How to Contour and Highlight: The Basics

Thursday 7 July 2016

How to Contour and Highlight: The Basics

Let's face it. Contouring can be daunting for first timers. But it's cool, I got your back. Don't let the idea of it scare you, and don't worry about the stuff that could go wrong (like waddling around with a brown streak on your cheek) Never fear. Once you've mastered it, even just the basics of it, it's a great tool for enhancing your favourite features of your face. And it might seem like a lot of work, but once, you've got the hang of it it honestly only take a couple of minutes!

This post'll only be addressing the basics of contouring for you, and if it proves a useful post I'll look into going into a bit more details IE: Brows & arches, eyelids and lips.

But for now, I'm just going to keep it simple.

What you'll need:

Powder contour (I use the BHCosmetics pallete because it's got such a good range of shades!)

Angled Brushes of your choice

Okay, so first thing's first, here's something to keep in mind: if you're new to contouring powder is one of the best methods to start with. It's a lot more forgiving than cream and easier to control and blend. Also, think of it this way: powder works well with powder, cream works well with cream, liquid with liquid. So something I do to make blending easier is once I've applied my foundation I put on a thin layer of translucent powder over it.

Then I take an angled brush, I use this pink one from Essie, and apply a cool toned shade of brown along the edges of more forehead, my temples, cheekbones and jawline and a tiny bit down the sides of my nose. Normally to do this I just use my finger tip because it gives me more precision. If you're having difficulty finding where to apply it on your cheeks, just suck them in and make a fish face. Keep in mind that what you're trying to do with contour is to create and enhance the shadows already there.

Then I apply a slightly darker shade to the very outer edges of the original contour, just to add a bit more depth to my face.

Then, using my Sigma F88 brush I blend out the harsh lines of the contour. When blending try not to use too many circular motions, stick to more linear movements otherwise you could end up moving the contour about your face and wind up with it in the wrong place. Top tip: when you think you're done with blending, do a little more. Trust me. You don't want any harsh lines here.

Once you're done with the contour it's time for the easy part: highlighting. I tend to use a mixture of the 2nd and 3rd lightest shades in the palette for this but obviously what colours you use will depend on your skin tone.

Apply the highlighter in the dotted areas in the photo bellow. It's important to apply the highlighter in a triangle under the eyes rather than just directly under them rather than just using it to hide under eye circles will really help to brighten your face.

Blend it all out again and apply another thin layer of translucent powder to set everything and you're good to go! I hope you've found this post helpful :)