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Youre blushing!my sister cries with delight.

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SEEING REDNo other part of the body so readily reveals our hidden emotions. Bridgeman Images. Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun,Self Portrait in a Straw Hat,1782, © The National Gallery, London.

Were playing on the front steps of our London house and have just heard skateboard wheels approaching.

He has long sandy hair and an American accent.

Basically, hes Kurt Cobain.

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Its magical and mortifying and asecretexcept its not, because its written all over my face.

If the eyes are the window to the soul, then our cheeks are the back door.

What other part of the body so readily reveals our hidden emotions?

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Embarrassment, exuberance, delight, desire, all instantly communicated with a rush of blood.

Can something so classic become new again?

And I like to build it up slowly to avoid any regret.

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I add extra layers to build an expansive bloom, then add some to my chin and forehead.

I wait until halftime before looming my face in his direction.

How do I look?

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I ask, tilting my cheeks from side to side.

Hes not wrong, sweet man, but Im seeking a more specific endorsement.

Its giving Kirsten Dunst inMarie Antoinette, says a friend I meet for lunch.

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You look like you just ran a marathon, declares another.

For my next attempt, Violette, Guerlains creative director of makeup, talks me through her process.

She recommends sfumato, the technique perfected by Leonardo da Vinci of creating imperceptible transitions between light and shade.

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Somehow I look like I just slept 12 hours.Blush is rest,I think.

Because how could I have forgotten?Blush is youth.Both a connection to it and a re-creation of it.

But what is underneath our desire for youth, for health, for passionall the many things blush represents?

For me, the answer became clear when my son was born.

Only then did I feel he was safe.

Of course, I think, adding yet another layer of crimson to my already rosy cheeks.

No wonder we want more of it, as much as we can get.Blush is life.