Does every blush available at Sephora turn orange or clownish on your skin, despite looking beautifully rosy in the pan or tube? If so, rest assured you’re not imagining this odd phenomenon – you are probably cool-toned. Any shade of skin can be cool-toned, from fairest to deepest. If you look better in silver than gold, have a blue, plum, or reddish tone to skin, and/or your hair is ashy rather than golden, you might very well fit this category.
For whatever reason, cool tones are neither the norm nor the trend when it comes to makeup. Of the 200+ blush products at Sephora, each with multiple shades mind you, I would estimate there are fewer than 20 truly cool-toned items. It sounds improbable, impossible even – but it’s what I’ve come to find through countless hours of perusal and swatching. That’s how I ended up here, with a roundup of the best (and frankly, only) cool-toned blushes I could find across the internet, swatched on my fair, cool-toned skin. I have found that indie brands make some of the most beautiful and flattering cool-toned products. Some are warmer than others, but they’re all far more suited to cool and neutral skin tones than your average viral TikTok blush. I hope this helps you find something that looks natural on you!
(Tip: Lilacs, lavenders, and pale pinks look most natural on those with fair skin; mauves, roses, and plums looks most natural on those with medium skin; and berries, wine tones, and dark mauves look most natural on those with deep skin – if you’re going for natural.)
Salt New York, particularly the Hannah Louise Poston collection, put out gorgeous cool-toned products. They may look brown in the pan, but on skin they are an array of lush mauves that mimic the natural shadows of the face and add dimension (plus a highlight!). Shop those shades here.
This first round of various cream swatches shows how diverse a cool tone can be; Sydney Grace’s Ballerina is pale pink, while Westman Atelier’s Garçonne is essentially brown. Sydney Grace’s I Choose You is a beautifully purply pink, and Lisa Eldridge’s Meeting the Ex is a sheer wash of innocent pink. Charlotte Tilbury’s Pretty Glow is the perfect example of a blush that looks scary and bright in the tube, but magically morphs into a neutral pink once applied to a cool-toned cheek (it’s color theory!). Colorescience’s Violet Haze (btw, this has SPF 50) is the warmest here, but still much cooler than the vast majority of blushes. It would be a good option for cool-toned people who want a sunkissed look without turning bright orange.
Below are some of my favorite cream blushes – the delicious purply brown mauves, contrasted by delightfully bright pinks and lilacs. JUNGSAEMMOOL’s Fuzzy Lavender is almost the color of my skin, making it the perfect natural flush. Huda’s Ube Cream is definitely the brightest, but when applied sparingly it gives a subtle chilled flush. Salt New York’s Mauve Light and Lisa Eldridge’s Rose Madder offer a rosy-pink glow, while Rituel de Fille’s Desire and Moth both look impressively natural when sheered out. Silk Naturals’ Wildflower is perhaps the boldest – a vibrant-yet-cool medium pink that looks super sweet when blended out.
Finally, below are the best cool-toned powder blushes I could find. Singe’s Likeable Litchi is a stunning lavender that looks jaw-droppingly natural on cheeks (the cool tones of the skin will make it appear a bit pinker and warmer than it looks in this swatch). Silk Naturals’ Desert Plum leans slightly more neutral, but is perfect to layer over some of the browny mauve cream blushes above. Sydney Grace’s Trust Yourself is one of the prettiest mauve pinks I could find, while their Paris Skies is similar to Likeable Litchi with a bit more shine. Huda’s Ube Birthday Cake is actually a setting powder, so I had to build it up for this swatch, but when dusted on the cheeks adds cherubic luster.
