diy makeup tutorial: make your own cream blush

Love the smooth, silky application of cream blush, but can't justify putting any more cash toward your cosmetics stash? (Guilty as charged, officer.) If you've got an extra palette of powder blush or pink eyeshadow gathering dust at the bottom of your makeup bag -- say, one of those questionable off-brand kits well-meaning relatives hand out on holidays -- you're good to go for making your own cream version.

Step the First: 

Find a powder color you'd like to see in a cream blush. If you don't like what you've got, you can color-mix a few different powders, or add a plain shimmer powder.

Step Two:  

Scrape a few chunks of powder into a clean makeup palette, compact or container. You'll see here that I used the back side of a lip brush to do the scraping, but any hard-edged tool will do.

Step Three:

Crush the chunks into a fine powder -- as fine as possible! Any large crumbs will make the end result look like sprinkles in pudding.

Step Four:

Pour a few drops of your regular foundation into the powder -- but not too much, or the foundation's undertone will change the blush color. I wanted a peach blush, so the yellow undertone in my foundation was a plus, but you might want to keep yours more on the pink side.

Step Five:

Add cream. Face cream, that is, and the thicker, the better. Runny lotions and moisturizers won't work, but a heavy facial cream or shea butter makes a good base. Remember -- the less cream you add, the bolder the blush color.

Step Six:

Mix well with whatever stirring tool you're willing to sacrifice and let the cream set for a while. If the mixture is too goopy when you go to put it on, stick it in the freezer to make it harden up faster.

Step Seven:

Apply the blush with your fingertips and enjoy that healthy exercise glow without needing to actually, you know. Do anything.