The Contoured Face

The Right Way to Contour for Your Face Shape

By Brooke Shunatona

Jul 24, 2015

Contouring and highlighting are like chocolate syrup and vanilla ice cream: best together. First, let's review these makeup techniques before getting into the mind-blowing contouring maps that follow.

Contouring is when you use a matte (read: not shimmery) powder, cream, or pencil product that's two shades darker than your skin tone to shade areas you'd like to define or reshape, like your nose, forehead, chin, and cheekbones.

Highlighting (or strobing) offsets contouring by accentuating areas of your face with light concealer or highlighter. To properly highlight or strobe, use a concealer that's two shades lighter than your skin tone or a highlighter that flatters your complexion to emphasize the areas of your face that naturally catch the light.

For Example:

DIAMOND FACE SHAPE

How to tell if your face is shaped like a diamond:

• Your hairline is more narrow than your cheeks.
• Your chin is slightly pointed.
• Your face is longer than it is wide.

Where you should contour:

• The area below your cheekbones starting from your ears and ending in the middle of your cheeks.

Where you should highlight:

• Under your eyes in an upside-down triangle shape and along your brow bone to brighten your eyes.
• In the middle of your forehead and the middle of your chin to help broaden these naturally narrow areas.

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/beauty/how-to/a43730/face-shape-contour-map/

In the last year contouring has been huge and the media has gone crazy for it and finding out how to do it. Contouring is the use of dark and light colours which contrast on the face to create certain features to pop out and certain features to appeal more sunken in for depth on the face. Using highlighters on the face can help highlight points, you can either cream/liquid contour on the face or you can powder contour with different coloured powders or for a dramatic look do both! In our upcoming lesson we are learning highlighting, contouring and blushers.