How To: Tone Down Your Blusher

"Had something in my eye and went to bathroom to see what it was," said MontyC on yesterday's Blather. But when she got there, she was in for a little bit of a shock: "all I could see was how RIDICULOUS my blusher looks!," she wailed, adding "I just stood there thinking ‘I sat through a meeting looking like THIS?!'"

Oops!

Glamazon sympathised with her plight. "Have you ever noticed that blush is the worst thing to get wrong as you can’t correct it?"  But I think I may know how. And I know this because I frequently wear waaaaay too much blusher. It's BAA time, girls - Blusher Abusers Anonymous.

I loves it, y'see. It's so pretty and uplifting and nice and I just can't resist. I am especially adoring Benefit's Coralista at the moment. Oh wowee zowee, (yes I am a Pavement fan), this is norjus. It's orange, it's sparkly, it buffs on oh-so-easily and it even smells good. I amazed myself with my love for it, but there you go - beauty is endlessly absorbing. As are my cheekbones, if my liberal application methods are anything to go by, so I had to develop some tone-it-down strategies.

I've got two. Want to know what they are? Check after the cut!

1. Powder is your friend. Swish a fat, soft powder brush into some loose powder and tap off the excess well, so that there's barely anything on the brush. Now, take it to your cheeks and semi-firmly buff it over the excess blusher. This tones it down a little and blends it out onto the cheeks, so it's not so in-yer-face, and tends to work well to take down powder blush.
2. If you've used a cream blush, my fix is to pump a little foundation onto the back of my hand, run my MAC 187 through it and then lightly swirl on my cheeks with a light circular motion. The small bit of coverage you get is enough to take the hookerish edge off your cheeks, without caking your makeup.

Anyone else got any blusher-reduction tips? Dish in a comment!