-with-many-other-colors-but-pink-is-a-factor like Stila Fade. Let's say, you've decided, OK, I have light, yellow-undertoned skin, so I'm looking for a nice pink blush. Does one go for the pure pink, or the neutralized, adulterated pink? It all depends on your skin, again. If you've got very neutral skin, without very much color—a clear brown tone, ivory without any delicate blooming pink—you need more blush, more of a purer color. But if you're a ready blusher, and have plenty of pink in your skin already (which is to say, you're more closer to neutral), choose the neutralized one.
So, to recap:
- DEPTH of skin determines INTENSITY of blush
- underTONE of skin determines TONE/COLOR of blush
- NEUTRALITY of skin determines PURITY of color
The darker the skin, the darker the blush. The lighter the skin, the lighter the blush. But you can play with this by applying a blush sheer or with more intensity.
yellow: pink, plum (of a pinkish variety), rose, mauve
olive: peach, orange, apricot, terracotta, plum
pink: possibly no blush at all!
balanced/neutral: pretty much anything
blue (usually only in very dark skin): red, berry
The closer you are to a balanced skin tone, the less of a certain color (i.e. pink, or peach) you need. Choose one that is couched in a neutral base so that you don't overwhlem your features. I, however, have very little pink in my face, and therefore cling to the purer colors.
The second factor is contrast. This is a simple enough matter—we take into consideration the "context", the contrast between your skin and your other features, particularly your hair. The darker your hair, and the lighter the skin, the more vivid the blush. This makes sense, because dark hair will "bleach" the skin color somewhat, so that you need to add balance by using a stronger blush. The closer that your skin and your hair are in color—for example, a tanned skin and light brown-blonde hair—the more neutral the color should be, like an earthy rose or even a bronzer. A ivory-complected, raven-haired "Snow White" complexion, might like, however, a plummy blush, instead. What to do if you're a redhead? Few people are natural redheads, but red hair tends to compete, because it draws the eye to it. Use the most innocuous blush you can find that still gives your skin live and vigor. Peach is best, and if not, mauve or rose.
Good luck!
Labels: beauty notes, face, philosophy
subscribe
in a reader
October 29, 2005 1:07 AM,
Hmmm...that is actually pretty good advice.
I say "actually" because, it's probably the best blush advice I've ever read, or rather, the least generic. There's typically a laundry list of colors to choose from. Whether or not the colors work, well that is another story.
The problem with this advice...is not the advice. It's that it would be difficult for a makeup novice to figure out where her skin tone falls. I mean I'm putting myself in my own shoes, before I tried out so many blush colors. It took me a very long time to figure out my own skin color. It sounds...next to ludicrous...but unless you have an English rose complexion, or else a beautiful blue-black complexion, then you fall into a spectrum of rather complicated colors.
Do you think the public Internet forum is dead?
I'm not saying it's dead, I'm asking if you think it is.
I mean...I'm thinking of 1998 - 2001. Before that, I had no reason to be on the Net. In 1998, I had to construct a website from nothing and install and configure a Perl script on it. So that is when I started using the Internet.
Back then, only a relative few people had figured out how to use forum scripts. It was an entirely different group of people, than the bulk of people who now dominate public forums.
I'm tooling around on the Net tonight (I have some rather boring work to do so I'm integrating it with some time wasting :) ). It's all about "blogger communities" now. i.e. it looks like a bunch of people posting on each other's blogger comments, ah, the way I'm doing right now.
It is a public forum, isn't it? The sole difference is that you might have to click something to open up the comments.
I'm still asking myself, what happened to that original group? What happened to the people who used to post on the forums? I recognize some of them here and there, they seem to have become scattered.
Oh yeah, there's some guy called "Shirazi" posting around, doing the comments thing. lol Don't look here, that ain't me.
October 29, 2005 1:16 AM,
Ugh...maybe the final straw is that "bluefin"/"tiadesai" thread on the forums.
Bluefin and Tiadesai have the same IP address. "They" have been posting similarly for an online pharmacy on many different forums. It always ends up with an affiliate link (I checked, they pay 10% for the first sale and 8% for refills from the same customer, presumably for the rest of his or her life).
What a racket! It's not the first spam-o-rama we've had to clean off the forums.
There was the gift card thing. I checked that too, just in case there was anything to it.
Even if you don't complete the bazillion-question section, they still sell your email address to a never-ending list of spammers. I'm sure there's some fine print involved that says that if you enter your email address, you have officially sold your soul and indentured your labor, again, for the rest of your natural lifetime.
Hum. That's about it. i.e. it seems to have all boiled down to hosting spam...plus that group of stalwarts, the ones who remember the original forum format.
Will it ever return?
November 17, 2005 10:12 PM,
I am so impressed with this article. As a 25 year cosmetologist, it's nice to see advice that is not geared toward selling a specific product!
Enjoyable reading..keep up the good work!
Sherri
Post a comment (NO SPAM)
Links to this post:
Create a Link