Contouring: including highlighting, bronzing, and blush

I get asked this almost daily – where do I apply these products, how, and why?

Contouring can be quite daunting at first, and you do look a little funny in the process, but once you master the art of contouring, your life will change! Contouring can completely change the look of your face, enhancing your most desired features and hiding your flaws – highlight your cheekbones, change the shape of your nose, chisel your chin, and slim the shape of your face.

It takes practice, and sometimes a little trial and error – but persevere, the payoff is well worth the effort. Try different products to find what you’re more comfortable with, and you can even buy kits now which have all the products you need to contour.

Contouring
Light enhances features and makes them protrude, or appear as though they are coming forward
Dark minimises features making them recede or appear to be moving backwards

What do I need?
You can buy products specifically designed for contouring, but essentially you need a very dark and a very light shade. You can use a dark matt bronzer as the dark, or a dark foundation, but make sure it’s a dense creamy one, not too liquid. For the light shade, again, you can use a foundation powder or a creamy very light foundation. You can even use matt eye shadows too.

On the face, a fan brush, a contour brush or a tipped kabuki brush will help you get the look you’re after… if you don’t have these, use a medium dome tipped brush, or for smaller areas, even a dense rounded eye shadow brush.

Cheekbones - To chisel your cheekbones, firstly suck in your cheeks to find the groove you want to follow… just under the part that sticks out (your cheekbone), that’s where you want to work the product. Apply a small amount of your dark shade to your face just under your cheekbones, sweeping from the apples of your cheeks towards your hairline. Repeat until you get it dark enough, and then blend out any lines…
Nose – To reduce the width of your nose, apply the darker shade down each side of the nose. If you have a long nose and want it to appear shorter, apply the darker shade to just under the tip of the nose, sweeping it upwards, just slightly.
Forehead - To narrow a wide forehead, apply a little of the darker shade to the temples, and the sides of the forehead, keeping close to the hairline.
Chin – Disguise any additional chin you have under your jaw line, by applying a darker shade to it – just keep under the jaw line so you can see where it ends face on.
Eyes – To make your eyes stand out, use the darkest shade of the eye shadow colour you’re wearing to apply to the crease of your eye socket, blending from the outer corner of the eye, in towards the nose. Blend this out to make sure you’re not left with a dark line on your eye.

Muse Pick: Benefit Matt Bronzer Hoola

Highlight
To emphasise your features, highlight them using a light shade. I actually prefer to use a shimmery product as it not only brightens the area, but also catches the light, so it highlights better. Sweep a highlighter across the very tops of your cheekbones, even in a slight backwards C shape around the eye area sweeping over the top of the cheekbone and up to the eye brow.

To make your lips appear fuller, dab a highlight on top of the middle part of your lips (the cupids bow).

To brighten the eyes, apply a dab of highlighter on the inner corner of your eyes (closes to your nose). This can really make the eyes sparkle, especially for brides or in photos. You can also use a lighter shade of eye shadow colour you’re wearing to apply to the middle of your lid, sweeping up towards your crease.

BLEND BLEND BLEND – You don’t want to look like you have dark and light stripes everywhere, so make sure you blend out the lines of where you have applied the contour and highlight. Just don’t blend it completely out, otherwise it will no longer have the affect that you’re trying to achieve. Just focus on blending out any harsh edges or lines.

Muse Pick: Face Atelier Shimmer in White Gold

Bronzer
Most people will tell you to apply bronzer where the sun hits your face to give you a natural looking tan. To do this, use a big fluffy powder brush and sweep the bronzer down the bridge of your nose, on top of your cheekbones, around your hairline and your chin. This will give you a nice natural look. I also believe however, that when you get a tan, it’s usually your whole face that tans, therefore, you can also try using a less intense coloured bronzer; and apply a light dusting all over the face and neck. Try both and see which suits you best. Always remember your neck, particularly under your chin.

There are so many different bronzers around, try different colours, shimmer vs. matt, and different shades to get different effects. A slight shimmer in summer looks lovely, however in winter a nice soft matt bronzer just picks up the skin a little.

Muse Pick: Smashbox Soft Lights Starburst Bronze

Blush
What colour? The colour of the blush you use depends on the makeup you’re wearing on the rest of your face - it should compliment the colours you’re wearing. For example if you have a very dark smoky eye, keep the blush more subtle and natural. If you have really neutral eyes and want a bit more of statement, try a deeper musky pink. Or, if you have a really fair complexion, you can also wear a more lolly pink or even peachy tones. Just remember not to be afraid of the colour you see in the palette, it never looks quite that intense once it’s on your skin, so experiment with bold colours, just don’t use too much.
For an everyday blush colour, try to find a shade that matches the colour of your cheeks when you’ve been for a run, or get embarrassed and... You guessed it… blush!

Where to apply it? Use a smaller rounded blush brush (not a large powder brush!) and only apply a small amount of product at a time. If you’re using a powder, tap off any excess product on the brush before applying it to your face. Blush should be applied to the apples of the cheeks. You may have heard that you should smile to find the apples of your cheeks, which is fine, but don’t apply the blush while you’re smiling, it just doesn’t look right for some reason when you relax the face! The apples are the bits of your cheek that are really fleshy and stick out when you smile. They’re directly below the pupil of your eye and at the very tops of your cheeks. Steer clear of your nose too; blush can look quite strange if you get too close to that area, kind of like you have a cold!

What product to use? Blush comes in blush tints, creams, and mousse or powder varieties. Some are shimmery, some are matte and some are more vibrant. I prefer ones with a very slight shimmer, but aren’t glittery. Cream or mousse blushes look really natural and glow on the skin, just remember that you can’t put cream over powder so use a liquid foundation if you use a cream or mousse blush. Tints, I’m not all that sold on, if you practice with them they can give you that really nice flushed look, but they’re sometimes difficult to blend as they adhere to the skin quite quickly. The safest, quickest and easiest blush to use is powder. Apply with a smaller blush brush and don’t forget to blend out the edges so you don’t look like you have two big circles on your cheeks! You can even use eye shadows or lipsticks as blush too!

Muse Pick: Nars Blush in Orgasm (this colour suits just about everyone!)

Dark Smoky Eye

Eyes
(start with the eyes first for heavy or dark eye application so you can remove fall out without ruining the face)

• Prime the eye – Muse Pick Urban Decay Eye Primer Potion
• Base colour (neutral) to the brow bone – Muse Pick Benefit Low Profile
• Sweep lightest colour across the first third of your lid from the inner corner – e.g. like a silver or grey shadow
• Sweep medium colour across the middle third of the eye – e.g. darker grey or charcoal
• Press some of the darkest colour into the outer corner of the eye and then use contour brush to blend and drag through the crease forming a small 'C' – Muse Pick Face Atelier Carbon
• Blend, blend, blend! Use your blending blush and blend the shadow out – you don’t want to be able to see where the shadow lines are
• Line with a sharpened pencil or cake liner as close the lash line as possible – Muse Pick Face Atelier Black Cake Liner with Transforming Gel
• Use an angled brush to apply a small amount of the black shadow under the eye on the lash line
• Curl your lashes – Muse Pick Shu Uemura Eyelash Curler
• Coat lashes a few times with mascara – Muse Pick Chanel Exceptionnel Mascara

Face

• Remove any fallout on the face with makeup remover/sorbelene cream,
• Prime the face – Muse Pick Samshbox Photo Finish Primer
• Conceal under the eye – Muse Pick Face Atelier Camouflage Duo
• Apply foundation to your face and buff out with a buffing/kabuki brush – Muse Pick Face Atelier Ultra Foundation Pro
• Conceal face where and if required
• A light dusting of bronzer under the cheek bones, the forehead and chin - Muse Pick Kit Cosmetics Mineral Bronzer in Bronzed Up
• Apply a light application of blush on the apples of the cheeks and sweep upwards towards the temples – Muse Pick Face Atelier Ultra Blush in Rosewood

Lips

• Apply a pink/nude colour to the lips and add gloss if desired – Muse Pick MAC Lipglass in PRRR

Tips

• Go over the liner with the black shadow it will make it stay and will smoke out the line
• Add some sparkle to the inner corner of your eyes with pigment/glitter/shadow on a cotton bud or small pointed brush.