Updated: September 30, 2026
Keep the blush. Keep the brush. Keep the base makeup exactly the same. Now move the color upward.
That simple change explains a surprising amount about under-eye blush in Korean makeup. A familiar pink that would normally sit across the apple or upper cheek is placed much closer to the eyes and nearer the center of the face. The product may not have changed at all. The face reads differently because the color has moved.
Yoonchae of KATSEYE has become a particularly useful example because she has spoken about the technique herself. In a Teen Vogue interview, she explained that she noticed this kind of placement becoming popular in Korea and started incorporating it into her own makeup.
Blush has more than one address on the face
Traditional advice often treats the cheek as the obvious home for blush. Even within that broad area, however, moving pigment changes which features it sits beside.
The color sits clearly within the cheek area and becomes most visible when looking directly at the fullness of the cheek.
The color travels upward and outward, closer to the cheekbone and temple.
The flush moves inward and upward, placing pink or red much nearer the lower eye area and the center of the face.
The third placement is why the same blush can suddenly feel much more connected to the eye makeup.
There is less untouched base between the lower eye and the cheek color. A pink shadow, soft liner, aegyo-sal detail and blush can begin to read as parts of one continuous color story rather than isolated zones.
That is easier to see than to describe. Cover the lower half of a beauty photo and look only at the eye area. With high under-eye blush, cheek color may already be visible in that crop.
Yoonchae’s version stays close to the center
Teen Vogue’s conversation with Yoonchae is useful because it moves us away from the vague claim that “Korean girls put blush under their eyes.” Her version is more specific.
The blush sits beneath the eyes and remains relatively concentrated around the central face instead of being swept broadly toward the outer cheeks. Fruit-like pink and red tones make the placement particularly visible.
That has become recognizable enough to be discussed as part of her beauty identity, but it should not be treated as a permanent rule for every Yoonchae appearance. Stage makeup, music videos and personal makeup are produced under different conditions.
Her interview gives us the stronger claim: she saw the placement in Korea, liked it and adopted it.
Vogue’s 2026 K-beauty makeup coverage provides broader context. Its list of current Korean makeup directions includes “under-eye flushed blush” as a distinct trend alongside blurred lips, aegyo-sal and softer straight brows.
Watch this as a recreation. The useful part is seeing how a high blush placement is built visually. Yoonchae’s own explanation of where the inspiration came from remains the stronger source for her personal connection to the technique.
Under-eye blush and aegyo-sal are neighbors, not synonyms
This is where many close-up tutorials become visually confusing. Both techniques occupy the lower-eye neighborhood, but they are doing different jobs.
Uses highlight, contour or shadow to define the small natural fullness just below the lower lash line. The visual language is light and shadow.
Moves pink, red, coral or another cheek color upward so that the flush reaches close to the eye. The visual language is color placement.
You can wear either one without the other. You can also wear both, which is why a finished K-beauty look may make the lower eye appear more complex than it actually is.
If you are trying to recreate a reference image, identify the layers separately. Is the rounded lower-eye area being highlighted? Is there a small contour line beneath it? Is pink blush overlapping the area? Is the pink actually eyeshadow rather than cheek product?
Once you ask those questions, “copy the under-eye makeup” becomes much easier to decode.
Korea did not invent every blush placed near an eye
The popularity of the look in Korean beauty should not be turned into a false origin story.
Vogue France’s 2026 coverage of the broader under-eye blush trend traces an important lineage to Japanese makeup artist Shinobu Igari and the Igari makeup style, which became known for flushed color beneath the eyes and across the upper cheeks.
Western social media has also circulated other versions of blush beneath the eyes, including color-correcting hacks and sun-flushed “goggle” placements.
K-beauty’s current version therefore sits within a larger beauty history. What makes it relevant to a Korean makeup article is not a claim of invention. It is the way high, diffused blush has become highly visible in contemporary Korean beauty imagery, product launches, idol makeup and global K-beauty coverage.
Yoonchae’s own explanation makes that distinction especially clean: she encountered the look as something popular in Korea and made it part of her makeup vocabulary.
Try the placement before buying another pink blush
When a saved makeup photo looks different from your own result, it is easy to blame the shade.
Your pink is too cool. Too peachy. Too bright. Too muted.
Before buying another one, keep the same blush and change only its position.
Apply your usual blush placement on one side.
On the other, begin with a small amount directly beneath the eye and keep most of the color closer to the center of the face.
Use less product than you think you need at first. High placement makes blush visible beside the eye makeup very quickly.
Then step back to a normal viewing distance before adding more.
The normal viewing distance matters because a beauty mirror encourages overcorrection. Up close, every edge can look unfinished. From conversational distance, those edges are supposed to disappear into the rest of the makeup.
If the placement works but the color does not, then shade becomes the next decision.
Skin tone will change how the same pink reads. Base makeup opacity matters too: a fuller-coverage foundation may erase natural redness, making added blush appear more graphic. On deeper skin, a weak pale pink may become ashy or barely visible while richer berry, coral or red tones can produce a clearer flush. None of those choices can be solved by copying one idol’s product number.
Do not force the “younger face” explanation onto everyone
Beauty articles often promise that high blush automatically makes a face look younger, shorter or smaller. Those claims are too universal for something so dependent on individual proportions, pigment, lighting and surrounding makeup.
It is safer—and more useful—to describe what you can actually see.
The color sits closer to the eyes.
More of the center face contains visible flush.
The boundary between eye makeup and cheek makeup becomes less empty.
The same shade can therefore feel more present even when the amount of product has not changed dramatically.
That is enough to explain why the technique is worth trying.
Open your blush drawer before opening a shopping app. The color you thought was wrong may simply have been sitting lower on the face than the reference look you were trying to copy.
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