Contours and Highlights: your guide to - Step 2

  Contouring the face can make a huge difference to your appearance. With each high and low light you are adding a whole new dimension to the face and have the ability to accentuate  your best features. Contouring involves three main stages: highlighting, contouring and blush. However, in an attempt to keep the information overload to a minimum I thought I would blog about these stages separately.

This is my second stage, so we'll be focused on contouring!

  Contouring is a technique previously reserved for runway models and fancy shoots, with the now ever-so popular influence of the makeup gurus in the blogging world this nifty technique based primarily on the art of illusion goes from exclusive to essential in every girl's daily routine. so what is it exactly? "Contouring is giving shape to an area of the face and enhancing the facial structure through makeup," says Beau Nelson, makeup artist to the stars "It's not supposed to be noticeable - just a subtle definition." this is where many of us lip up.. Subtlety is key! In other words, this is not the time to go dipping your blush brush into some bronzer and adding a brown stripe under your cheeks. It's all about the artistry - accentuating something that's already there. Here are some tips on accentuating natural beauty:

Starts soft - Building pigment as you go allows you to follow the contours of the face clearly. Use a circular motion to sweep under the jawline, the sides of the temples, and under the cheekbones, with an angled cream brush: think of this area as a '3' shape.

Stick with matte - Contouring with a bronzer shan't work unless manipulating dark skin. You need to find something that creates the illusion of an actual shadow; formed when light hits the skin, typically having tones of beige, brown, taupe, and grey. For ultra-light skin tones, YouTube guru Lisa Eldridge recommends using a darker pressed powder from MAC. For darker skin tones I recommend trying a Bobbi Brown bronzer, matched a mere shade darker than that of your complexion.

Build & buff - As your work progresses you may notice a lot of sharp-looking lines, you can soften these by dabbing with a clean cotton pad or sponge to remove demarcation.

Less is more - Contouring the lips, nose, and the eyes can be a bit much for a fresh young face. Skip these areas and add them at your own discretion: as I said, subtlety is key. If you're hesitant with regard to the idea of going in with dark shades of taupe and grey, here's a solution: get two different shades of foundation, focus the lighter shade in the centre of the face and the darker along the perimeter, under cheekbones and along the jawline by dabbing with a damp egg sponge to ensure there are no harsh lines.

Brushes matter - Start with a smaller, fluffy eye shadow brush to allow precision. You should buy two: one for contouring and the other for highlighting, as darker shades may taint your highlights, just about every makeup artist in the world swears by MAC 217. Another great trick is to adapt a fan brush into your routine in order to feather products into the hairline, under the jawline and around the cheekbones, thus allowing for a natural yet airbrushed finish.

Customise your complexion - if you're using powders to contour you'll achieve a more matte finish, if you use creams the result will be more dewy. I recommend using cream based products, since they're easy to blend and build on. As I mentioned in my previous tutorial on highlighting, an advantage of working with cream/liquid based products is that you are getting lasting wear from the product, which is ideal for daily use.

 

This picture demonstrates clearly the idea

of our facial contours as a three.

 

 

 

Melanie

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