How to: Contour your face

Firstly, i wanna apologise for the nail tutorial which isn't up yet. Its because i've been having some problems with my video equipment and it just doesn't turn out as good as the first time i did it. So i'm still figuring things out because i'm such a noob when it comes to doing my own beauty videos and all. LOL! Well, will figure out soon, hopefully. And also, i wish to get some makeup videos done soon or after the photoshoot at least. Oh, speaking of which, stay tuned for sneak previews on the upcoming photoshoot this weekend and also makeup tutorials of looks i'll be creating for the day!

Alright so back to the topic; How to contour your face. First, you'll have to identify your face shape. This is important as it determines the areas on your face that you will have to shade or highlight. Shading and highlighting the wrong part of your face can make you look odd; your face shape might appear too small, too long, too wide or too short. So always, ALWAYS identify your face shape first before putting on any bronzer or illuminizer/highlighting powder. These are the 9 most common face shapes: The oblong, rectangle, round, square, inverted triangle, heart, diamond, triangle and oval. Take a break, look into the mirror and start identifying. What is your face shape?

I'm gonna go into each of the face shape above and share with you the areas to shade and highlight. Shading is to give the illusion of a smaller surface area and highlight is to give the illusion of a wider and more prominent surface area. Easy enough? I always do my shading and highlight after i have applied my foundation and powder,. Usually other MUAs will use a cosmetic sponge to blend the shadings and highlights. However, i like to use brushes instead because it is faster to blend.The way i would do it would be to;

1) Apply foundation with a cosmetic sponge
2) Apply concealer using my fingers! (Fingers can do wonders, trust me ;p)
3) Apply compact/loose powder using a powder brush
4) Shade using cream foundation of 2 shades darker than my skin tone with an angled bronzing brush
4) Apply cream blusher with a blusher brush
5) Highlight using cream illuminizer/cream foundation of 2 shades lighter than my skin tone with a duo fiber brush/fan brush
6) Using the same brush in (3) apply excess powder on brush onto face

So above is my way of contouring my face but you can do it with other products instead of cream foundations. You can use bronzing or highlighting powder or a powder illuminizer like the one i did a review on; the Mary-Lou Manizer aka "the luminizer" by the Balm. It works the same.


**The light yellow represents highlight, brown represents shading and pink represents blush.




OVAL

• Your face is already symmetrical and you don't have to do much of contouring. All you have to do is highlight in some areas to make it look more prominent and apply blusher onto the cheeks starting from your cheekbones out towards your ears in a relatively straight line then down towards your chin. Blusher should be prominent on the cheekbones.

OBLONG

• Your face is long so shade your chin and the top of your forehead to shorten your face length and highlight only on your nose, forehead and undereyes. Apply blusher to your cheekbones to widen your face. 

ROUND

• Your face has a wide surface area so there is need for more contouring especially around the face. Highlight more to the center of the face and do not apply blusher lavishly but only focusing on the cheekbone and lightly dragging it towards the corner of your eye. Blusher should be prominent on the cheekbones.

RECTANGLE

• Since your face is already long, do not attempt to shade under your cheekbones. Shade the corners of your face and the top of your forehead to give it a nice even shape.  Highlight only at the center of the face to draw attention to it. Apply blusher on your cheekbones.

SQUARE

• Your face is wide so shade the corners of your face to give it a nice even shape.  Highlight only at the center of the face to draw attention to it. Apply blusher from your cheekbones moving up towards the corner of your eyes and down the sides of your face.  Blusher should be prominent on the cheekbones to the corner of your eyes.

HEART/INVERTED TRIANGLE

• Your forehead is wide and you have a sharp chin. Shade the top corners of your face and below your cheekbones to give definition.  Highlight only at the center of the face to draw attention to it. Apply blusher to the top part of your cheekbones only without going to much downwards.

DIAMOND

• The sides of your face, at the cheeks area, are wide so shade at the cheeks to decrease the surface area. Highlight only at the center of the face to draw attention to it. Apply blusher to the top part of your cheekbones only without going to much downwards.

TRIANGLE

• The bottom part of your face is wide so shade the jaw area to give a sharper look towards the chin. Highlight only at the center of the face to draw attention to it. When highlighting the undereye, drag the highlight up towards the corner of your eyes. Apply blusher on your cheekbones.

So thats the end of my How to: Contour your face. Stay tuned for more how tos! :D
Face charts credits to MyVirtualMakeover.