Makeup Monday

Contouring and highlighting

If you are one of those girls who is really into makeup you have probably heard about the importance of contouring and highlighting a million times and if you are one of those girls who is like what is she talking about?-.^, let me tell you that in my opinion the first thing someone should learn about how to do their makeup is how to contour and highlight. If you ask me you don’t need smoky eyes or winged eyeliner  to look gorgeous you just need to contour and highlight right and learn how to do your brows too. So today I am going to teach you the basics of highlighting and contouring so you can get that famous Kim K face.

Your face is your canvas and I am going to teach you how to paint it right. First thing you need to know is that with contouring we sharpen so it means that we minimize: we minimize our nose, we shorten out forehead, we make our face appear thinner etc. We highlight where the sun would naturally hit us but keep in mind that highlighting can emphasize some tings on our face. YOU NEED TO REMEMBER THAT YOU NEED TO ADJUST THEM SO THEY CAN FIT YOUR FACE’S FEATURES.  For example if someone has a big forehead they need to bring the contour more closer to their eyebrows and highlight just a little bit between them and above them so their forehead appears smaller, but if someone has a small forehead they need to keep the contour close to their hairline and not bring it down and they need to highlight from the eyebrows up in the middle of their forehead so their forehead appears bigger. So I found a picture of this girl and I tried to illustrate you where to contour and where to highlight (p.s. sorry if you think it’s bad but I tried)

So the highlight is where the sun hits us and the contour is the shadow it creates.

·      -   Contouring

We are contouring our forehead, cheekbones and our chin with the famous 3 contouring( starting from the forehead and ending with the chin you draw the number 3 on your face). Your cheekbones contour should start from the middle of your ear and follow a straight line to your mouth angels. But just because it needs to follow this line it doesn't mean that you should contour down to your mouth,  you should focus the contour close to your ear and not bring it down further than a middle or 1/3 of your cheek. When you are contouring your chin, don’t forget to contour your neck so you would have an even skin tone. If you want to make your nose appear thinner contour the sides of the bridge of your nose and if you want to give some more shape to the tip of your nose than contour it too. If you are not applying eyeshadows contour your crease.

·     -    Highlighting

You need to highlight under your eyes in the triangle shape so you would bring that highlight on your checks. Highlight the bridge of your nose and your forehead. To make your lips appear bigger highlight your cupid’s bow. Highlight above and under your eyebrows to give them more shape and make your eyes appear bigger. Don’t forget to highlight the inner corner of your eyes.

-Apply the blush on your checks between the contour and highlight.

To achieve all these things there are two ways:

1.      You bye two foundations one one color lighter and the other one one color darker than your skin tone. You apply the lighter one where you like to highlight and the darker one where you want to contour and than you blend them together with a brush or sponge.

2.      You put a foundation that is the same color with your skin tone on your face and than with a concealer that is one shade lighter than your foundation you highlight all the areas that you want and with a bronzer you contour.

Keep in mind that you want to keep your contour matte and you are allowed to have some sparkle in your highlight. However my tip for you would be highlight with matte concealer and than you can put on your cheeks and cupid’s bow some of those highlighters. You can use a glitter eyeshadow under your brow and on your inner corner. Your blush doesn't have to be matte.