Make Up Practical Week 3- Contouring and Highlighting

Having learnt in previous week's how to Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise, and how to Apply a Base, this week we went onto learning the basics of Highlighting and Contouring.  To highlight and contour it is important that you get an idea of your sitters bone structure, so have a feel when cleansing or when applying any prior products. 

Here's image to get an idea of the areas that should be contoured, and the areas that should be highlighted. 

Image Credit:  Contour Makeup Brushes | 2013.  (Online) Available at: http://leadingladymakeup.com/2103/05/30/contour-makeup-brushes/ . Accessed 20 October 2013. 

Highlighting

Highlighting helps to create a brighter complexion, working with contouring to make the most of our facial bone structure.  When choosing a product to highlight, we were taught in this weeks session that a concealer 1-2 shades lighter than your natural skin tone would do the job perfectly! 

Highlighting the cheekbones, centre of your nose and chin really helps to bring out the bone structure of the face, these are areas of the face that are typically darker than the rest, so often make your face seem quite flat and sunken in.  By highlighting these areas,  it allows for a more brighter, healthier and fuller complexion. Highlighting the centre of the nose is essential for those who have a slight bump, as it really helps to hide it. You can also highlight the brow bone, which gives the eye area more definition.  

Another important place to highlight is the under eye area, many people suffer with dark circles under the eyes, so highlighting this area really helps bring light to the face and open up the eyes, giving a much more radiant complexion, as well as making us look that bit more awake!  For highlighting, use a blending brush, preferably long haired and fairly coarse.

Contouring

For contouring, grab again, a blending brush or even an angled brush.  To contour, it is best to take a concealer 1-2 shades darker than your natural skin tone.  Some people like to purely use a powder bronzer for this, however you can use both to intensify the contoured look. 

The most important places to blend the darker colour is under the cheekbones (think about applying from the tragus to the near the corner of the lips), down the sides of the nose, around the temples and just under the jawline.

By contouring under the cheekbones, your face shape will automatically pop and by contouring the sides of the nose it will then look longer and thinner, always remember though...blending is the key!!

By contouring the temples and under the jawline, your face will look more angular and elongated, and who doesn't want that?  After applying a cream product, remember you can always go over with a powder product.

Key Tip: 

• After contouring and highlighting, apply some blush.  Ask your sitter to smile and apply to the apples of the cheeks with a medium, round brush.  Pale pinks are perfect for people with fairer complexions, and more orangey, red tones are suitable to darker complexions!