” Heaven, I am in paradise/ And my heart is beating so hard I can barely speak/
And I seem to find the happiness I’m looking for/When we’re together dancing cheek to cheek. » It is with these sweet words that begins Cheek to Cheek, unforgettable jazz song from the film The Dancer Above (1935).
Fred Astaire, more crooner than ever, serenades Ginger Rogers, before taking her in a long tap dance number. The Hollywood feature film being in black and white, it is difficult to know if the actress’ cheek naturally turns pink with pleasure under so many compliments thus sung. Or if, like so many others before her, she had simply given in to the call of blush to enhance her beauty.
At the origins of blush, we find Egyptian women who, as early as 3000 BC, applied a little red ocher to their cheekbones. The Greeks make their makeup from extracts of blackberry, Egyptian fig, crushed bramble and, again, minerals transformed into powder. For centuries, it was more about appearance than health. When, in the middle of the 18th centuryecentury, the elegant women of Versailles put on makeup, they actually applied to their complexion an inglorious mixture of crushed mineral cinnabar diluted in brandy.
Red with shame
Mercury, in short, which we know today was responsible for many ills among the powdered courtiers surrounding his majesties. Saffron, non-toxic, having replaced ointments and other questionable ointments, we still have to find how to preserve this beauty powder. It is Alexandre-Napoléon Bourjois, supplier of “fine theater red” of all the actors of Paris, who invented, in 1863, the first pressed powder, contained in a small round box known today throughout the world. Launched in 1912, its “pastel shadows” with evocative names – Rose Ash, Mexican Red, Brown Rosette, City Rose – will experience the same success.
In his philosophical essay The lower animal, written, depending on the version, in 1897 or 1905, Mark Twain wrote this famous sentence: “Man is the only animal that blushes and has good reason to do so. » That the American author associated red cheeks with shame did not, however, prevent, almost two centuries later, the icons of fashion and music from applying excessive makeup.
The 1980s, where anything goes, saw Grace Jones, Jerry Hall, Cyndi Lauper and Boy George extending the material from the cheekbones to the eyebrows, even to the hairline. Whether outrageous or more discreet, liquid, powder or stick, blush remains the ally of those who seek to beautify their daily lives. Popular with Generation Z and TikTok, it is said that one is sold every eight seconds around the world. A figure that is enough to make you blush.
