How I Highlight & Contour

It’s time for some funny faces!!!

Hey Loves, today I will show you how I Highlight and Contour. It is not much different from what you have seen already but maybe I can show you some more tricks.

 

Picture found on internet

Why do we Highlight and Contour?

Well Highlighting and Contouring is a cheaper and painless form of temporary plastic surgery.

You are visually shaping your face to your liking using light and dark to create the illusion of something that isn’t there.

You are using light to show your features and dark to hide them or give the light an extra boost with a shadow effect.

Picture found on internet

Highlighting and Contouring is often used for special occasions like party, wedding, photo-shoot, etc. where you want to look extra perfect, it is not something that you would prefer to do every day.

What do you need?

There are two methods of Highlighting and Contouring, Powder and Cream.

Powder is often preferred by people with oily skin and cream for dry skin.

There is also difference if you prefer a dewy finish using cream and matt finish using powder.

Powder

Highlighting: you will need a creamy concealer (not the one you use for hiding pimples or scars that often comes in little jars), that is 1 or 2 times lighter than your skin shade, you can use these for example: MAC Pro Long Wear Concealer, NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer, L’ Oréal True Match Concealer, etc.

You will need translucent powder to set your concealer so that it won’t cake up or move all over your face.

Contouring: Bronzer or dark powder foundation, prefer not to use bronzers with any kind of shimmer in it, or use it very lightly only on your cheek area.

Cream

Highlighting: the same as above.

Contouring: Dark Foundation in stick or liquid form, for example: Maybelline Fit Me Foundation Stick, NYX Tango with Bronzing Stix, MAC Skin Sheen Bronzer Stick, or any kind dark concealer.

You can set this all with powder bronzer and translucent powder if you want a matt finish or skip it if you want a more fresh and dewy look.

Which brushes do you need?

You can use various brushes depending on which area of the face you are working on, for example you can’t use the same large brush that you use for large areas like your cheeks to use on small areas like your nose.

A beauty blender (in case of cream or liquid products) sponge is the easiest to use because you only need one tool, the sponge has a  rounder bigger side to cover bigger areas and a pointier one for more delicate precision areas like your nose and under your eyes.

Everybody has their own preference of brushes, a flat top brush, a tapered brush, an angled brush! You really need to find out what works for you the best by trying out different methods. I use my F80 Flat Kabuki Brush from Sigma and for the precision I use the P86 Precision Tapered from Sigma.

 

 

Drawing some lines!!!

This is a preference with where do you want to start first, if you want to start by highlighting first and blending it out and then your contouring, some do both at the same time or first contour and then highlight.

I personally prefer to blend out my highlights and then do the contouring and that is what I will be showing you.

 

Highlighting

Take your concealer that you will do your highlighting with and now you will draw some lines to parts that you want to bring forward, your upper cheek area, the bridge of your nose, your fore head, your chin, area above your jaw line.

Please don’t overdo it by using too much concealer especially if you have aging skin it will make you look much older, if you have aging skin use a very light weight concealer that doesn’t crease in the lines or don’t put the concealer directly under your eyes but slightly under on your cheek bone and then tap what is left of the concealer upwards towards the eye so that way you will prevent the concealer to cake up under your eyes (as shown in the pic). You are highlighting your upper cheeks to bring dimension to your cheeks, push them up and not look flat.

Then put random lines on the bridge of your nose and pull it to your fore head, you can also draw a line above the arch of your eyebrow so that is visually lifts it up (this is optional, if you have highlighted under your brow that would be enough). You want to put some concealer on top of your cupids bow (on top of your upper lip line) to visually lift or make your top lip appear fuller.

Put some concealer on your chin and slightly above your jaw line for some dimension.

Now blend everything in to your foundation by tapping motions so that you don’t want to move everything underneath.



Contour King Samer Khouzami, picture found on internet

Contouring

Now take your bronzer, in this case I am using a dark foundation stick and draw lines on places that you want to put shadow over and places that you want to hide.

You want to start by searching for the lines of your upper jaw line and the hollows of your cheek, just trace an invisible line from the top of your ear to the corner of your mouth that’s where you will place your bronzer. Draw a thin line starting from your ear towards your mouth BUT stop in the middle, later on with the blending you will move the bronzer slightly towards your mouth. If you have a wide set cheeks you would want to put some bronzer towards your temple’s too and make your face look more narrow (round shaped faces)

 

Picture found on internet

If you have a large forehead like I do (if you have a narrow fore head then skip this part), you want to visually make it look smaller so you will draw a few thin lines close to your hair line and on the sides towards your temple’s.

You can sharpen out your jaw line by tracing your bronzer along the edge, if you have a bit of a double chin then put some bronzer on it and it will visually reduce it.



Perfect brush shape for contouring. Picture found on internet

 

My chin is a bit longer so I want to correct that and by placing my bronzer a little deeper on to my chin it will visually shorten it.

Place a thin line on the edge of your lower lip line and that will make your lower lip look fuller.

Picture found on internet

Let’s do a nose job lol, trace a few short thin lines on the sides of your nose bridge (leave the top untouched where you have highlighted) and make your nose look thinner and under your nose to make it look shorter.

Please don’t overdo it by applying too much bronzer or it won’t look natural.

Blend the lines into your foundation and make sure that there are no visible lines and harsh edges.

Now that you have highlighted and contoured, you want everything to stay in place the whole day, so it is wise to set everything with powders especially your concealer. Use only light weight fine translucent powders.

Highlighting and Contouring according to face shape. Picture found on internet

You are done!!! Now you can finish with putting some blush, highlighter and putting your lipstick on if you already have done your eyes!

Pfff, I feel like I have written a book!!! I hope that I have covered everything!

If I have missed something that you want to know, please put it down in the comments bar and I will answer it as soon as I can.

Let me know what you think of this post, is it ok to follow? Love to hear your thoughts and comments!!!

 
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Xoxo

Dragana