There was a time when every beauty product I bought fell in the overlapping area of two Venn diagram categories: “Award-Winning' and “Universally Flattering.” I wrongly believed two things. The first: If a product won an award or was on a magazine's Top 10 list, it had to be good (we've found this to be otherwise in the case of Great Lash). The second: If it's supposed to look good on everybody, then it must look good on me. I trusted the entire population's combined preferences more than my own. You know those years when you're still figuring out who you are? Yeah, I was deep in those.

So what is the obvious embodiment of both categories? What is the thing that has won every beauty award possible and is also praised as being perfect for every woman on the planet? Why, it's Nars Orgasm Blush, obviously. And I had it.

Now, the theory of a universal shade is both attractive and relieving—finally the guesswork is gone. But Orgasm was always a tad ruddy on me; the pink looked too much like sunburn. I didn't look lit-from-within—more like a singed-from-without. I started to think maybe I didn't need the world's favorite blush. Maybe I needed my own favorite.

Which, curiously, happened to be only a half-shade away—hey, all those accolades weren't so far off after all. But what a difference a half-shade makes. It's my favorite blush, one that's flattering on strictly me: Nars Deep Throat. It's a soft peach— Orgasm without pink—which makes it a perfect fall and winter shade. The color is barely there with one swipe, and buildable with two. If you're not the kind to use bronzer in the winter, this peach is there to fuzz you up. And yes, there's a little shimmer. Like blush and luminizer in one.

Now, you may think, with some chagrin, that the only blush that's better than Orgasm is also the one more embarrassing to ask for aloud at the makeup counter (or to mention casually in conversation with your mom). Well, channel the clueless, studious teen I was, and imagine you're Bernstein or Woodward intent on taking down the Nixon administration. What's the key to it all? That secret source of illumination? Why, Deep Throat, of course.

—Trace Barnhill

Photo courtesy of the author.