I have a love-hate relationship with cream and liquid blushes or cheek stains. On the one hand, I love how a good cream or liquid blush will sit and move with your skin, giving you that barely there, yet natural glow from within your skin. A cheek stain will stay with you long after your powder blush is gone.
Yet, most of these cream or liquid products call for the use of fingers for best results. Quite often you hear of people telling you to work quickly with your fingers to spread and blend the colour on your cheeks, especially if its a product that sets quickly like the Benefit cheek stains. Oh boy, do they set quickly!
Herein lies the problem. I hate how these products stain my fingers. Have you experienced the same thing? It’s especially true of products like the Estee Lauder Cheek Rush gel blush or the Benefit cheek stains like Cha Cha Tint I’ve shown you here. They live up to their ‘stain’ reputation and its a right bitch especially in the morning. So, I shied away from cream/liquid/gel/stain blushes for ages.
That was, until I tried a technique that changed things 180° for me! Now, I can use cream/liquid/gel/stain blushes, it is so much quicker to apply and most importantly I no longer have to contend with stained fingertips! 😀
The “secret” is to use a brush.
Alright, maybe its not that much of a secret but I truly had the “Hallelujah!” chorus ringing in my ears when I first tried it many months ago and worked out how wonderfully useful it was for me… and how quick!
I have 2 brushes that I use for this purpose but the one that really works the best if you ask me, is the Sigma F84 Angled Kabuki brush (you can view it here) I bought this a while ago with a bunch of other Sigma brushes, most of which I no longer use, and I don’t even remember why I bought this one. It is a synthetic angled brush with a dense head that you can use for bronzer or cream blush. I never really used it, but one day, I picked it up, gave it a try and heard the Hallelujah chorus. Truly a game changer for me! Its not expensive (US$18) so I do think its worth trying. Do let me know if you want an individual review on this brush and I’ll oblige 🙂
The other brush I have is the Real Techniques Stippling brush. I still haven’t got the hang of a stippling brush so I use this one primarily for cream blushes not liquid ones because I can dab it and then dab on my skin and blend.
Here’s a quick picture tutorial on how I use a brush to apply a cheek stain (similar techniques for cream blush or gel blush or liquid blushes) because a picture speaks a thousand words 😛
- If using a cheek stain like Benefit Cha Cha Tint, draw 2-3 stripes of colour on the top of the Sigma F84 Angled Kabuki brush. If using a gel blush like Estee Lauder’s or a liquid blush like the Guerlain Terracotta pictured above, I pump a little dot on the brush. I’ve learned that a little goes a very long way. With cream blushes, I dab the whole head of the brush into the cream blush.
- Dab the product on your cheeks. I used the Cha Cha Tint because you can see how the product on your brush will translate onto your skin. You have to work very quickly with this one because it sets fast.
- Spread and blend the cream/liquid/gel/stain blush in a dab and swirl motion, or just bounce the brush against your skin. The product will spread and blend nicely and you can control where it goes quite easily with the angled brush head.
- Repeat for the other cheek and you’re done!
I was very surprised at how little time it took me to apply a cream/liquid/gel/stain blush using this technique as opposed to using my fingers. For some reason, I find it harder to blend with fingers and it is more patchy. With a brush, its quicker and the blending is a cinch!
If you too have balked at using a cream/liquid/gel/stain blush because of the inconvenience, well be inconvenienced no more! I have 😀
Do you like using cream or liquid blushes? Do you also use a brush or do you use your fingers?
I never used to like using blushes other than powder blushes because of my comfort level but now that I’ve worked out how to ease into a different sort of comfort level, I’m enjoying using liquid or cream blushes and discovering them anew! I hope this helps some of you 🙂
Paris B
You always come out with the best posts at the perfect time! I was just trying to figure out how to use my benetint without using my fingers since I always get such a splotchy application of it on my cheeks! I’m going to try this the next time I’m going out! Thanks!
Haha I love that my timing is so good! 😉 Do give it a go and I’d love to know how useful you found using it this way instead of with fingers. I found Benetint just too hard to work with because it dries so fast!
I do this too! Unless it’s a drier formula, but I use the RT Stippling brush too! Best brush for this!
Yay *high5* Tracy! 😀 I’m glad I finally found a use for the RT Stippling brush. I swear I must be stupid or something sometimes because I just can’t get the hang of using a stippling brush at all!
PB, how do you clean your brush when you use it with the cheek stain?
I just use the Daiso sponge cleaner and it comes right off, even if I wait till the weekend! That thing is seriously powerful 😛
Hahaha I’ve never used a brush with products like Benefits tints because I didn’t even think of painting the brush with the attached brush! Damn why didn’t I think of that??
Stained fingers be gone!
Haha Glad it made sense to you! Yes, you do just paint it on and then dab it on and voila! Works for all cream/gel/liquid blushes perfectly
Lol…i just made my first baby step on trying the cream blusher and here comes ur timely article on cheek stain. I doubt i will venture into cheek stain cos my brush techniques are really lousy/ slow. And cheek stain really stain and thats what i worry about…losing control and ending up with streaks on my cheek looking like red indian in action.
Tada! Mind reader! 😉 You can use the same trick with cream blush. Just dab the top of the brush into the blush, and dab on your cheeks. I do it all the time with my Canmake cream blush and I love the results 😀
I’ve been using my foundation brush for my cheek tints for quite a while. I also hate stained fingers and it really is easier to blend using the brush 🙂
Yay *high5* Issa! 😀 I wish I didn’t take so long to discover this 😀
Best tip ever! Thanks PB, I would have never known about this without your blog 🙂
Haha I’m glad to have helped, Monstro!
i love cream/liquid blush as the effect is always much natural compare to powder for me. but i hate stained fingers too.. this is a good tips! thank you so much for sharing! =)
I agree with the effects, Jean. So natural looking right? Glad you found this useful 🙂
Blush and brushes! Two of my favorite things!
Haha! Perfect combo!
Awesome tips paris! I always use my hand and yes it stained. Gonna try this tips.
Glad you found this useful, Cynthia 🙂 I used to use my fingers too but I hated how messy it would get!
Thanks for this post. I always shied away from cream/liquid blushes because I really do not know how to use them. Do you think if the Etude House Duo Fibre Brush would work with these blushes? Also, I echo Angela’s comment – how do you clean the brush after using with cream/liquid blushes and whether you can use the same brush for a different colour blush the next day?
Hi Victoria, I think any duo fibre brush or a kabuki brush will work. I personally am not so keen on a duo fibre because I’m not very good at controlling the brush due to the long fibres and sometimes, it gets onto places I’d rather not have blush on. That’s why I prefer using the kabuki but yes, a duo fibre brush works especially for cream blushes. To clean, I use the Daiso sponge detergent. Gets it clean in no time at all! I do use the same brush sometimes after brushing it on a piece of tissue but then I rarely use cream blushes more than twice in a week so its not a daily thing for me 🙂
helpful post! i normally use a stippling brush, instead of kabuki brushes because it never crossed my mine that I could actually use synthetic kabukis for cream/liquid/gel blushes. Silly me!
Not silly Plue! I still haven’t quite got the hang of using a stippling brush and I only picked up the kabuki because I wanted to see what it could do, instead of just taking up space and wasting my money! LOL!
I find for liquid blushes/stains, it’s best to blend and sheer it out on your fingers before patting it on to your cheek. That way, even if you do get streaks, it’s only going to be on your fingers and not on your cheek! And the best part about using fingers to sheer out the colour is that you can do both cheeks blushing equally (just tap your stained fingers on to both cheeks at the same time). I guess I don’t mind stained fingers as much as I do mind uneven blusher!
I don’t like using brushes to apply blush (even liquid/cream ones) as I feel the friction of the brush (I’m now using the Lunasol cheek brush to apply loose powder; super soft!) irritates my sensitive skin and makes the area red. That tends to confuse me when I’m trying to get an even intensity on both sides.
Good point about the streaking, Firn! Doesn’t work with cheek stains though. Those just sink right in and stain the skin 😛 I usually dab on the product with the brush rather like how someone would use a beautyblender I suppose so I don’t think it messes up my base a lot. I used to mess up my base more with fingers and be so frustrated because there went all my foundation and concealer! That said, I am probably also a little more skilled now than I was before so perhaps I should give your technique a try again 🙂 I prefer working with brushes so my hands don’t get dirty but I do get what you mean by the irritation, and that can seriously mess with the intensity of your blush!
I’ve never used cheek stains much because they stain my fingers, which I hate. For some reason, I had never thought of using them with a brush lol. Thanks for the tip, Paris!
And now you can use them! Glad to have given you some food for thought, Gio 🙂
What a great tip! Never thought to try a brush. Is it easy to overdo the blush using it especially cream?
I use my fingers with a cheek stain then immediately reach for a baby wipe. It tends to get the stain off before it fully sets in.
Actually, yes, it would be easy to overdo because I do find that using a brush actually applies the product more intense. However the upside is, you can only dab the brush into the product once or twice and use that little bit for both cheeks and you can get it done quite quickly. I’ve found that I end up using much less product with a brush than with fingers 🙂
I’ve wanted a cream/liquid blush for the longest time but never get down to getting it coz’ i find it a messy affair. For me, i want things to be done efficiently and swiftly. So, this is a great, great tip!
I am exactly the same! Anything other than a powder blush is just too much fuss! Glad to have put you on the right track to finally owning a nice cream blush 😉
Hey Paris, I’m using the same brush to apply cream blushes. My problem are the blushes with small openings. E.g. YSL creme blushes. My big brush head can’t reach the blush so in the end I still have to use my fingers.
High 5, Jacqueline! 😀 You’ve got a point re: jar openings. I haven’t tried the YSL blushes but I had been wanting to! Now that you mention its hard to get a brush in there, I’m hesitating.
oo, good point but am lazy to wash the brush after that
I do mine in my weekly or so brush wash. Not a problem at all 🙂
I use that RT stippling brush for liquids and creams, too! It’s the best.
Oh goody! I find it works better for creamier and “wetter” blushes while the Sigma works better for drier textures. Or its just me 😛
The RT stippling brush is a real gem that I bought 2!! haha! I’ve always preferred cream/gel/liquid blushes as they last longer. And I’ve been using the stippling brush to apply them. I’ve not tried the Sigma Angled brush with liquid/cream blushes as I like using that one for my liquid foundation, but I think I will experiment this weekend!!
Did you try using the Sigma brush, Ika? Curious to know how you liked it. I, on the other hand, am still trying to get the hang of using the RT stippling brush. Its weird. I can’t seem to get it! It never goes on very smoothly for me or maybe I’m just doing it wrong >.<