Hey ladies. How are you doing today? I’m going to talk about a very interesting make-up process today. It’s a trend that has garnered a lot of attention on social media and has sparked lots of comments and even funny captions. It’s a little make-up trick that accentuates a lady’s facial features and creates a flawless look. Ladies, say hello to contouring and highlighting!
Highlighting and contouring is really just a smoke and mirrors trick, one of many of that kind in the make-up process. Like every form of make-up, the process involves creating an illusion to accentuate your best features and hide any flaws. The basic thing is to contour the parts of your face you want to appear slimmer using a dark coloured concealer, and highlight the parts you want to attract attention to with a light coloured foundation.
So let’s get started. The first step is to access what shape your face is. If you have a round or circular face, you would want to contour under your cheekbones and highlight above your cheekbones to accentuate them and elongate your face.
If you have an oval shaped face, with a very strong jawline (which is a masculine feature), then you would want to contour that area with a foundation a shade darker than your natural colour. Take a cue from Khloe Kardashian.
Next, we move to the general areas you need to work on. Start with the bridge of your nose. As Negroids, we have flat, wide noses. Highlighting the bridge of your nose, raises it and makes your nose look narrower and longer. Talk about a 2-minutee nose job. To enhance this effect, contour the sides of your nose as well.
Now move to your eyes. Contour the crease of your eyes and then highlight under the eyes and the brow bone, using a light concealer. Most of us already incorporate this step while lining the eyebrows. It is important because it defines your face and eyebrows if you don’t have a freshly tweezed arch.
Contour and highlight your lips. This is simple; it’s like a toned-down version of the ombre lip-trend going on now. To contour, fill in the lips with a dark lip liner leaving just the middle. Then highlight your cupid’s bow (the depression in the middle of your upper lip) and the outer corners. Fill the rest of the lip with a lighter colour and a shiny gloss. There you have it – the perfect picture ready pout!
To narrow your face and make it appear longer, go with Tara Banks over here. Contour your temple and the sides of your forehead. This makes your forehead appear smaller and works for all the Rihanna girls out there. No shade. Highlight the centre to create contrast and you’re good to go.
You can follow this colour guide for extra help. Dark areas for contouring, light areas for highlighting.
Have fun and stay beautiful ladies :).