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Rant & Rave: Cheek Stains

Share: Tell us what you love and hate about Cheek Stains!

my answer: When they work well, they can be amazing, but when they don’t, they can be such a mess/pain in the butt to deal with. They don’t always play well with foundation/base makeup, either.

19 Comments

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Starfish Avatar

I love how natural looking and long lasting they are, but they tend to smear around my foundation so they’re a pain to apply. They tend to look best on bare skin, I’ve noticed. Also if you have oily skin they can emphasize the your pores if that’s an issue for you. I have several Tarte cheek stains and I really like them but they’re difficult to work with.

Dominique Avatar

I have Posietint and Benetint, I like them it’s great if you want a healthy and natural glow on your skin. I wear them alone but I could put a powder blush after applying Posietint. Using them on skin redness is very bad though ( esp Benetint ), it makes it worse. Otherwise, great products easily wearable.

Wednesday Avatar

Not a blush format I personally gravitate towards. I haven’t had a great deal of experience with cheek stains and always think they are a terrific product for someone young with great skin. My experience is they tend to pull up your base, or sit on top of it in a weird manner, but again, not a format where I have tried many brands/formulas.

Ani_BEE Avatar

Only on natural skin, as the oils in them break down the foundation. The same with cream blushes unless they are made with the same base as the foundation ingredient the wreck havoc you your foundation.

Ellen Avatar

How funny – I just returned the Guerlain terracotta sun shimmer highlighting blush in Sunny Pink because, much as I love Guerlain products, it just wouldn’t stay on my cheeks! That tends to be the case for me with all cheek stains, whether Benefit (I use Cha-Cha tint sometimes, but only for waking my face up before going out briefly) or other brands. 🙁 I’m excited to try the new Josie Maran watercolor cheek glees though, because apparently they’re supposed to last longer!

Lauren Avatar

I rarely wear foundation, and if I do it just tends to be in the t-zone sort of area, so I love them. I’m actually not too fond of Benetint, I find it hard to apply evenly, but I really dig the Model&Co one that came in April’s Glossybox. Lovely color, stays put. Only downside is that it sure stays put on the finger you use to apply it as well. 🙂

Smidge Avatar

I love my Benetint but one time I applied it on a full face (foundation and all) and I had two pink spots with freckles and the rest of my face was flat because it dissolved my foundation! Oops. Best left to bare skin.

Janelly Avatar

I like the concept since they stain and have good lasting power. The downside is that they are often pretty hard to blend and for that reason I can’t really work them over a foundation since it disrupts the foundation underneath. I guess they are good if you aren’t wearing foundation or going to the beach sorta thing!

Emily Avatar

If I’m going to use a cheek stain/tint, I prefer it to be a gel formula, and only use it if I’m wearing tinted moisturizer or BB cream on it’s own, but not with regular foundation as, like others have said, they can break down certain foundations and make them patchy. I usually mix a little of the stain with a little of the moisturizer/cream and apply it with a foundation brush. I find I get more even coverage with a brush and then it doesn’t stain my fingers.

Gena Avatar

I don’t use cheekstains. I bought Tarte Dollface and used it a few times, many years ago; it failed to live up to the hype. Every one I’ve used accentuates the pores on my cheeks, making me look like I have teeny tiny needle points on my face. I like to look as close as possible to “airbrushed”, and they always interfere with my foundation, making it look clumpy and decidedly UN-airbrushed. 🙁 Every time I read/hear a makeup artist advocating cheekstains because they’re more “natural”- and “youthful”-looking I think “Maybe I’ll try one again”, and I never do. I like cheek powders the best; they’re a lot easier for me to blend.

Celine Avatar

I love them! Only thing you have to remember is to work quick with them since they settle fast, and can leave weird lines if not rubbed in right away.

Laura Avatar

I absolutely LOVE Tarte cheek stains! I wear them all the time and they last all day. I dab it (don’t rub) on my cheeks with my fingers and it does not mess up my foundation at all. It looks sooo very natural.

Ade Avatar

Because of my extremely oily skin, cheek stain is the only blush that can stay put on my cheek.
I’m aware that the liquid cheek stain are more difficult to blend (tends to streaky/blotchy), but I love gel cheek stain like Tarte Maracuja Cheek Tint, Becca Beach Tint or Estée Lauder Pure Color Cheek Rush. Just remember to apply it BEFORE foundation so it won’t ruin your foundation.

My only complain is: minimum color selection! Most cheek stain only provides 3 colors: berry, pink and red. Hallo, we girls sometimes want red cheek, pink cheek, berry, peach, plum, coral, nude or even orange and purple!

Jade Avatar

I have only used Benetint, and I love that it’s really travel friendly, and you don’t need a brush – I get the best results applying with my fingers. I don’t love how it tends to move my underlying makeup, and it can be hard to build – if one layer is too sheer, often a second layer is too much. And I HATE how it stains my fingertips!

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