Royal FLUSH

This season’s fizzy period TV loves a well-rouged cheek. Consider blush a shortcut to a new kind of frivolity 

- Laura Regensdorf

“I COULD GIVE everything up except for blush.” One might expect such a line—absolutist, romantic at heart—to come from the fictionalized Catherine II at the center of The Great, Hulu’s gleeful romp starring Elle Fanning, back May 12 for season three. But it is a pure sentiment from the actor herself, smiling beatifically from a suite at the Plaza Hotel. Fanning has a soft spot for powder formulas, she explains—easier to pile on, as is her off-camera wont. But The Great is where her blush comes fully into bloom. “Sometimes it is a bit overdone, but on purpose because it’s kind of a comedic beat,” says Erin Ayanian Monroe, Fanning’s makeup designer on the show. A naturalistic flush signals joy; extended down to the bust, it accompanies the campy sex scenes. For an empress who calls herself a “delusional optimist”—a one-percenter juggling love and authority—the profusion of color across her visage speaks volumes. “She’s uncontained,” Ayanian Monroe says.