A (Humorous) Makeup Guide to Using Pantone’s Color of the Year 2024, Peach Fuzz (Yes, It’s the Same Color as the Fuzz on Your Face)

Every December, Pantone arrives at a color that (in their opinion) best represents the upcoming year. Because our world is on a hamster-wheel of perpetual turmoil, Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, has declared Peach Fuzz to be the color we all need to calm us the heck down, mellow us out, and make us forget all the nonsense. I’m not sure this will work.

Here is her statement:

“In seeking a hue that echoes our innate yearning for closeness and connection, we chose a color radiant with warmth and modern elegance. A shade that resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace, and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless.”

This would be good, if it weren’t so, uhm, peach. I see a new year filled with peach coffee cups, carpet, Jell-O, and (the most important by far) makeup. If you cringe at wearing peach lipstick, eyeshadow, or blush, you are not alone.

This shade can give the dead-on-arrival ashy look with darker skin, and for lighter skin, if you have even slightly blue undertones, you’ll look like a Victorian child dying of influenza. However, if you have warm/yellow light undertones, you can rock this color! In this article, my goal is to offer some advice on how to wear it and not look like death. Let’s peach!

Peachy Eyes (aka Hit in the Head with a Flying Peach)

Depending on your skin color, tossing on a peachy eyelid shade can be pretty, or it can look like a flying peach wacked you in the eyeball. If peach goes ashy on you, try a browny-orange instead, and we will pretend you are on-trend. You can also add a little in the outer crease or maybe a dot of frosty peach on your eyelid or inner eye for effect. I’m grasping here, but trust me, many of you can pull this off.

Helpful Tip #1: If you have blue or green eyes, peach can help enhance your eye color. Keep it as close to your eyeline as possible, as the further from your eyeball, the less the impact. If you have brown eyes, well, maybe skip the peach unless it is very glittery. Glitter always works.

Peachy Blush (Beware of Tweens)

Okay, if I’m being honest, peach blush can be fabulous. Again, much depends on your skin tone, but leaning toward copper/coral/butter/nectarine/apricot can bring a warm hue to your face and work with almost any lipstick.

As an aside, if any cosmetic brand names their blush Peach Fuzz, I predict the tween-age youngsters will trample us over to get to it. On the other hand, check your current supply of blush, and you may find a peach-ish blush to check this box.

Helpful tip #2: Put the blush on the apple of your cheek, and then lightly pull it up close to the top of your cheekbone. It’s hip, it’s cool, it’s peach.

Peach Lipstick (or Pout Like a Pro)

Frankly, peach lipstick can be beautiful, but not if it makes you look like your lips have disappeared into the ethers. The way to avoid this is to do stronger eye makeup to offset the softer lip, then add gooey lip gloss on top. My current favorite gloss (Jane Iredale Hydropure Lip Gloss) contains hyaluronic acid and makes my lips look pouty and sultry. Or maybe they just look peach, it’s hard to say.

Helpful Tip #3: If peach is not your color, use a browny lip liner about 1-2 shades darker than your skin, overdraw your lips a little, and fill in the outer edges with the liner before applying the lipstick. This will make your lips stand out more and avoid the dead-head look. For a demonstration of this technique see this video:

You can find a complete commentary on lipstick application here: “HELP! I’VE EATEN A TUBE OF LIPSTICK!” 4 TECHNIQUES TO KEEP YOUR LIPSTICK STAY ON.

Peach and Bronzer (or Beach-Gone-Wild)

The color peach (and its fuzz-y tag-a-long) doesn’t work well with snow. Sorry. If you add the summer sun, suntans, flower dresses, and peach flavored iced tea, you have a solid beach trend. Remember all the bronzer you loaded on your face a few years back? Break it out, baby, it’s going to get beachy. Add a peachy glittery shadow all over your lid, bronzer on your cheeks, and goopy coral lip gloss, and you are an instantaneous beach goddess (no matter what your kids/grandkids say).

Helpful Tip #4: Bronzer can get weird really fast. To avoid this, be sure to apply some under your jawline, décolleté, and on the highpoints on your forehead. Otherwise, it will look like you’ve been attacked by a flyby bronzer monster.

In truth, I cannot resist making fun of this color and the descriptor, FUZZ. Doesn’t that remind you of a pre-pubescent child running through fields with peach balloons in tow while singing, the hills are alive with the sound of music…? Sarcasm aside, some of you can wear peach, and some of you can add in hints of it without looking insane. My plug is to wait until summer and go for some gold/peach glitter to dazzle at the beach, but you do you.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

I would love to hear what other names they could’ve used instead of Peach Fuzz! How about Peach Cheeks? Cheeky Peach? What ideas do you have?