What is Contouring?
In the makeup industry, the idea face shape is considered to be the perfect oval. The point of contouring is to highlight and shade the face to create a more "desirable" face shape. I personally think that the concept of trying to alter your face shape in itself is not desirable. In my opinion contouring should be used for what the name suggests, create a sense of depth to the facial features. E.g by highlighting cheekbones and shading in temples you create a toned more interesting face.
Understanding the diagrams below
1.Do these steps after your usual foundation/concealer routine.
1. You need to decide on your face shape. I have focused on the four main face shapes, heart, long, round and square. Look at the pictures and decide which one is closes to your own face.
If you have a perfect oval face you should just stick to using the blusher tutorial on its own.
3. The diagrams show the face shape and then the dark brown patches emphasise the areas to contour and the white areas emphasise the areas to highlight.
How to Contour
To contour the face you need to buy a foundation one or two shades darker than the one you usually use. You need to look for a foundation with the same yellow/pink undertones as your usual foundation so it is often best to stick to the same make. You can also use a darker brown powder/cream but you must use this with a very light hand otherwise it will look like you have strange patches on your face rather than countours that just add depth.
Using a darker colour to shade in areas of your face will slightly hide certain sections. Using it in this way will emphasise the lighter sections of your face even more.
How to Highlight
To highlight you need a foundation slightly lighter than your usual one, again with the same undertones as your original foundation. Or what is best is to buy a lighter powder or invest in an actual highlighter such as Benefit High/Moon beam. Highlighters are usually just a slightly lighter, sometimes shiny cream that will brighten and lighten certain parts of your face.
Heart Face
A heart shaped face is wider at the top than the bottom. So the aim is to shade in the sides of the face by the temples to create a narrowing effect. At the same time you can shade slightly around the chin to add a little extra depth and balance out the shading at the top sides of the forehead.
You should highlight above the cheekbones to widen out the center of the face and create a focus towards the middle. Also you might want to put a tiny bit of highlighter just on the chin as a balance so you do not just have highlighted cheeks. Do not put any highlighter on your forehead as that will make it seem wider.
Long Face
When contouring a longer face you want to try and give the impression of a slightly shorter face so you shade out and contour the bottom of the chin and the top of the forehead. Do this very lightly so that it is subtle.
To widen the face at the center it is a good idea to highlight just above the cheekbones.
Round Face
A round face needs more difficult contouring to give the impression of more defined features. You should shade the two edge sides of the forehead to create a more oval shape to the face and contour underneath the cheekbones to make them even more prominent on the face. You can also shade on the sides of the chin for a little extra depth.
You should highlight the forehead in the centre as a curve to create the impression of a longer forehead and highlight the centre of the chin as well to extend the face downwards from the middle. It is also a good idea to highlight the cheekbones to add some height to the center of the face.
Square Face
Contouring a square face is to soften the features up for a less defined look. You can shade in the top countours of the forehead to soften the angles and the jawline to do the same at the bottom of the face.
You should highlight the cheekbones, middle of the chin and forehead in a circular design to round out the face a bit.
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