Contour Makeup Tutorial / How to Contour and Highlight Your Face Easily

Contour Makeup Tutorial / How to Contour and Highlight Your Face Easily

CONTOURING is the must-have make-up skill with the likes of Kim Kardashian and other flawless celebs credited with making the beauty trick go mainstream.

Adding another dimension to the daily make-up routine, contouring can give the impression of killer cheekbones, a jawline to-die-for and a straight nose – if done right.

What is contouring?

Contouring uses make-up to create light and shadow to resize, reshape and define your face.

It enhances the structure of the face, adding depth, texture and definition.

It is commonly used on areas such as the cheekbones, jawline, cupid’s bow and the bridge of the nose.

Contouring is meant to highlight your good features, while cleverly disguising the rest.

What do you need to contour?

Before contouring it is important to get the right tools, which includes make-up and brushes.

As contouring involves a lot of blending, it’s vital to invest in a blender or sponge which will do the job.

Highlighter and bronzer are two products often used, but experiment to find what shades and products work best with your skin tone and type.

Different brushes also do different things, so work out what look you’re going for.

Depending on whether you’re using powders or creams, the outcome will be different and so will the applicator.

A step-by-step guide to contouring

Step one: Base

Before slapping on a load of make-up it’s important to prime your face. Use a good make-up remover to get rid of any traces and residue of yesterday’s make-up.

Apply your foundation and concealer as normal, but then dust on some translucent powder to set everything in place.

This gives you a smooth base to apply your contour on.

Step two: Map out your face

You’ve probably seen photos or tutorials with women sporting an odd look with bold stripes of make-up across their face.

It may look scary, but these harsh lines will soon be blended away.

This stage involves taking the darker colour you’re using and applying it to create shadows on the face.

Using your bone structure as a guide, sweep over the parts of your face you’re trying to make appear smaller.

Apply under the jawline, blending downwards towards your neck, on the hollows of your cheekbones and on the sides of the nose.

When going over your cheeks, suck in your cheeks to help guide you.

To help slim the face, apply it around your hairline and bring it down to the temples, blending into your hairline.

Build it up as you go – you can always add more later.

To create really prominent cheekbones, start at your ear and bring your brush towards your cheekbone.

The end of the line should roughly match up to where your pupil is, and taper the line with the thicker end at your ear.

Step three: Highlighter

This is where you take a lighter shade and apply it on the areas you want to really pop.

In an inverted triangle, apply under your eyes.

Draw a line down the bridge on your nose and on the tip, and