KBeauty: You’re Making Me Blush

Monday

Hello friends! I wanted to come back with another makeup look, but my skin has not been too happy as of late and I thought I would give my skin a bit of a break. So instead, I’m back with another KBeauty post, this time on blush and bronzer.

.My last KBeauty makeup post was on Cat Wings and Puppy Wings, so if you’d like to check that out, please click here.

So Let’s Talk Blush and Bronzer:

As of late, contouring and highlighting have grown increasingly popular and using copious amounts of contour to really define the face has become part of many a makeup addicts. But in Korea, it’s hard to find that level of contouring, since Korean makeup trends lean strongly towards no makeup makeup.

Let’s start off with blush. In most of my KBeauty posts, I have noticed that I repeat the words “girlish” and “innocent” the most, and for good reason – girlish and innocent is what most daily Korean makeup looks go for (note the word “daily,” there are sexier, more dramatic KBeauty looks too but these posts focus on simple, daily makeup looks).

For a natural and sweet look, pink, coral, and orange blushes are preferred, as opposed to the huge range of blush colours I have noticed in other brands. The blush is concentrated on the apples of the cheeks and then swept over the cheeks. Some people tend to call the apples of the cheeks the “애플존,” or “apple zone,” because we don’t actually have a direct translation for “apples of the cheeks” in Korean.

The word “bronzer” is not really used in Korea. Instead, we call it “쉐이딩/셰딩” or “shading.” Since Korean beauty standards prefer a smaller face with a pointy chin, most people will shade their jawline to give the illusion of a smaller face and to somewhat sharpen the chin. Some people will go an extra step and shade the hairline and the side of the face, under the cheekbones. Another step that I like to take is to shade my nose bridge and the end of my nose, including the septum, because I have a low nose bridge that is not uncommon in Asian faces. Shading the tip of the nose and the septum makes my nose look pointier, which I like to do when I want it to look more defined.

One thing that I find interesting about the difference between “Western” (I really need a better word to describe this) makeup and Korean makeup is that high cheekbones are not necessarily attractive in Korean beauty standards. On the contrary, they are undesirable when they’re too big and cheekbone-reducing plastic surgery is pretty common. That’s the reason really dark contouring under the cheekbones is not really a think in Korea. I personally do shade a bit under the cheekbones in a parallelogram shape (geometry being used in real life!) because my cheekbones aren’t overly big and it helps make my face look less round.

My little “parallelogram”

 

A good way to summarize Korean makeup is “less is more.” This doesn’t necessarily mean using less product or fewer items, but looking like you’re not wearing too much makeup, or no makeup makeup. Blush and bronzer (or contour) are good examples of this part of Korean makeup. They’re not attention grabbing or very noticeable, but they do enhance the look in a subtle way that gives the face a lively vibe, especially when using bright blush colours like orange or pastel pink.

 

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope that this helped you gain some more insight on Korean makeup. If you’d like to read more posts like these, please check out the other KBeauty series I have posted.

 

 

And as usual, I’ll leave a link to a Korean beauty YouTuber in case you want better tutorials from people that know that they’re doing so much better than I do!

Today’s YouTuber is Made in Mia, or Mia.

Mia is a YouTuber my friend recently recommended to me when I said I wanted to check out more Korean beauty YouTubers with monolids. She’s incredibly cute and while not all of her videos have English subtitles, a good number of them do and her makeup looks are incredibly cute.

On a side note, if you’d like to check out some videos on what Korean “shading” looks like, you should check out some of Ssin’s makeup videos. I introduced her in a previous KBeauty post but I’ll leave a link to her channel anyway because she’s one of the YouTubers that I like who tends to put a little more effort into shading.

 

I’ll see you in my next post!

 

Yours Truly,

Diane;

Also known as Hey June.