The magic to contour and highlighting

Ladies! We all know that makeup can be an absolute life-saver for those "oh god, look at the size of that spot" or "can I just wear a bag on my head" kind of days. But makeup can also be a way of helping to change the shape of your face or facial features without cosmetic procedures (far cheaper and far less painful and permanent!). This blog is going to show you ways of being able to change the shape of your face with contour and highlighting but also not using too many products (no one wants a cakey face!). 

So where do you start?! First, it is most important to distinguish what face shape you have. There are many different types and it can get a bit confusing but here is a simple diagram helping you to decide what shape you have, or are close to;

Now as you can see there are no markings on the 'oval' face shape, and that is because those with an oval shape are deemed to have the 'ideally perfect' face shape. Therefore, this is the guide that you work with to try and get your face shape to be more like the oval. You quite simply shade in the areas outside of the oval frame work! Taking a look at the image above, the pink used is an indication as to where you should be contouring your face depending on what face shape you are and the purple is where you should be highlighting. 

                Now before I go on to show you how I contoured my face, I want to talk about the products you can use and how you should use them to do this. In my opinion, everyday makeup should be kept looking as natural as possible and I would recommend only using a light concealer and powders to contour and highlight. Sleek makeup does a contour and highlighting powder palette that does a fantastic job for a bargain! There are 3 shades of the palette; light, medium and dark however, through personal use I have being using light and yet I am a medium skin tone and it matches me perfectly (a light hand is suggested). Another simple idea to think about when you contour or highlight for everyday makeup, you should only go one shade lighter and darker than your natural skin colour so that it adds to the natural effect you are looking for without looking like a mask. The Sleek Contour kit can be found here. 

If you wish to see a natural contour and highlighting review using the sleek palette or any other product then please leave a comment below suggesting so! But for the purpose of this blog, I have decided to do a heavy makeup look showing the magic that can happen when you practice contour and highlighting, and really getting to know what to change on your face and what to make stand out. Lets go!

First off I had to distinguish what shape my face was. Now, I have a face that is shaped like a balloon (balloon head as my brother so kindly calls me!). I have a broad forehead and the bottom of my face is very narrow. Therefore looking at the simple picture above I would be able to say my face is a cross between an inverted triangle and an oblong. From this, I can see that the biggest area on my face would definitely by my forehead (its massive!) and therefore I know that to help reduce the appearance of it, I would have to contour this area. However, my jawline and chin is the smallest and therefore I should have highlighted this to make it appear more full. BUT!! This is where practicing comes in perfect and personal preference plays it's part. I love the idea of having prominent cheek bones, and a defined jawline. I am forever seeing models with cheekbones to die for and jawlines so perfect its depressing, therefore, I like to play around with makeup and making things work for me.

Here is a picture of how I contour and highlight using cream foundations (full face);

As you can see I have heavily contoured my forehead to try to attempt making the area look smaller. I have also contoured in the hollows of my cheekbones, along my jawline and my nose (I want a smaller more feminine nose!). The areas that I have highlighted tend to be in the centre of my face and this is because I want this area to be bright, as if the suns natural light is illuminating the centre of my face and casting natural shadows on the contoured area. Another mini trick to think about is that when you are highlighting your face you think of it as a heart shape, full around the eye/eyebrow and coming down in a point on your chin! 

Here is another picture of a before and after of how learning how to contour and highlight can really change a lot (a bit like magic!);

Please excuse what looks like a mug shot hahaha! But you can see here that the highlight has made my face look glowing and healthy; the contour has made my nose appears slimmer and my forehead less 'in your face' as the saying goes! Like I mentioned before, this is a heavy  makeup base for the purpose of this blog and this is not what I would do for everyday wear; for a night out this would be perfect! 

Below I will be showing the products I have used and where you can pick them up. I will be also offering more affordable or accessible products to the ones I have shown. 

Prepping my skin;

Firstly, I started with a freshly cleaned face. Then I applied Olay essentials, beauty fluid (sensitive skin) here

Next, I applied L'Oreal Skin Perfection- Awakening and Correcting Eye Cream (which I love!) here and then followed with the L'Oreal Skin Perfection Magic Touch Instant Blur. here

Finally, I gave my lips a quick coating of Maybelline's Baby Lips Anti-oxidant Lipbalm (berry). here

Next step was starting the contour and highlight!

Here, I used The Makeup Stores Studio Foundation in both Ultra & Choco and mixed them together to create my perfect contour colour. I used 'Ultra' on it's own as my highlight. Makeup Store products are hard to find in the UK because they are not sold here yet, however Max Factor do a fantastic range of cream foundations which you can find here.

To blend them together I used a damp beauty sponge which you can find here.

To set the cream foundations, I went ahead and applied a gorgeous fine powder to the highlighted areas using the infamous Ben Nye Banana Powder. Here

I then went ahead and used H&M's bronzing powder to set the cream contour. This is a fantastic product to use with creams of for people with oily skin as it really does absorb the oils and stays put all day. It can be found here for an absolute bargain! One of my favourite, under-talked about products. 

Finally, I applied Elf's Contouring Blush & Bronzer as my blush which is known to be a good dupe for Nars Orgasm and far cheaper too! It can be found here.

Then lightly, I applied a little of MAC's Skin Finish in 'Soft & Gentle" along the bridge of my nose, on my cupids bow and on the top of my cheekbones. Here. Another great highlighter is TheBalm's Mary Lou-minizer which can be found here.

If you wish to see a more natural contour and highlight post using powders then please comment below! I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog post and that the remainder on the day is a good one!!

Thankyou!

XOX