Soft, blurred, and beautifully diffused, watercolor blush is the painterly flush that’s quietly stealing the spotlight. Its defining feature? A wash of color with no harsh lines in sight. “The watercolor blush is a soft soft veil of product applied to the cheeks,” celebrity makeup artist Carolina Gonzalez tells Vogue, who’s etherial makeup aesthetic is often inspired by Alberto Vargas’s watercolor pin-up girls. “Think of the finish as the difference between oil paint (opaque) and watercolors (diffused and buildable). You can’t see where the application of watercolor blush starts or ends, because it melts into the skin with no detectable edges.” Gonzalez is known to paint this ethereal look on the likes of Sabrina Carpenter and Gigi Hadid, though Kendall Jenner, Simone Ashley, Dua Lipa, Lily Rose Depp, and more seem to be watercolor blush enthusiasts, too.
Quite literally mimicking the effect of watercolor paint on paper, pro makeup artist Kasey Spickard equates its rise in popularity to beauty’s shift towards skincare-makeup hybrids as another take on a natural flush—perhaps even a reactionary response to the heavy matte makeup of the 2010s. “This blush trend is super dreamy, emphasizing a soft wash of color to the cheeks” Spickard tells. “We’re seeing the watercolor blush trend as we continue to see this skin forward, soft focus ethereal makeup continue to dominate the beauty space.”
Vogue’s Favorite Watercolor Blushes
Of course, the right products help—semi-sheer balms, blendable creams, and barely-there watery tints taking the market by storm in 2025 so far, all lend themselves to that painterly effect. But the secret to getting the watercolor effect right isn’t just what you use—it’s how you apply it. So no, you can’t just slap it on and go. Deep breaths—it’s easier than it sounds. “There’s a few ways you can approach it,” Gonzalez begins. If you’re going in with your favorite liquid blush on bare skin, she recommends dotting a small amount onto each cheek with your fingers, then blending outward with care—paying special attention to blur the edges.
For the full glam set who want to finish their look with a fresh flush, Gonzalez advises starting with your usual blush placement, then giving a good “buff, buff, buff” with a brush. Then, “using a drop of concealer—and I mean a drop—you can place it on the back of your hand, tapping the brush into it. Then, gently buff around the edges of your blush, feathering away edges,” she explains. If you’ve already applied foundation, you can use whatever product is left on your complexion brush to do the same.
Best of all, the magic of this technique? It works with any blush formula. When Gonzalez is pressed for time, she simply repeats the same soft-blend method using her go-to powder pick—and voilà, a flush that looks effortlessly romantic, never overdone.
Spickard, on the other hand, channels the soft-focus elegance of a true watercolor painting—applying blush with the same principle artists swear by: light to dark, always in intentional layers. “I start by applying a faint wash in a light shade of blush all over the cheeks, up the cheekbones, and across the nose—I stipple the product on with a dense blush brush, and diffuse with a damp beauty blender,” says Spickard. Once the base is set, he adds a deeper pop of color to the apples of the cheeks for dimension and depth. Ready to try the look yourself? Below, an edit of Vogue’s favorite watercolor blushes.
Meet The Experts
- Carolina Gonzalez is a celebrity makeup artist whose clients include Sabrina Carpenter, Alessandra Ambrosio, Ashley Park, Camila Mendes, and more.
- Kasey Spickard is a professional makeup artist based in New York and Los Angeles. Spickard’s roster includes Lyons, Kamie Crawford, Brynn Whitfield, and more.