Face Shapes - What is yours?

Let's talk about beautiful faces. They are all different - they are all beautiful. But what shape are they and what does it have to do with anything? It actually has a lot to do with how you do your makeup. We have seen the beauty guru videos and how they usually all do it the same way and then you try it and it doesn't look the same. That's because everyones face has different hollows and high points and there are different ways to enhance your natural features.

PS: When I say highlight I don't mean the glistening, blinding, glowing highlight, I mean highlighting your features with a concealer.

Here's a basic face chart that shows where to contour and highlight for certain face types..

These guides for contouring and highlighting may look scary, but once your finished it should look much nicer!

Now, how to distinguish what face shape you have can be confusing as some face shapes are comparable with others. For instance, a heart and oval face share similar jaw structures, but the feature that separates them is the hairline.

Have a look at yourself in the mirror and point out the features of your face, is your jaw and temples wide and your chin narrow? You most likely will have a diamond shaped face.

What.

For defined features you want to use powders and for a more natural look cream products are the way to go. The reason? Cream products are more light weight and blend in with your foundation, when used correctly it looks like natural skin because of how it melts and blends with foundation and leaves a natural looking glow, powder products can also look natural but they are a matte finish and don't reflect natural skin, they are also buildable in comparison to cream products.

When.

As mentioned above, cream products work with your foundation, so before you powder your face, apply your cream contour/highlight to the areas on the face chart and using a beauty blender pat out the cream product.

Powder products work over a powdered face. If used without a powdered face you may risk a muddy contour or patchy highlight.

Why.

I wish I had a photo handy of why contouring/highlighting for your face shape makes a difference then just what beauty gurus do. But the way I can explain it is if you have an oval face shape and you contour/highlight according to the face shape of an oblong then you will have muddy look cheeks and a face that droops instead of looking uplifting, and I'm not talking about your expression, it will just be how your face will look.

How.

Let's go over cream products first. If you have dry skin, this is your better option as it will hydrate your skin and look more flawless. You can either do your foundation first, or use the contour and highlight shades and apply your foundation towards the end of blending your cream products to blend your foundation more and make it seamless. The best brush I find, to apply your product with is a flat shader brush and blending out with either a beauty blender or fluffy dense brush. Cream products, like eyeshadow, are just a blending game. Blend away until it looks like skin. Blend until your arm falls off. Blend until your hearts content. So, just blend yeah!

PRO TIP: Blend your contour before your highlight, because you can always clean your contour with highlight/concealer if you have gone to high or low.

Now with powders, less is more, if it's not enough, build the coverage slowly, because trying to clean powders is difficult - contour especially. The type of brush you use is also important and makes a world of difference. For instance, if you have a little face, a big brush will not help it will pack more product in a larger area instead of in a specific area.

I went through the whole process of how I blend my contour in my second blog, so if you missed out on that one, click here to have a read.

For highlighting, you can either do that with concealer or without. Most days I will go without concealer for a natural look, but for a night out I use concealer and press the powder over the top. Powder, like cream, is a blending game. That's why having a face powder over your foundation is so important.

Picking the right colours to contour/highlight.

You want to make sure you pick your contour to be about 2-3 shades darker than your skin tone/foundation shade and similar with your highlight you want it to be about 2-3 shades lighter than your skin tone/foundation. Any darker or lighter, it will contrast too much and can make you look ghostly or droopy.

Disclaimer: This is my how to guide and I do not intend to offend any one if they do their contour/highlight different.

Gorgeous people, this is the end of the highlight/contour game. As always, practice makes perfect and don't be discouraged if at first it doesn't work out. What I want you to feel is beautiful no matter how you do your makeup or if you wear none at all.

xx

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