At least, that is what beauty enthusiasts across the globe spent on blush in 2024, making it the fastest-growing category in the face makeup market.
A few months ago, the beauty brand Fluff launched a blush with shade names like Nervous and Shy, colors inspired by the physiological effects of feelings.
TikTok users have coined the term “blush blindness”, which describes those so used to seeing themselves covered in blush that they can’t tell when they have applied too much.
It might sound a little out there, but since the dawn of Instagram Face in 2019, female beauty standards have been accelerating toward the cyborgian, with a focus on symmetry, smoothness and agelessness.
Even the recent move toward “undetectable” cosmetic work – or slightly off cosmetic work, as in the case of “perfectly imperfect” veneers – assumes artificiality as the starting point: The unreal must be made to look more real.
