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How to Pair Blush with Bold Lipstick - Tips and Tricks
Makeup & Beauty Tips on How to Pair Blush with Bold Lipstick
Share your best tips and tricks for picking the right blush when you’ve gone with bolder lips! Feel free to share your experiences, how you mastered techniques, or what you struggle with.
My Tips
- It really depends on the color and depth of the lipstick.  If it’s a brighter coral, a soft coral blush tends to work well–can also be a warm pink or peach.  Deeper reds and berries, I tend to opt for more neutral beiges, browns, and pinks as they add a little color but not much.  They tend to define more than add a pop  of color.
- When in doubt, go for something neutral and muted, because it will give cheeks something but nothing exaggerated.
- It can also depend on how the eyes look, too, but I often match the undertones of the lip with the undertones of the blush.
Thanks to Monica for this week’s topic!
Personally, if I’m going with a more eye catching lip, especially if it’s going to be a darker color, than I only wear highlighter on my cheeks. If I’m going bold on the lips then that’s where I want all the focus to be. If the lip color is going to be bright than I might wear a subtle peach/pale pink cheek. I still generally prefer to just only use highlighter with bold lips overall.
wow I really messed up my thens/thans in that comment. let’s pretend I know how to grammar.
I agree with YellowLantern, A ‘natural’ luminous cheek looks amazing with vampier–teehee almost looks like vampire–lips. A little bit of bronzer or contour in the hollows can amp that even more. You can even top it off with a ultra soft hit of colour using a super light hand and a yachiyo brush for the barest hint of colour.
To me, dark lips also suggest a more sophisticated blush application method. Try sweeping up on your cheekbones rather than going for the more fresh faced apples of the cheeks method. With heavier lips, that type of blush application looks far too doll like IMO.
I never wear very bright blush anyway, so I just combine my bold lipstick with whatever blush I feel like wearing that day. My blush is never so bright that it clashes.
Do you think that MAC Margin or NARS Luster would go with a bold red lip? If not, what other colours would you suggest? It’s for an occasion, and I’m thinking of wearing NARS Mysterious Red/Jungle Red, or, if I don’t like either of them, my old standby, MAC Russian Red.
I’m very fair (NW13), and I find that wearing no blush with a bold lip looks weird on me, as if all other colour had drained from my face.
Yes, I think both shades would work! You may also like a soft neutral plum or pink with your paler skin! Think Well Dressed or Breath o’ Plum.
Thanks. 🙂 I’ve just bought Luster, but your other recommendations are definitely on my list. I think that they’d also go really well with bright pink lips, which I love but always struggle to match blush with.
Yes, I use Luster, with all my red lipstick
Thank you. 🙂 I bought Luster today. I haven’t had a chance to wear it yet, but it’s so pretty in the pan.
I like to combine a bright red lip with red blushes such as Chanel Rouge or Nars Exhibit A, but applied lightly. Since I don’t usually wear eyeshadow with that look (maybe some liner and mascara, but mainly mascara only) I think it gives me a nice blond-Snow White appearance 🙂
I like to stay in the same colour family (which isn’t hard for me, since I tend to be drawn to certain colours for both lips and cheeks) and if the lip is very bright, bold or dark, just go lighter but still in the same colour family when I do my cheeks. I find if I don’t use blush or if I were to use a sort of beige-y shade (like MAC Cubic) I would look really pale and sort of “unbalanced”.
I agree with the bright coral and the soft coral cheeks. When I weak OCC lip tars in Queen I wear a Tarte bright coral blush with a MAC 150 to have just a little bit on the cheeks. When I wear the lip tar in Anime I love a soft pink liquid blush like benefit posie tint. With reds I go for a brownish pink or brownish peach like Lancôme miel glacé. If I do bight lips and bright eyes then I also go for a highlighter.
I have a round face shade and fair skin, I always look better with some sort of definition on the cheeks.
I usually don’t wear blush at all, but I find that whenever I wear really bright lipstick without blush it makes me look pale and unhealthy because the rest of my face looks like it has no color in comparison. I find that I get the best results when I use a blush in a similar color as my lipstick, but very lightly–just enough to make me look healthy again. That, or I just dab a tiny bit of my lipstick on my cheeks and use that as blush. It’s an effortless match and I think the end result is better than if I had used a neutral-colored blush. I always keep my eyes super simple so that they don’t compete–either just liner or a sheer wash of white/nude eyeshadow.
I agree with pretty much you’ve said but I also agree with the person that said vampy lips paired with highlight and bronzer look amazing 😀 they really do 😀 so I do work mostly depending on what I’m planing to wear on my eyes and lips, so they match perfectly 🙂
I like to decide what makeup items will be the focus of the look – or to keep a balanced look.
Whichever is focal, I do it first. And then, I hold up colors close to my face in the mirror (unless using a go-to look) until something hits my fancy. I layer both lips and blush (although not necessarily both at the same time) so I tone down or punch up until what I see in the mirror matches the image in my head.
If I’m wearing a red lipstick I actually don’t wear blush. Any other bold color it would really depend and most likely I would use my go to neutral Mallow Mauve by ELF.
*Mellow*
Did you do how to pair lipstick with bold eyes? Or will you?
http://www.temptalia.com/how-to-pair-blush-with-bold-eye-makeup-tips-and-tricks