One of my favourite things about makeup is the ability to completely transform a person’s face (you should see the difference in my face between 7:30am and 8:15am). In the same way that an artist uses paint, charcoal, pencil or other mediums in order to create a piece of art with texture, light and shade to turn a 2D imagine into a 3D one, makeup can be used very much in the same way (because a panfaced coating of foundation to lose the definition of a face has never been a good look).
The celebrities you see with perfect cheek bones, a perfectly tapered nose, brow bones to kill for and perfect lips aren’t born like that. A lot of the time they’re Photoshopped like that. Granted, some may be born pretty close to looking like perfection or have a helping hand from a surgeons box of tricks but even the most beautiful of women need a little hand from their makeup bag or by utilising the skills of a killer makeup artist.
Your face is essentially an artists canvas. My canvas is a little rounder than I’d like, my nose is a little bit buttony and my fivehead can mean that I look a little like button moon – of course, it doesn’t help (instead of fitting four fingers between my eyebrows and hairline, I can fit five – a la Ant McPartlin). To add some much needed shape to my face I depend upon a “no-longer-secret” technique known as contouring and highlighting which can be (relatively) easily achieved through the use of makeup.
I’m sure most people saw the alarming “WTF has she done to her face now?” picture of selfie queen Kim Kardashian which she posted on her Instagram a while ago. She looked like she was partaking in a the tiger striping round of a children’s birthday part. Those lines, silly as they may seem were the tell tale signs of the clever makeup artistry which helps to define and sculpt Kim’s face (and the rest of the Kardashian clans chiselled features no doubt).
Remember GSCE art class? We’re taught that anything you lighten will appear more prominent and anything you add shadow to will be pushed further back. By taking this basic art lesson and applying it to your face you can achieve amazing things to enhance your face shape. Want more prominent cheekbones, a thinner nose or a defined jaw? You got it!
To contour like Kim Kardashian you will need 4 things:
a foundation and concealer which matches your skin tone, a foundation a shade or two darker than your skin tone and a light reflecting cream highlighter (you may also pick up a cream contouring palette like the one from Beauty UK.
1) Firstly, apply your face of foundation and concealer as you would do normally.
2) Use the darker foundation to add the contouring of the areas of your face you want to push back. For example, your temples, the sides of your nose to slim it down and most popular (to get those Kim K cheekbones) the hollows of your cheeks. If like me you have Pillsbury Doughboy cheeks, you can find where your cheekbones are by using your fingers and pushing along your cheek until you can make out the ridge of the bone. Apply the contour colour slightly below there.
3) You contour to push back. The opposite of pushing back? Pull forward. This is where the highlighter comes in. Apply the light reflecting highlighter to anywhere you want to draw attention to or (I always think of it this way) everywhere the sun would hit your face (eg) the bridge of your nose, the cupid’s bow, your brown bone and the cheek bones.
4) Once you’re left with your tiger stripes, you need to use your contour brush of choice to blend the whole thing together so that it looks natural rather than like army stripes.
Once you’ve buffed and blended within an inch of your life you can then further contour/highlight in the areas you require to add more definition. Just be sure not to over do it.
What a great post, if only I could do it haha . xxo
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