makeup

QUICK TIP: CONTOURING

TUTORIAL + PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMY NADINE, GRAPHIC DESIGN BY EUNICE CHUN

Over the last few years, contouring has become mainstream after decades of being a secret weapon that makeup artists learned in school to add dimensions back to the face after creating a blank canvas with foundation. I’m not gonna lie, it has gotten a little extreme for my taste but if you’re reading this here, your taste is a little more natural like mine. Anyway, today we’re sharing a contouring must that a lot of people don’t know about! When you sculpt your cheeks, it’s prettiest if you don’t bring the contour shading too far in. Why not? Because it ages you in a very unflattering way. We want to hollow out our cheeks but we need the suppleness of the apples to look healthy and young! And the easiest way to achieve this is to imagine a line from the end of your brow straight down your cheek then simply don’t cross it. Some makeup artists place the line at the arch of the brow, but my mentor and idol Mary Greenwell taught me one afternoon in Madrid never  to bring it in that far, and I agree. And you don’t have to hold the brush up every time! Quickly you’ll be able to eye it. Here’s how:

TOOLS:

• Your Favorite Contour Cream — I was so excited when this cream palette came out and it’s $40 off right now!
• or Your Favorite Contour Powder — This iconic contour & highlighting palette has everything you’ll ever need in shades that work gorgeously on most skin tones; while this duo works well with your budget!
• A Flat-Headed Contour Brush — I love this dual-ended slenderizer brush that really presses the product into the skin.
• A Densely-Packed Blush Brush — the wavy soft fibers of this brush makes it like nothing you’ve ever used before. The best!

STEPS:

1. Hold a brush or a pen/pencil perpendicularly straight down from the end of your brow as demonstrated with Lacy above. Make a mental note where it crosses your cheek area. If you need more than a mental image, you can use your non-dominant hand to hold the brush in place while you use your dominant hand to contour, but it doesn’t have to be exact or anything, so just eye it and you’re good.
2. Now that you know how far to bring it, follow the hollow of your cheek (just under the cheekbone) inward and stop where the imaginary line is.
3. Go back in the other direction and bring it all the way to the ear area so there isn’t a blank space there.
4. Switch to the unused brush and blend it in by gently swirling over it until it’s half the intensity it was originally.