Makeup hacks for the eyes, lips, and face are plentiful on the internet, but I rarely see tips and tricks for the cheeks, specifically when it comes to blush. That all changed, however, when a video from TikTok user Alina Hoyos popped up on my FYP. Hoyos’s hack, which influencers like Kelly Strack have since recreated, is fairly easy and only includes two products. In it, a traditional liquid concealer and a powdered pigment are combined to create a bespoke cream blush. In her video, Hoyos gets a gorgeous pink shade out of the experiment, and given that blush is one of my absolute favorite makeup categories, I had to try it out for myself.
I gathered my materials: the E.l.f. Cosmetics Hydrating Camo Concealer ($7) in the shade Fair Rose and Milani’s Baked Blush ($11) in the shade Berry Amore and got to work. Keep reading to find out how it went.
As Hoyos did, I scraped off the top layer of blush onto a piece of paper, which I folded to make it easier to dispense into the concealer tube. As someone with a deep skin tone, I figured that I would need more of the pigment rather than less, so I added a good amount before mixing the concoction.
The first attempt didn’t do much, so I added in more pigment from the blush to see if that would help. That didn’t make a huge difference either, so I ended up scraping almost the entire compact of the Milani blush into the concealer and still, there seemed to be only a faint tint after vigorously mixing the two formulas.
That’s when I decided to bring in reinforcements. I added some pigment from my Essence Cosmetics Pure Nude Baked Blush ($6), which yielded a very light hue. I had almost given up, but then I decided to try one more time with a loose red pigment I had lying around. That’s finally when the color started to change. The concealer shifted to a beautiful mauvy-pink hue and looked like the perfect color to wear in my everyday makeup routine.
Finally happy with the concoction, I put two dots on my cheeks and began to blend. At first, I loved the color, but the more I buffed, the sheerer it became and the ashier the mixture got. I ended up with what could only be described as a pastel pink color rather than the mauve I had started with. It wasn’t the worst outcome I could’ve gotten, but the shade just wasn’t something I could see myself wearing in the future. Before I fully resigned, I added some regular powder blush on top of the look, and the result made all of my efforts worth it.
The formula retained its concealer-like qualities and made the powder blush I added on top mesh beautifully with the rest of my base. My cheeks looked almost airbrushed with the new combination, and I could finally see why Hoyo liked the hack so much. It creates the perfect cream base to make your powder blush really pop.
Overall, I would say this hack was a success – but with a few caveats. When it comes to the true-to-form cream blush application, I think people with lighter skin tones would benefit most from this hack. The bright pigment looks more natural on fair to light skin but pulls a bit too white on dark complexions. That said, it took quite a bit of product to make this hack work, so keep that in mind before you go breaking up all of your powder compacts. It would likely be easier to get the color to show up if you used a higher pigment-to-concealer ratio, so if you do decide to give it a go, use an old concealer that you’re almost finished with.
