Whit and Kalina's* Tips: How to Apply Blush and Bronzer Like a Pro.

Posted by Ethne~

I was feeling bad that I hadn’t posted this bronzing tutorial earlier in the summer – seeing as I’ll turn into a near-albino in just a few months.  Case in point:

I try to do my best with blush to have some color, but let's face it, I look ill at Christmas-time.

But then I realized that, aside from our Northern readers, everyone south of here is still in perfectly nice weather and can bronze their faces up for quite some time.  And we have a good following in Austrialia and New Zealand (thanks Friends down there!), and you’re coming on your summertime, so it’s perfect for you!

So here you go, straight from the professional celebrity make-up artist, Kalina Fernandez*, herself – how to bronze your face.  (And application reminders from my sis, Whit.)

This is not the most glorious picture of Whit and me, but since I wear sunscreen everyday, you can compare to the picture above and see that I appear to have a tan due to the bronzer even though it's a fallacy.

Kalina F. and me after she did my make-up last year when I was Queen for a Day

First up, which bronzers to use.  You can pretty much pick your poison.  There are a lot of great ones out there.  Most come with some glimmer in them but I prefer the only one I’ve found with no shimmer in it, which is made by Too Faced (and has real chocolate powder in it and smells divine) called Milk Chocolate Soleil.  That’s their version for fairer skin tones.  They make one for darker/olive skin tones called Chocolate Soleil.  I like it because I use a blush with a little shimmer in it and that way my face doesn’t have one big case of shimmer-itis. 

Getting ready, I apply my eye cream, a light moisturizer and BB Cream, which I also prefer to be Too Faced’s Beauty Balm.  I’ve tried a ton of BB Creams and always come back to this one.  I believe Lori uses L’Oreal’s BB Cream, which is made by the house of Lancome, so if you want a Target/Walmart brand, we recommend that one.

This is me with only my eye and face moisturizers on.  A blank slate of paleness.  My lashes are so blonde it looks like there's nothing there.

Too Faced Beauty Balm applied.  Skin feels wonderful and is evened out.  Doesn't look too much different with my mediocre Rebel selfie photo skilz.  Sorry.  It's in focus at least.

After my BB Cream, I apply a light coat of powder.  I know you’re not supposed to do this until after your blush and bronzer, but I’ve found that powder applied after covers up or dims down what you’ve just tried to apply for color.  So I set my foundation with powder, then apply the bronzer and blush.  Your preference.

Next for the bronzer.  The ticket is it’s applied where the sun hits your face naturally.  That way you don’t look like Tan Mom, you look like you’re naturally sun-kissed with just a little healthy Vitamin D. It’s applied in a '3' and 'E' formation along your brow- and cheek-bones.

Could any words make this better?

Left Side - Starting on your forehead just above your eyebrow, sweep bronzer around your left eye, making the upper loop of the ‘E’ shape onto your cheek bone (not your under-eye and not the apple of your cheek, but the top of your cheek bone).  Now make a fishy face with your lips and sweep the lower loop of the ‘E’ into the crevice that your lips make in your cheeks underneath the apple of your cheek. [The nice thing about having the bronzer in that crevice is it provides just a slight contour on your face which can create a slimming effect – bonus!]  I always blush a teeny bit of bronzer on my chin and nose, and then blend the lines above my eyebrows were the ‘E’ and ‘3’ start so they’re not too harsh – but just a little on these.

Start up here and sweep around the curve of your eye (not too close cuz you don't want powder in your eye)

This is the bottom part of the upper half of the '3' and 'E' curve

Now sweep from below your eye in a curve to below your cheek bone.  Make a fishy-face if it helps you determine the proper place for this shading - put the bronzing powder in the crevice the fishy-face makes.

Right Side – Repeat these exact same steps except you are making the numeral ‘3’ instead.

Lastly, your blush is applied like a Nike swoosh symbol.  Smile at the mirror and starting on the apple of your cheek, brush in the swoosh shape in-between the lines that you made on the lower loops of the ‘E’ and ‘3’.  See how you’re filling in that gap with color now?

Start right there on the apple of your cheek and make your Nike swoosh toward your ear.

Done. 

Looking a little more alive.  Now for the eyes.

Lastly I do my eyes.  Kalina said she does eyes first so if she messes up eyes or the powder from eyeshadow falls onto the cheeks, it doesn’t mess up the blush.  Totally makes sense.  If I’m doing a more thorough eye look, I follow her directions.  On a regular day, though, I use easy cream eyeshadows which don’t drop powder, so out of habit I do my eyes last.

Finished, one angle. (Need something on lips besides chapstick.)

Finished, different angle. (Definitely need color on that smooch.)

That’s it, my friends.  I just took pictures of the bronzer and blush application, but you have my whole routine.  You’re welcome.

*Note: Kalina didn't participate in this blog post, but she did teach me the '3' and 'E' technique when she did my make-up after I told her I didn't use bronzer because I was afraid of looking ridiculous.