Rouge also called blush or blusher (UK), is a cosmetic

Cosmetics

Cosmetics are substances used to enhance the appearance or odor of the human body. Cosmetics include skin-care creams, lotions, powders, perfumes, lipsticks, fingernail and toe nail polish, eye and facial makeup, towelettes, permanent waves, colored contact lenses, hair colors, hair sprays and...

 typically used by women to redden the cheek

Cheek

Cheeks constitute the area of the face below the eyes and between the nose and the left or right ear. They may also be referred to as jowls. "Buccal" means relating to the cheek. In humans, the region is innervated by the buccal nerve...

s so as to provide a more youthful appearance, and to emphasize the cheekbones.

Historically, rouge was used as early as in ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

. It was also applied on the lips, the way lipstick

Lipstick

Lipstick is a cosmetic product containing pigments, oils, waxes, and emollients that applies color, texture, and protection to the lips. Many varieties of lipstick are known. As with most other types of makeup, lipstick is typically, but not exclusively, worn by women...

 would be used today. In some times and places, both men and women wore rouge, such as during the Regency

English Regency

The Regency era in the United Kingdom is the period between 1811—when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, the Prince of Wales, ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent—and 1820, when the Prince Regent became George IV on the death of his father....

 period in England. In Britain's Victorian Age, when wearing makeup was associated with low morals, ladies resorted to pinch

Pinch

Pinch may refer to:* Pinch , the gripping of part of a substance, such as a powder or the skin* Pinch , a very small amount of an ingredient, typically salt or a spice* Pinch, West Virginia-Mathematics and Science:...

ing their cheeks (and biting their lips) to make them appear red instead.

Various substances have been used as rouge. In ancient Greece

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 for example, crushed mulberries

Mulberry

Morus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....

 were favoured, while red beet juice and crushed strawberries

Strawberry

Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...

 have also variously been used.

In modern times, rouge generally consists of a red-coloured talcum-based powder that is applied with a brush to the cheek. The colouring is usually either the substance of safflor (the petals of safflower

Safflower

Safflower is a highly branched, herbaceous, thistle-like annual. It is commercially cultivated for vegetable oil extracted from the seeds. Plants are 30 to 150 cm tall with globular flower heads having yellow, orange or red flowers. Each branch will usually have from one to five flower heads...

), or a solution of carmine

Carmine

Carmine , also called Crimson Lake, Cochineal, Natural Red #4, C.I. 75470, or E120, is a pigment of a bright-red color obtained from the aluminum salt of carminic acid, which is produced by some scale insects, such as the cochineal beetle and the Polish cochineal, and is used as a general term for...

 in ammonium hydroxide

Ammonium hydroxide

Ammonia solution, also known as ammonium hydroxide, ammonia water, ammonical liquor, ammonia liquor, aqua ammonia, aqueous ammonia, or simply ammonia, is a solution of ammonia in water. It can be denoted by the symbols NH3...

 and rosewater

Rosewater

Rose water or rose syrup is the hydrosol portion of the distillate of rose petals. Rose water, itself a by-product of the production of rose oil for use in perfume, is used to flavour food, as a component in some cosmetic and medical preparations, and for religious purposes throughout Europe and...

 perfumed with rose oil

Rose oil

Rose oil, meaning either rose otto or rose absolute, is the essential oil extracted from the petals of various types of rose...

. A cream-based variant of rouge is schnouda, a colourless mixture of Alloxan

Alloxan

Alloxan is an oxygenated pyrimidine derivative. It is present as alloxan hydrate in aqueous solution.-History:...

 with cold cream

Cold cream

Cold cream is an emulsion of water and certain fats, usually including beeswax and various scent agents, designed to smooth skin and remove makeup. The name derives from the cooling feeling that the cream leaves on the skin...

, which also colours the skin red.

External links

• Modes In Makeup, a brief history of cosmetics
• The History of Makeup
• The Pervasion of Rouge (also known as A Defence of Cosmetics
  A Defence of Cosmetics
  A Defence of Cosmetics is an essay by caricaturist and parodist Max Beerbohm and published in the first edition of The Yellow Book in April 1894. Aged 21 when the essay was published, it established his reputation...
  
  ), by Max Beerbohm
  Max Beerbohm
  Sir Henry Maximilian "Max" Beerbohm was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist best known today for his 1911 novel Zuleika Dobson.-Early life:...