Pastel Yellow

Pastel Yellow is the gentlest variant in the yellow family, the one closest to skin tone. The rise of the European cosmetics industry in the 1920s created a demand for a natural makeup look, giving birth to Pastel Yellow blushes and lipsticks. The determination of RAL 1034's color value partly referenced the pinkish-orange tone of the most popular peach blush in Parisian beauty salons of the time.

18th-century French Rococo painter Fragonard heavily featured Pastel Yellow in his works. The cheeks and skirt hems of the swinging maidens he depicted were rendered using Pastel Yellow. That pinkish-orange, laden with erotic suggestion, spread across the canvas like an overripe peach. Diderot criticized this color as too frivolous, yet could not stop all the noblewomen of Versailles from imitating the painted figures.

In the color coordination of the twelve-layered kimono of Japan's Heian period, there was a specific term: 'Usu-Kōbai' (Pale Crimson Plum), referring precisely to this soft, warm yellow with a pinkish tone. In 'The Tale of Genji,' Murasaki Shikibu describes an unmarried maiden wearing an Usu-Kōbai single layer as the morning spring sun just happened to shine on her sleeve; the color and the light together completed a tribute to the maiden's purity.

In the 1950s, Hollywood makeup rooms designated Pastel Yellow as the standard blush color for blonde actresses. Marilyn Monroe's makeup artist used a Pastel Yellow cream blush to draw on her cheekbones what looked like a natural, sun-kissed flush. Off-screen, women across America flocked to department stores seeking the same Pastel Yellow blush.

The modern beauty industry has rebranded Pastel Yellow as 'Peach' or 'Apricot,' using it as the universal base blush color for all skin tones. Asian, Western, and African brands have independently launched their star blush products within this Pastel Yellow color gamut. A frivolous color originating from the Rococo palette has, in the twenty-first century, unified global aesthetics.