How to Contour, Highlight and know what Face Shape you have ❤

Hey! ❤

So later on, when I have enough free time on my hands I'm hoping to do a proper tutorial on how to contour and highlight on Youtube! But for now I said I'd do a blog post for the curious because I know before I started my make up artistry course I didn't even know what contouring was!! Basically to contour is to detract the eye from a certain area of the face and to highlight is to attract the eye to a certain area you want to enhance on the face (light attracts, dark detracts!). Although this all sounds quite simple, the main thing you need to realise is that there are different rules for different face shapes! So here is a list of exactly what you need to do for each face shape and how to recognise which face shape you have!

 

Oval face shape

This is ideally the perfect shaped face! It has:

• an equal distance from hairline to eyebrows, eyebrows to tip of nose and nose to chin

• a wider forehead than jawline

• prominent cheekbones

• an oval chin

What you should do:

Because this is the ideal face shape there is not many corrections you have to make although you can:

• apply blusher, just under the ball of the cheekbone, directly below the iris and extend it in a smooth arc towards the ears

• there's no need to contour as there is already prominent cheekbones!

Diamond face shape:

An example of someone with a diamond face shape is Victoria Beckham. It has: 

• a narrow forehead

• a narrow jawline

• is widest at the cheeks

What you should do:

• apply a highlighter at an angle/with an angler brush to both side of the forehead

• apply a highlighter(or it can be a lighter shade of foundation) at an angle from the middle to the bottom of the jawline

• Apply blush to the ball of cheek and then out towards the middle of your ear in a crescent shape. Blend

Heart

Celebrities with this type of face shape are Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. It is:

• widest at the forehead

• tapered down to the cheeks 

• narrow at the chin, sometimes pointed

What you should do:

• apply darker foundation/ bronze on either side of the forehead 

• contour under the cheekbones in an L shape 

• apply blush slightly under ball of cheek and towards the ear

Round

Kelly Clarkson is a good example of someone who has a round face shape. It's:

•width is the same as its length

•forehead is quite short

•cheeks are wide

•jaw is quite round

What you should do:

• apply darker foundation in an arc either side of the forehead

•apply darker foundation on either side of the jawline up to the tip of the ear to eliminate fullness

• blush on ball of cheek and extend outwards towards temples near the hairline

Square

Kate Middleton is a great example of someone with a square shaped face. It's:

• width of the cheeks and forehead are similar 

•forehead is quite short

•cheeks are wide

•jaw is quite round

What you should do:

•Apply a darker shade of foundation on either side of the forehead and blend

•Apply a darker foundation/ brown blush on either side of the jawline and blend

•Apply blush to the ball of the cheek and blend toward the top of the ear

•Contour under cheekbone

Rectangular/Long:

Sarah Jessica Parker is a great example of someone with a long face shape.  It's:

•Width of forehead and cheeks is similar

•jawline is quite prominent

•face is longer than wide

What you should do:

•Apply a darker foundation/brown blush either side of the forehead and either side of the jawline and blend

•Apply blush on ball of cheek and blend towards middle of ear (keep brush higher up on the cheekbones for this face shape)

These are all the basic face shapes but if you are still unsure as to which one you have you could have a mixture of two different types. The main thing to remember is to contour the features of the face you want to try to lessen and highlight the ones that you would like to enhance! :)

Hope this helps and feel free to email or write to me if you've any other questions about this! 

Love, 

Betty 

(Bee) 

Xoxoxoxoxox