Blusher

After lipstick, blusher may be America’s favorite form of makeup. It’s estimated that approximately 65 percent of all American women use it. Many beauty experts say that if you can buy only one cosmetic, blusher is the one to choose. In his article Guide 10 Makeup, Stan Place says, “If you were washed up on a desert island with only one cosmetic, pray that it is your blusher!” The women who responded to Saavy magazine’s 1984 survey about makeup use in the office seem to agree: An amazing 93.3 percent of them wear it at work. Blusher, or rouge, as our parents used to call it, goes back to early Egypt. The ancients used naturally occurring red pigments, such as cinnabar, henna and safflower red, to add color to their faces. Later, in the Middle Ages, Brazilian redwood provided the pigment. Today, the most popular form of blusher is the powder cake variety that’s sold with a little brush. Current sales for it account for more than $241 million a year.