Makeup - Face Shapes, Contours & Highlights

Face Shapes:

No two faces are the same however they will generally fall into or slightly between one of the main face shapes. Below is a chart to help decipher which face shape you are working on.

Another way is to draw round your face in front of a mirror using a white kohl pencil. 

The most desirable shape for makeup purposes is oval or diamond but if your face is naturally slightly wider or longer in places, contouring can be used to achieve this look.

Contouring & Highlighting:

Using a colour two shades darker than your natural base contours can be added around the jawline, hairline, cheekbones and temples to create the ideal shaped face and create definition. Noses are often made to seem slimmer as contouring becomes more common place for every day makeup looks thanks to celebrities such as Kim Kardashian.

Cream products can be mixed into foundation or once the foundation is set, a bronzer can be applied for a sun-kissed finish or more natural contouring can be achieved using grey and brown matt shadows from a palette such as the Ben Nye Glam.

Contouring will then needs highlighting on top of the shadow area using a highlighter mixed to two shades lighter than your natural base. Some good products to highlight with are Mac Strobe Cream (although this shouldn't be used on the skin every day), Mac Vanilla Pigment, Lumiere Luxe Powder by Ben Nye, Cream is Nice by Nars or Revlon Photo Ready Skin Lights.

Contouring and highlighting a face can create some significant changes to your look. Below are two pictures I created to show extreme versions and how they affect where the eye is drawn to. As you can see, two quite different looks are created depending on which areas you choose to shade light and dark.

Contouring & Highlighting Look Step by Step:

First conceal clean skin with Derma Color

Conceal under the eyes with colour D32 to conceal any blue tones

Mix up foundation base from Macquillage palettes with mixer and apply using synthetic foundation brush, blending in with a fibre brush such as Mac's 130. *Keep some of this colour on your hand.

Set concealer under the eye using a fluffy brush with translucent powder such as Mac's Prep & Prime.

Using the foundation shade as your guide, mix up highlighter colour (2 shades lighter) and contour colour (2 shades darker) and apply to face on the forehead, temples, cheekbones, nose and jawline. Highlight first then add your contours.

Blend together without moving them about too much.

Lightly powder using large powder brush.

Using the Ben Nye Glam Palette, mix up beige, greys and browns to enhance the contours.

Work in Mac Strobe Cream over highlights using an eyeshadow brush.

To finish the Look:

Match Derma Color to brows and use with an angled brush for brow shaping.

You can still use a cream blush to add some colour to the cheeks.

Then Mascara and Lips and the look is complete!

My Attempt:

I really like this look, it's great for adding definition to the face, I found it quite easy to mix the colours and apply in the right areas and love the effects you can create using light and shadow.

I have started to use contouring as part of my everyday makeup. I generally use he Ben Nye Glam Palette to create more pronounced cheek bones using a mix of Cobblestone and Smokey Taupe to create a natural looking shadow as a quick fix in the morning. I have to admit I feel a bit bare without it these days!