‘Marie Antoinette Blush’ Is the Maximalist Beauty Trend to Try ASAP

Marie Antoinette, the final Queen of France, may have met her untimely death over two centuries ago, but “Marie Antoinette blush” is alive and well in 2025.

After TikTok tried to convince us we were all suffering from “blush blindness”—that is, going overboard with blush in a way that we’ll retrospectively cringe about—we’ve thrown caution to the wind. From Sabrina Carpenter’s babydoll glam to NYFW runways, everyone’s flushing this fall.

For a quick history lesson: Austrian-born Marie Antoinette became Queen of France in 1770, when she married King Louis XVI. Her famously extravagant taste quickly made her a symbol of the wealthy in contrast to the widespread poverty in France at the time. When the monarchy fell as a result of the French Revolution in 1792, Marie Antoinette was killed at the guillotine.

But her affinity for luxury and opulence that villainized her in the public eye also cemented her legacy as a historical style icon. Known for her dramatic rouge against a fair complexion, white hair piled high on top of her head, and signature beauty marks, Marie Antoinette’s regal look has served as beauty inspiration for centuries.

This isn’t the first time that Marie Antoinette has sparked widespread 21st-century fascination. Sofia Coppola’s cult-favorite (if historically murky-at-best) 2006 film Marie Antoinette plucked the queen from history-book pages and pasted her on contemporary mood boards. Her coquettish “aesthetic” has resurged periodically on social media ever since, but we’re currently in the midst of a major revival: In the last month, a buzzy exhibition dedicated to her style opened in London, Manolo Blahnik released a new capsule collection inspired by her footwear, and feeds have been filled with beauty enthusiasts eager to re-create her iconic makeup.

Why the sudden interest in Marie Antoinette? Maybe the current state of affairs (and ballrooms) is giving us Versailles déjà vu—or maybe we just want to temporarily turn our focus to something frivolous. Like cake. And way too much blush. Say what you will about the divisive queen, but if her makeup influence has survived the test of time, she must have been onto something.