Hazy, Soft, and Anti-Dewy: How Tastemakers Are Wearing Blush This Fall (and Beyond)

Cream blush, you’ll at all times be well-known. No different make-up product units my pulse skyrocketing fairly like a pot of rosy pigment meant to make my cheekbones shine like a mirrorball, however I’ve admittedly been untrue to my dewy confections for the previous few months. Dare I say I’m over a glazed-donut glow? Countless magnificence followers would agree—together with top-tier make-up artists, it seems—as soft-matte pigments have taken the market by storm as of late. No extra glistening cheekbones; anti-dewy blush is the autumn magnificence blueprint (although, I predict it’s going to stick round nicely into 2026), and beneath, the professionals clarify seem exquisitely blurred.

Beauty developments exist on a pendulum swing, as you possible already know, so contemplate the uptick in hazy, smooth finishes a rebound from the “blush blindness” wave of years previous. “We go hard in one direction, then get tired of trends and crave the opposite,” explains superstar make-up artist Kelli Anne Sewell. “The market is so overly saturated with dewy, juicy, cream, liquid, gel blushes now. Personally, I love juicy-looking makeup and hydrating formulas, but I’m diving IN to soft-matte finishes.”

Sewell’s not alone. Even magnificence juggernauts identified for his or her super-dewy blushes, like Nars, Glossier, and Ilia, have launched soft-matte formulation alongside their cult-favorite lotions—a transparent sign of the altering tides. “There’s a growing preference for blurred, soft-focus finishes that enhance skin rather than shine on top of it,” Niko lopezhead of worldwide artistry at Nars, tells Who What Wear. Hence why the model determined to reformulate its iconic Multiple stick (which initially launched as a shimmery, cream components in 1996) right into a cream-to-powder end with skin-blurring results. “It creates dimension while still looking effortless,” Lopez provides.

Makeup artist Michalska himselfIlia’s government director of worldwide training, has additionally observed model loyalists shifting their consideration away from ultra-dewy appears. “Everyone is gravitating towards this sweet spot between dewy and matte that gives you a naturally radiant look without looking like you just finished a hot yoga class,” she shares. It’s a fragile steadiness to strike, little doubt, however with high-tech blurring know-how, featherlight pigments, and light-filtering powders, right this moment’s soft-matte formulation really knock it out of the park in relation to that coveted, filter-like haze. Now, matte blushes are not synonymous with a cakey, dry complexion, regardless of how a lot product you pile on.