This summer's hottest beauty look? 'Sunburned' blush

One of summer’s hottest looks this year (both literally and figuratively) involves looking like you’d been out in the sun for too long.

I’m not talking about attaining a lovely, sunkissed golden glow — so last year. Nope, the name of the game is looking burnt. Think stepping out into the heat of the Italian summer without the Factor 50. Wearing a bikini for so long that the white lines are clearly visible on your shoulders. Think looking so red that passers-by want to buy after-sun lotion and throw it over you like a bucket of icewater.

Say hello to sunburned blush. In a year where blush is having a big moment, sunburned blush is taking it to the extreme. You thought capri pants and stripy hair were the only Y2K revival? Turns out, looking borderline burnt is back too.

As might be evident from the name, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Inspired by literal sunburn, it’s been seen on everybody from Hailey Bieber to Sabrina Carpenter (our blush queen) in the last few months — across the cheeks and forehead, giving them a post-holiday glow — and has even been referenced in a Fenty Beauty campaign for Rihanna’s latest launch of products.

The idea is simple: apply your favourite blush - ideally the redder the better, no cool tones here — across your cheeks, nose and indeed shoulders. Applying it is simple: use a cream blush, ideally in a red or coral shade (Lottie London’s blush or Armani’s Silk Cheek Tint do nicely), and liberally spread it across your face, or indeed anywhere else you’d like to replicate the look of spending slightly too long in the sun. Mix and layer colours until you’re happy.

The idea is to look like you’ve spent slightly too long at the beach (like many Brits, to be honest), but whereas previous iterations of the look have avoided the unflattering elements - i.e. the pale untanned lines left from a day of sunbathing — today’s influencers seem to be leaning into it harder than ever.

Makeup artist Sonia Deveney thinks the trend really took off thanks to GQ magazine shoot earlier this summer.

“It came around from the GQ China June issue of 2024, where they had a shoot called Heat Stroke, which was a male model with loads of outlined, stencilled, burned tan lines on him, which I think is where all the TikTokers got it from.”

Of course, the look isn’t entirely new, says Deveney. “I first did a burned skin look on a Ben De Lisi show, about 20 years ago in London. We've done that many a time but it was more created in a wearable way, whereas now this actually stencilling outlines of sunglasses and necklaces and tank tops is taking it to a whole new level.”

How next-level? Well, beauty creator Isabellrrose’s initial videos on how to achieve the look show her stencilling the shape of a necklace, strap lines and sunglasses across her body with blusher and have gained more than 1.4m views since they came out. “Wear your sunscreen, kids,” she captions one post, looking a rather unhealthy shade of red.

Naturally, creators have taken this and run with it. A quick look on TikTok is like a peek down the rabbit hole: beauty influencers are stencilling blush around the shapes of flowers, necklines and hearts on their faces and necks. And makeup artists like Emily Wood (the sister to actress Aimee Lou Wood) have racked up millions of views for their reels on how to achieve the same look, drawing lip liner across her forehead and cheeks before blending it in liberally.

“It’s quite gimmicky, so people have gone with it,” Deveney says about the trend. “And once one person has seen it, it kind of snowballs into a bigger trend than it probably deserves. If you look at that Heat Stroke shoot, they’ve done it in a really cool way, but for YouTubers and TikTokers to take it onto the high street [from the catwalk], it’s quite amusing.”