Contouring is a very powerful make-up tool as it allows you to change your facial features. Your cheeks can look thinner, your nose more slender and your jaw line sleeker, giving you a slimmer face.
In addition to contouring, highlighting is also done to give you these effects.
With facial contouring, we get a sense of balance and definition. A shade of brown is used to contour the most common problem areas.
The shade to be used should be very similar to your skin tone.
The highlighter shade should be slightly lighter than your skin tone.
How to apply Face Contouring Make Up:
To contour nose, apply the contouring shade on each side of your nose. Blend it carefully, with the highlighter down the center of your nose.
To contour cheekbones, suck in your cheeks and apply a darker shade to the hollows. Highlight the top of your cheekbones and proceed to apply blush as normal. Use appropriate lighting so you can be sure not to overdo it.
To contour forehead depends on the proportion of your forehead to the rest of your face. If you have a wide forehead, apply a light bronzer to your temples and blend. This will result to a shadow effect which will create an illusion of roundness.
To contour chin depends on how prominent it is in your face. If you have a small, thin chin, highlight the center of the chin, directly under the center of the lip. To minimize a double chin, apply bronzer along the jaw line and blend it towards the neck. This will create a depth thereby strengthening your jaw line. Don’t forget to apply contouring shade on your neck to your shirt line to avoid mismatched face and neck skin tones.
To contour eyes, apply contouring shade at the back corner of the eye moving upward toward the temple.
To contour lips depends on its shape and size. For full lips, apply a deep shade of lip color to the entire lip. For thin lips, apply a light color with shimmer and gloss to plump it up. Apply highlighter between the peaks of the upper lip and below the center of the lip making thin lips look fuller with a pouty appearance.
Although face contouring is one of the oldest and most commonly used make up technique, note that not everyone needs to contour. For women with very strong features such as those with prominent cheekbones or square-shaped lower face, it’s better not to contour. Otherwise, you will appear to be too chiseled.
There are many contouring make up palettes available in the market today. Contouring shade to be used should be two shades darker than your skin. Do not go darker because it will look unnatural. Cream-based contour make up should be applied after foundation and before setting powder.
Facial contouring is effective yet it is also quite tricky. It takes practice to perfect it, that’s why some make up users skip the technique altogether. However, once you get the hang of it, the result is totally worth your effort!
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