Blush Draping Is The Prettiest Shortcut To Gorgeous Summer Skin

Blush draping is the cheek contouring technique that took off in the ‘70s and ‘80s, courtesy of Cher’s makeup artist, Way Bandy, who used vivid cheek colours to sculpt and define the singer’s facial features. And the pretty, flushed makeup trend has featured on runways and red carpets ever since (see: Rihanna's bumped-up metallic blusher at 2017’s Met Gala and Anna Sui's pretty draped cloud blusher on the SS19 and SS22 runways).

But, it’s been given an update for 2022 with top makeup artists calling for a revised resurgence that softly blends blusher under eyes and up onto the temples for a more seamless and fresh-faced look.

Yara Shahidi is the latest celeb to jump on board with an ultry-perky, flushed skin look, created by makeup artist, Nikki Wolff, for her trip to Madrid. A bright coral shade was used on the apples of her cheeks and up around her brow bone  and into her hair line for gorgeous summer skin.

And unlike the hi-vis blush draping of the ‘80s, 2022’s twist sees softer shades like peach, apricot, coral and plum blended delicately to halo the eyes and cheekbones. In fact, under-eye draping using blusher has emerged as it's own sub-technique.

Taking to TikTok, pro makeup artist and brand founder, Huda Kattan, revealed: “under-eye draping has become the new hottest thing for blush and here's why.” She explained: “when you apply a blush just to the apples of the cheeks or even to the top of the cheekbones, it looks beautiful but the problem is, you don't have a natural blend of blush. What happens is you have these isolated little areas of blush and then the area under your eyes gets really bright and stands out a little too much.”

She demonstrated using her Cherry Blossom powder. “I'm taking it all the way under the eye area. I'm gonna grab a pinker blush and I'm going to apply that to my cheekbones blending outward.” Once completed on one side, Huda explains, "this blends so beautifully and there's no crazy highlight [from bright under eye concealer], there's nothing standing out, I just get a beautiful seamless blush. Comparing it to the other side, where she applied blush more traditionally, she adds, the tradition side looks lifted, but the under eye highlight stands out, looking disjointed, while the draped side gives her more of babydoll look.

So if you fancy switching out the bronze goddess vibes for something a little fresher and unexpected, blush draping is the pretty summer skin trend to jump on immediately.

For more from GLAMOUR's Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk

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