I thought i would do a post on how to contour and highlight, ive seen quite a lot of these posts about but they have been rather simplistic and haven't really explained anything also i found a lot of the posts were saying to contour with bronzers which is absolutely wrong.
Contouring is used to create definition in the face you use block brown colours with as little red as possible as you are trying to create shadows as your trying to hollow out these areas but if you use a red based product then it will start to look muddy also remember contouring and bronzing are completely different things. You contour areas such as the cheekbones, forehead, nose, chin etc
Highlighting is used when you want to bring something forward think "to highlight your best features" like the tops of your cheeks, brow bone, down the nose, across the cupids bow and centre of the forehead. When highlighting lighter skin types you can use pink toned highlighters which look gorgeous and when you're contouring on deeper skin tones change from pink tones to golden tones
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| Contouring and Highlighting Example |
There are many different ways to contour and highlight all you need to remember is to find a contour that isn't red based some cool toned will work the best. I have listed below a few of the best products that i use to contour and highlight
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| Left- MAC Harmony Right- Sleek Contour Kit |
First we have powdered contour products these are great if you're not confident enough to use a cream product they are also really great if you don't really want a really defined face as you can apply then and then buff them right down so they look really natural.
As you can see they are both quite cool based so they are perfect for contouring
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| Left- Illamasqua Cream Pigment- Hollow Middle- MAC PRO Sculpting Cream- Pure Sculpture Right- Ben Nye Media PRO Foundation-- Cocoa |
Then we have our cream products which can be used to contour in the exact same way and to be honest i prefer using creams because i feel i have more control of the product, I picked 3 different shades for different skin tones but you will notice as the skin tone gets deeper the shades to become a lot more red based which is kind of annoying but you can work with it.
You use the creams the exactly the same as you would a normal powder, you can "cut" a line down each cheek then across the forehead and down the nose then blend it out or you could buff and then apply the foundation you have left on your brush or sponge to blend out easier if you make mistakes
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| Left- Sleek Contour Kit Right- Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc- Peach Mosaic |
Powdered highlighting products are great to for highlighting on top of the cheeks and using on the top of the lips i find using these shimmery powder products anywhere else tend to look a little glitter ball so i use creams more but i absolutely love the highlighting powder in the contour kit as its not that shimmery it just brightens the face.
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| Left- MAC Select Cover up (3 shades lighter than your skin) 2. Smashbox BB Eye Cream - Shade 2 3. Illamasqua Skinbase Lift- White Right- Illamasqua Gleam- Aurora |
These have to be my favourite highlighters simply because they work really well for me and i can manipulate the product better than i could a powder. When i want a really contoured, sculpted face i will use the Illamasqua Skinbase Lift in White as that can be put under the eyes right back to the ears quite like a Kim Kardashian highlight which really brightens up the face and pulls the face up. The next i would use the BB Eye Cream as thats great at brightening up and bring parts of the face forward but is no where near as bright as the white
When youre all done and blended it should look a little something like this below
I hope this post helped you somewhat, if you have any questions or would like to see an actual tutorial on how to contour and highlight in different ways then leave a comment below and let me know/
Do you like to contour?
What do you use to Contour?
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For requests or questions etc send me a tweet @BeautyandTheBoy
If you love my blog, Don't forget to follow my blog on Bloglovin:Beauty and The Boy
Thanks for Reading!
Thanks for this, I'm a newbie to contouring and highlighting so this is really helpful! I'm gonna have to experiment soon!
ReplyDeleteI love this wig! The colour is so you and the lace front is damn invisible! <3
ReplyDeleteOddly enough I just wrote a contour post as well! I've been using creams and liquids lately. So I've been using the kit from MUD and then three colors from NARS sheer glow. I desperately need more Illamasqua.
ReplyDeleteYou look amazing! I'd love to see a step-by-step with a close up of the contour and highlights fully blended, I think it'd be a real help :)
ReplyDeleteGreat tips, I'm going to have to try this out :) I'm really pale so I was worried everything would be too dark but the Illamasqua Cream Pigment doesn't look too scary haha xx
ReplyDeleteGreat post Andii! Its amazing how makeup can create the illusion of a different face shape. Job well done!
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Really useful post Andrew! I have Aurora on my must try list, so so pretty :)
ReplyDeleteIla x
http://cleanserblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Ahh thank you for writing this post lovely, exactly the type of post I was looking for! I've been using a really cheap MUA bronzer to contour (or trying to contour..) but I'm definitely going to pick up the Sleek kit now. One quick question though - my forehead is tiny, how do I go about this? Would appreciate if you could tweet me @ohsnap90 xx
ReplyDeleteAhh this is such a good post. Need this printed out and stuck on my mirror!
ReplyDeleteBelle ♥
Mascara & Maltesers
I'm a newbie too would really love a tutorial
ReplyDeleteI think it would be helpful if you posted the ingredients in the product.
ReplyDeleteI've really wanted to try it - I don't really NEED a matte finish but I like it. You are the second person that has mentioned the smell and that often sends out alerts for me because smells bother me sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI've wanted to try illamasqua for ages and this definitely has convinced me that I need to. I just bought the sleek makeup contour kit after your post on that, so can see myself buying this too :p
ReplyDeleteI will be definitely trying this, is there anything better than a matte finish?! Of course not!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I have the sleek contouring kit but not very good at contouring. Thanks for the tips. x
ReplyDelete