"Brontë Blush" Makes Your Cheeks Look Deliciously Moody

What does blush have to do with Emily Brontë? Apparently everything, if you’ve seen Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights.

Prim “English rose” makeup has always been the default for Victorian romances onscreen — satin skin, windswept cheeks, and lips that look bitten just before being pulled into a rain-soaked kiss. But this isn’t *exactly* that kind of love story, and the beauty choices make that clear.

Throughout the film, Margot Robbie’s Cathy looks less politely flushed than completely overtaken with yearning. (Considering Jacob Elordi’s mutton chops, who can blame her?) Deep berry tones stain her cheeks, sitting low and concentrated, avoiding the temples. The effect? Emotional spillover — a heroine very much in love and on the brink of unraveling.

On the press tour, Robbie carried the style with her, pairing the same moody rouge with curly updos and ghost lashes. And just like that, Brontë blush left the moors and entered the spring trend cycle. Ahead, all the details and how to recreate it.

What Is “Brontë Blush”?

Let’s be honest: blush blindness isn’t going anywhere. Alongside the rise of oversaturated cheeks comes a rotating cast of placements, from babydoll styles pushed high under the eyes to shy girl flush sweeping into the temples.

Brontë blush moves in the opposite direction. A close cousin of “boyfriend blush,” it sits lower on the cheeks — directly on the apples beneath the cheekbone, with no attempt to sculpt upward. Instead of powder, creamy formulas are layered onto the skin to build a natural flush and subtle sheen. The warm, dewy result captures the feeling of running through a windy grassland or thinking about your decades-old crush a little too long.

Color is just as important as placement. On set, hair and makeup designer Siân Miller told Allure she drew inspiration from the “pomegranate girl” trend, favoring sheer reds that read ripe and romantic. That said, the film uses a whole spectrum of shades to convey different meanings: red in moments of anger and desire, and mauve pink with more melancholic beats.

IRL, those tones land in berry territory, meaning they also work with the soft goth revival happening in makeup right now. Think black cherry, wine, plum, and dusty pink for some dimension — in other words, shades that look more windswept than sun-kissed.

How To Recreate The Look

Thankfully, you don’t need to roam the Yorkshire moors (or fall into a doomed romance) to pull this trend off. In a video posted to Instagram, Robbie’s makeup artist Pati Dubroff breaks down the look from the Los Angeles premiere, saying, “It’s all about the blush.” And she’s right.

After applying a sheer foundation, Dubroff mixed Chanel’s No.1 de Chanel Lip and Cheek Blush in Red Camellia and Berry Boost on the back of her hand, then swept the color onto “the apples of the cheeks and a little below,” setting it lightly with loose powder. She diffused a rose-toned highlighter stick and shimmery mauve pink powder blush on top of the cheekbone to build dimension. The key is blending with “short, feathery strokes,” so the flush stays low and intentional, leaving a clean buffer of skin underneath the eyes.

Add a coat of black mascara, a few faux freckles around the nose, and a skin-toned lip, and voilá: You’re ready for your main-character crash-out.