5 Things You Should Know about Contouring

One of the best kept secrets to achieving a sculpted face is with contouring. With contouring, you don't need "perfect" bone structure or a "perfect" oval face. You can fake it with powder and a brush. Fabulous news for all of us who want to look slimmer without hitting the gym. Contouring works by playing with the light, creating appropriate shadows and highlights on your face to create the look you want. It's a super cheap alternative to plastic surgery. In fact, you probably don't even need to buy another product in other to contour.

Here's the low down on contouring:

1) Decide what face shape you have.

The perfect face shape, according to most Western standards of beauty, is oval. But, not everyone's face shape is oval. You may have a round, square or heart shaped face. To figure it out, do the lipstick test. Stand at the bathroom mirror, take an old lipstick and outline your head shape onto the mirror. Take a step back, and figure out which shape your head fits into. After you figure that out, determine what it takes to create an oval face shape.

2) Find a powder or blush that's two shades darker than your skin tone.

You may already have a powder in your makeup arsenal that fits this description. Try it out. You're looking for a non-shimmery powder or blush, something that is very matte, because the point of contouring is to recede, not highlight or bring attention to.

3) Contour the areas that you want to fade into the background.

Start out by creating a broad stroke of the darker shadow in the areas you want to recede. These areas will vary depending on your face shape, but they are most likely the hollows of your cheeks, the temples of your head, slides of your nose, and underneath the chin.

4) Blend, blend, blend!
You definitely don't want any severe lines that scream, "I'm contouring! Look at me!" You want to blend the darker shades so that it appears like your face is naturally shaped that way. You don't want anyone to notice the contouring, you just want them to think that you look thinner, or flawless.

5) Use a highlighter.

To further bring out your contouring, combine it with a highlighter that brings attention to your face. The most popular areas to highlight are the slope on the nose, and the rosy part of the cheeks. You also want to highlight the arch of the eyebrow. The highlight shade should be two shades lighter than your skin tone. Definitely blend the highlighter into your skin, so that it doesn't look like a strike. You can also use concealer as a highlighter, especially if your concealer is a couple of shades lighter than your complexion.

So, try it out, but definitely look at yourself in both daylight, evening and artificial light to make sure you look flawless and blended.

Here's a Video on Contouring the face