Contour like a Pro

Hi Guys, it’s Shanthi! I am going to share with you today, some tips and trick that I’ve discovered along the way as contouring and highlighting has been all the rage since 2015..

I’d like to think of it as a desert, dark chocolate brownie with a single scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream, yumm!! Oh yes, back to this blog post:( now.

Contouring creates shadows on the face; this illusion helps to recede back the facial plains of your choice. Think of it as less emphasis, like shrinking an enlarged forehead, camouflaging a double chin, facial jowls (pun not intended), give more structure to the cheekbones and a slimmer nose to name just a few.  

For the how to: video, I’ve used a Kohl Kajal Pencil meant for the eyes, in a deep cool tone brown (140 Chocwaves) shade from Catrice Cosmetics. Surprisingly, it’s creamy texture made blending easy, not at all what I had expected for an eye product under SGD 5!! It worked for me and I hope it does for you too.

The ideal shade for contouring is usually a cool under toned product, 2-3 shades darker than your complexion. Think along the lines of milk chocolate, a gradient of charcoal grey, greys, beige, off white shades. It shouldn’t have any orange and red undertones as it won’t work to create shadows.  

One other thing to consider when wanting to contour is to identify your face shape. I have an oval face shape with rounded cheeks and I prefer the contouring techniques for a round face shape. There is no hard fast rule, what works for me may not work for you. Have fun, it’s just makeup!

Let's talk about Highlighting, real quick!!

For the past 2 weeks, I have been gravitating towards more gold based highlighters for my medium complexion of yellow undertones. Clearly i am not over JLo’s and the makeup she had on for the recent Golden Globe Awards. It looks more natural and lends a radiant healthy beam from within. Again, take your time to experiment.

To contour a round-face shape:

Place the contour shades onto the temples, sides of the forehead. Go with a little at a time and take your time to blend the contour shade in, take a step from the mirror and assess how it looks. If you would like to narrow down the forehead, sweep the contour along the hair line and blend it downwards.

If you have trouble locating the hollows beneath the cheekbones, roll a brush from the outer corner of your eyes till you feel and see the dip. Place the contour shade from the top of the ears to the midst of your cheeks and blend the contour upwards, moving back towards the hairline. 

I have a wide nose, to minimize the appearance of the widened nostrils. I like to contour my nose along the sides of my nostrils in a triangular shape. I also like contour the sides on the bridge of my nose whenever I want to have a lifted look. This lends an illusion of a heightened nose.

Contouring the lower face gives it structure and shape with a slimmer appearance, the same can be done to the sides of the neckline and carving out those sexy collarbones like Deepika Padukone.

Depending on the texture of the contour product used, choose a brush that helps to blend the product evenly out on your face. Select a brush in a size that best suits your facial contours to avoid moving the contours around.

I enjoy using my duo-fibre brush to gently blend away the demarcation lines and then go in with a bigger fluffier brush to soften out the contour, highlight and bronzer. After all that blending, if I find that the contour has moved slightly southwards, I go in with my loose powder to help clean up the area beneath my cheekbones. This helps the contour to stay put and looks crisp.

I do the baking method for about 2mins or so while I tune in to some party music and groove around. Then go straight back in, to knock the excess powder off.

As always I hope this post was useful.  If you’d like to see me in action and how I contour, hop on over to my YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/user/TheLeiaV

For weekly videos, please subscribe to my channel to be notified when new content goes up on my channel. I post video once a week over the weekend and would love you to join my small internet family.

Have a lovely weekend ahead!

Love

Shanthi A Vimalan