Easy Guide to Contouring and Highlighting Your Face

Contouring is one makeup routine that everyone is always quite confused off, even me. But after trying out a handful of different tips and tricks, I can say with certainty that I have overcome quite a lot of my flaws. So, it's safe to say that I can guide you through an easy contouring routine that is simple and basic as can be, especially if you're a beginner or a newbie.

Contouring is really not that difficult as it seems on the internet. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes almost a daily routine due to the results it has on your face. 

The Basics

For good contouring and highlighting techniques, it is necessary to really understand the purpose behind why it is done:

• The whole contouring process is a means of giving your face a sculpted look. It helps hide under eye dark circles or any other dark areas on your face, camouflages your double chin to give the look of a sculpted sleek jaw, and also uplifts your cheeks for a more thinner looking face.

• Firstly highlighting and contouring are two separate parts of a process. Highlighting brings out the features of your face that you would like to emphasize more. These are the areas under your eyes, on your forehead between your brows, down the bridge of your nose, around the corners of your nose (if they tend to be dark or red), your cupid's bow and slightly on your chin. These are places where the light hits your face. So emphasizing them through highlighting brings them out.

• Contouring, on the other hand, recedes the features that you wish to hide. It creates a false shadow that helps to hide or uplift different features of your face depending on where you apply the contour shade. For eg., Applying a  contour shade on the areas right underneath your cheeks, creates a shadow that gives the appearance of an uplifted cheek bone. Whereas, contouring the area right on your jawline (sides) helps hide a double chin and gives a more sculpted look to your face.

Contour and Highlighting Map

• Thus, contouring is adjusted accordingly to your needs and gives you a healthy sculpted look.

• For highlighting, it's preferable to use a color that is two to three shades lighter than your natural skin tone and, likewise, for contouring use a color that is two to three shades darker than your natural skin tone.

Easy Method For Contouring and Highlight:

Highlighting:

• The areas where you will be applying your concealer/ highlighter shade are the areas you want to bring out.

• You start out by drawing an inverted triangle under your eyes. This is for hiding any dark circles that you may have.

• The next area is on the forehead between your eyebrows and slowly dragging a line from it down the bridge of your nose, i.e. where the bone is.

• Next, you highlight your chin area just below your mouth by drawing a circle or an inverted triangle, whichever suits you best. 

• Optional: You can also use the highlighting shade under your eyebrows to highlight them and give your brows a sharper look. This also helps hide those stray hairs if you haven't had the time to get your eyebrows plucked.

• Blend everything using a concealer brush in circular motions or by lightly tapping your fingers. You could also use a damp Beauty Blender/ Makeup sponge for a more smoother finish.

• After blending away the highlighter, use a compact powder/loose powder on your concealer brush and set all the areas that you have highlighted to prevent the product from settling in your fine lines.

Contouring:

• For giving your cheekbones an uplifted and chiseled look, create a hollow in your cheeks by pulling your cheeks in with a strong pout. This is where your cheeks end. Start contouring with the darker shade from where your earlobes start, bringing the color down along the hollow that you've created towards the middle of face. End just in the middle of your face. (For reference stop along the axis where the centre of your eyes are) You don't want to go too far or it will look too much. Now blend the contour upwards using an angled contour brush or a simple contour brush by gently tapping first and then using sliding motions to blend the product away, concentrating the contouring more towards the start of your earlobes. 

• For hiding your double chin and sculpting the face even more. Draw a line along the sides of your jawline. Blend the lines in a downward motion towards your neck by sliding the brush along your jawline. 

• The next area is for people with a higher foreheads. In order to create an illusion of a shorter forehead, draw a thin line along your hairline. Blend it out by using your brush in an upwards direction towards your hairline.

• For slimming down your nose, draw two very thin lines along the sides of the bridge of your nose and gradually blend it with your fingers. Do not use a brush for this.

• Blend everything out until you get a smooth contour.

• If you do go overboard with your contour, don't worry, just use a loose powder/ compact on a large fluffy brush over the areas you have contoured to counteract it and lighten it out. 

Please note that I wasn’t born an expert, I’ve had my share of embarrassing contouring moments by either contouring too heavy or going crazy with the concealer!  I’ve learned it by practice and going through tons of tutorials on YouTube. But trust me, watching a bunch of videos or reading guides on the internet is of no use unless you actually try it on your face. And no one is perfect the first time, it takes practice and it’s no rocket science!

A Quick Note:

All you need to begin with is by studying your face and analyzing your flaws and embracing them nonetheless. Because makeup is temporary and it should not be a means to your happiness. Just hear me out when I say this that no amount of makeup can make you feel happy unless you’re happy with your true self. Learn to accept yourself for who you really are. We all have flaws. Even celebrities that we look up to, have imperfections. It just doesn’t seem that evident through makeup, and that is what makeup does. With that being said, always remember that you’re beautiful, and makeup is just a means of enhancing your true beauty. It’s not the makeup that makes you feel beautiful, it’s the confidence that you carry with it that does wonders.