The art of contouring has become one of the biggest Trends of the Century. Contouring has been around for many years since the 1500’s (German actress Marlene Dietrich made contouring famous in 1920s) and now famous celebrities such as the Kardashians and the Jenner’s make Contouring an essential for everyday life. Contouring is where on changes the face shape or facial feature of a particular area. You can use Highlighters and Coloured Blush which is used to either draw attention to, or from a certain facial feature and create the optical illusion of perfection. But is important that we understand both Contouring, Highlight and Blush to ensure that we achieve the very best look for OUR face shape.
Highlight: Highlighters help stand out, which means drawing more attention towards the area- THEY EMPHASISE!
Contouring: Shaders recede drawing attention away from a particular area- THEY MINIMISE!
Blush: Blush brings warmth to the face and help emphasise facial contours- BRING COLOUR!
So now that we know what each Highlight, Contour and
blush do, it’s also important we know how to determine our face shape to get the best contour result that we can.
Oval: The oval face shape is considered to be the most ‘perfect’ of face shape, and most contouring techniques are used to create the illusion of an oval face shape. You can determine the oval face shape by noticing that the face length is larger than the width of the cheekbones and the forehead is larger than the jawline. In most Oval Face Shape you will also notice that the angle of the jawline is more rounded.
How to Contour: Draw attention to the cheekbones by applying a darker contour colour beneath the cheekbone, and a highlight above. Blush should then be drawn along the cheekbone and blended up towards the temples.
Celebrities with an OVAL FACE SHAPE: Beyoncé Knowles, Selena Gomez, Rhianna Fenty, Jessica Alba and Sharon Stone.
Round: For a Round Face Shape the bone structure is more broad and short. The cheekbones and face length have some more similar measurements, as well as the jawline and forehead. The angle of the Jawline is also quite soft.
How to Contour: Apply highlight in a thin band down the
Let’s Contour It!
Article written by Aroha McLean of Aroha’s Luxe Looks