Contouring your face is great for defining and creating shadows when you have applied your base. While foundation evens the skin tone and provides you with a blank canvas, bronzer and contour are great for bringing some color and adding dimension back into your face.
Applying contour is simple, but the key is to blend well! As you’re using a color that doesn’t match your skin tone, blending the shadows that you create is absolutely essential to make sure that there are no harsh lines.
The easiest way to contour is to take your darker shade and use it to create a shadow underneath your cheekbones. To begin, you’ll want to find your cheekbones by sucking in your cheeks. Once you have found your cheekbones, trace the product along the hollows of your cheeks. To blend, sweep back and forth to work the product into your skin. Apply lightly and build up the contour to get your desired chiseled look. While it’s easy to build up your contour, it’s much harder to take it away.
Everyone has unique facial features. Depending on your face shape, you can place your shadow in one of three places: in a “3” shape that follows your hairline, under cheekbone, and jawline, along the sides of your nose, or in an upside-down triangle shape framing your cheeks. However, it is important to note that everyone’s face shape is different and you might have to play around with different lines until you find out which way of contouring works best for you.
Once you have contoured, you can highlight! Apply a lighter shade or a highlighter to the areas of your face that reflect light naturally. This is usually down the bridge of your nose, your forehead, the tops of your cheekbones, your brow bone, and your cupid’s bow!