If there’s one thing that I know, it’s blush. I’ve been a makeup collector since I was a teenager, and it’s the category that I’ve been most intentional about. As someone with a neutral undertone with a golden overtone, I love any blush color that looks warm and skin-like, almost bordering on bronzer status, for my everyday rouge. That being said, I also love switching out my blush with the seasons and per occasion, so I’ve fleshed out a rather well-rounded collection that, if I’m being honest, is my complete pride and joy.
As with the rest of my routines, like skin and hair care, I’m switching out the blushes that I use for my fall makeup routine. Not only am I gravitating to more moody, rich tones like browns and berries, but I am also playing with the finishes of my blushes. In the process, I have truly discovered some incredible products (like, secret makeup-artistry-worthy items), and I have been bursting at the seams to talk about them.
My favorite fall blushes are year-round staples, but they just hit a little different when the weather gets cooler and we all want to look more fresh-faced and sun-kissed. If you’re ready for a fall blush reset, keep reading for the ones that are worth picking up—from the lens of a beauty editor with over a decade of testing the best formulas that the market has to offer.
For the Jetsetters
If you fly South for the winter, or just have a ton of holiday travel coming up, blush palettes allow you to make the most of the space in your makeup bag.
Every year, Hourglass comes out with the ambient lighting palettes. The compact features six of the brand’s famous ambient light powders, which essentially mimic different types of light on your face. These palettes, however, come with a mix of finishing powders, bronzers, and blushes, and like clockwork, I get one every single year. My favorite from the most recent collection is the Fox palette, but there’s an option for all skin tones, including the Deer and Swan palettes for medium and fair skin tones, respectively. There's even a Sephora-exclusive Horse palette that can work for skin tones across the board.
I will never forget how I was able to do almost an entire full face of makeup using just this palette. For that reason, I always recommend that people pick it up, but especially around the holidays, to make packing your on-the-go beauty bag a bit more straightforward versus feeling like you're playing a game of space-saving Jenga. While there’s bronzer and foundation colors included in the palette, there are four pans dedicated entirely to cream blush, which also makes it super easy to customize your shade.
Powdered Princesses
Anyone with really oily skin knows that the colder weather may leave it a little drier, but the oils never truly go away. Thus, a powder blush will always be within arm’s reach for me.
NARS blushes have always been some of my favorites, but the color Behave in particular is perfect for fall. It’s a dusty pink that isn’t too bright, but manages to just pulls an everyday look together. Plus, the brand’s new talc-free formula is actually stunning. I don’t notice too much of a difference between this one and the original.
Fire Moon from Haus Labs is one of the best blushes that I have tried all year. It’s described as a beige peach, but for people who are around my skin tone (think: MAC NC47, or on the tan to deep side of the foundation spectrum), it is the perfect blonzer, a cross between a blush and bronzer, especially for fall. On my skin tone, it shows up as a muted peachy brown, and it is the blush color that I have been looking for for years. Personally, it’s been in my beauty rotation since it launched, but if you’ve yet to try the shade, the cooler fall months are the perfect time to pick it up.
Cream Cheeks
For me, cream blush not only helps to set the foundation for my blush, but it also adds dimension to a look. The ones below add just the right amount of color and glow, plus there’s an unconventional option here that I swear by.
Charlotte Tilbury’s Unreal Lip + Cheek Glow Blush Stick is a product I find myself reaching for mindlessly, which is when I know I really love something. It delivers the perfect amount of pigment and glow every single time. The colors Pinky and Cherry Glow combined create the most stunning deep pinky red that I’ve been loving pairing with powder blush over the past few weeks.
I’ve been playing around with these pigment balms from Rituelle de Fille for a few months, and the shade Cherry Red Glaze is a masterpiece. It can be sheered out for a wash of color on the cheeks or lips, but it also builds on itself beautifully for someone who prefers a more punchy color. They don’t dry down matte per se, but they leave behind a stain when they fade that I love to apply a gloss over when I wear the color on my lips.
Garçonne is the newest addition to Westman Atelier’s Lit Up Highlighter range, but don’t let the name fool you—I’ve been obsessed with using this as a glossy blush topper. This color in particular is one that I’ve been searching for from the line for a long time: translucent, glowy, and delivers just the right amount of pigment to influence the color on my cheek without completely taking it over. Lighter skin tones can use it as a standalone blush, and it actually works as a stunning tinted highlighter on deep, dark skin. If you land somewhere in the middle, just tap a bit onto your already-blushed cheek to finish it off and thank me later.
Hybrid Hotties
Hybrid blushes are ones that I consider to be cream to powder. The options below are the best I’ve ever come across and have become year-round staples in my makeup routine.
If you believe in brown blush supremacy, Danessa Myricks’s Spice Latte should be in your collection. It’s a cream-to-powder blush that is described as a warm brown, but is much more nuanced than that. There are hints of terracotta and a little pink that almost make this shade transform based on whoever is wearing it, and it’s one of the few blushes that I truly believe can work on the majority of skin tones.
The shade Speakeasy from Soshe is the epitome of fall in a makeup compact. The dusty mauve shade is another one of those colors that looks good on almost everyone. I’ve loved using it on the lips and cheeks for a monochromatic beauty moment, and I’ve even used it on top of lipstick to give it a cooler, slightly more grungy-toned look. It’s immaculate.
It’s Called Dimension, Darling
The blushes in my collection that add the most dimension to any look are hands-down my satin formulas. They’re not as shimmery as traditional highlighters, yet not as flat as normal matte powder formulas. Beauty editor hack: top off your satin blush with the tiniest amount of a cream highlighter for an editorial cheek that lasts all day.
When Saie launched the Supersuede blush line earlier this year, I didn’t think that I would fall so deeply in love with the color Ciao, which is a soft terracotta golden brown. Alas, it’s another one of those bronzer shades that looks absolutely perfect on my skin tone, but unlike the others mentioned, it also has a hint of shimmer that makes it look like I’m wearing both blush and highlighter. In short, if you want a workhorse product that makes it look like you tried harder on your makeup than you actually did, pick this up.
In that same vein is MAC’s Lovejoy. It’s a mineralized formula that inherently tends to be a bit more sheer and lightweight on the cheek, but this one builds on itself beautifully. It also has a slight gold pearl in the formula, which creates that stunningly radiant glow when I turn my cheek in the right light.
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