How to: Contour

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack posts lately, its been a busy few months. I've been meaning to do a post on contouring for awhile, but I haven't felt confident enough in my contouring techniques, however everyone has their own way of contouring and it just takes a lot of practice and a lot of blending.

 The highlight and contoured look was made very popular by Kim Kardashian, love her or hate her, her makeup always looks flawless, she is always seen with a fully made up face which is always very highlighted under the eyes paired with defined cheekbones. Its all about the skin with this look, contouring and highlighting certain areas really creates an illusion and can be like non surgical plastic surgery, you can make your nose appear smaller, create higher cheekbones, shorten a larger forehead and create a more structured jaw. Its not something I would do every day because you do have to apply a lot of makeup, however for special occasions its definitely a must, and it also looks amazing in photographs when done correctly. Just be sure to blend and then blend some more ;)

 

 

These are the products I used:

 

 - Artist of makeup contour sticks in light and dark

 - Mac blotting powder in translucent

 -  Dior nude skin foundation

 - Mac Fix plus

 - Beauty blender



 

 

Where to apply highlighter:

 

I apply highlighter ( this is normally 2 shades lighter than your skin tone, you don't need to use the products I am using, you can also use a lighter foundation for this) to where I want the light to hit the face so this is the bridge of the nose, under eye area, the chin,the centre of the forehead and above the cupids bow.

 

Where to contour:

 

You apply the dark contour stick (can be a dark foundation/concealer) to areas which you want to  appear smaller or narrower, this is usually the sides of your nose, your temples, cheekbones and jaw line.

 

 

After I applied all my highlight and contour I used a damp beauty blender (I find this is the best way to blend heavier makeup) and blended everything together I used one pump of the Dior nude skin foundation to do this. You should spend most of your time blending as you don't want any harsh lines. Once everything is well blended I like to powder the highlighted areas with a translucent powder, and I go over the contour with a bronzer to set everything so it doesn't budge. Finally I like to spray some fix plus so the makeup looks flawless all day and stays on all day.

 

At this point I do the eyes, lips and cheeks and then im done.

 

I hope this helps and makes this type of makeup seem less daunting, this is especially for my friend lubna who requested I do a step by step on contouring :)