Hello, Dolly! Babydoll Cheeks/Purple Blush for Warm Undertones

The centerpiece of babydoll cheeks is a cool-toned pink blush–be it hot candy pink or pastel pink. If you have warm/yellow undertones like me, you might have experienced trouble getting those types of colors to show up true to pan. Yellow undertones can cause tones to skew warm and even muddle cool pinks into appearing peachy or brownish.

The solution? Apply a light purple blush beforehand.

Light purple primers and color correctors are used to neutralize sallow skin, so logically light purple blushes do the same thing–just with more pigment. The purple counteracts yellow tones, laying a foundation for colors to show clearly.

For this post, I used Everyday Minerals blush in Anytime, a matte chalky lavender, as a base for Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in Dollface, a quintessential pale, babydoll pink.

EDM Anytime (unfortunately discontinued) is swatched below alongside 3CE Duo Color Face Blush in Creme De Violette (matte, smooth, pigmented) and The Face Shop’s LOVELY ME:EX You Face Blusher in 03 Purple Fantasy (soft, powdery texture with satin finish that looks almost white when built up).

Other light purple options:

• Marc Jacobs Shameless Bold Blush in 212 Outspoken
• Laneige Pure Radiant Blush in 02 Baby Purple
• Dior Diorblush in 226 Mauve Princess
• Anna Sui Rose Cheek Color in 100 Mystic Rose

Now let’s see the purple blush work its magic.

On your left, I have on EDM Anytime. On your right, my cheek is bare. You can see how the lavender has brightened up my cheek and turned it into almost a cool-toned pink on its own. You could stop here if you wanted. Note: If the purple base appears chalky/white/powdery, fret not because the layering of the pink blush will usually eliminate that (erm, assuming the pink blush is not itself chalky or powdery).

Next, I’ve applied Tarte Dollface to both cheeks. Notice the difference?On the cheek that wasn’t primed with a purple blush, Tarte Dollface looks like a medium warm pink blush:But aha! On the side that was primed, Tarte Dollface appears as a cool pale pink, just as it should:

I hope this helps. I didn’t learn about this tip until just this year. I was always perplexed that cool-toned pinks looked different once on my skin. I’m really pale so blush should show up the same color as in the pan, silly me thought. Turns out it was all down to undertones.

Update: Check out this Blind Test segment on purple blushes from “Get It Beauty.” The winners were from MAC, TonyMoly, Shu Uemura, The Face Shop (the same one swatched above), and Espoir.