How to: Contour & highlight
Vivian Seljee
 

At the moment it’s all about carved out cheekbones à la Kim Kardashian. Brands such as Anastasia, Charlotte Tilbury and Kat von D battle each other for the best high-end contour kit. Unfortunately all of these palettes are over forty pounds, which might be a reasonable price for a makeup artist but for a makeup enthusiastic student like myself it’s quite a lot of money. Luckily, contour kits are now taking over the high street.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see by the before and after photos above, contouring and highlighting make a huge difference. In the before-picture my skin looks very blank and dull. In the after-picture my skin looks radiant. The best thing is: you don't have to spend lots of money to achieve this look. 

 

Affordable brands

I suggest taking a look at brands such as Barry M, Seventeen and Sleek if you are looking for an affordable contour kit. Sleek do my all-time favourite contour kits: the Face Form Kit (contour shade, highlighter and blusher for £9.99) and the Face Contour Kit (contour shade and highlighter for £6.49). An even more affordable option is Seventeen’s Define & Conquer Contour Kit, which retails for £5.99 and contains a contour shade and a highlighter shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you need?

Most important is your contour shade. You want to use a matte, ashy brown shade, as you want to create the illusion of a shadow. If you use a shimmering bronzer you will attract attention to your cheekbones, which defeats the purpose of contouring. You want to attract attention to the high points of your face, which you can do by highlighting with a light shimmery shade.

 

Once you’ve found a contour kit that you like, you only need some makeup brushes. For the contour itself I use the Zoeva 109 Luxe Face Paint, but you can also use any foundation brush or any angled brush. To blend the contour I use the Real Techniques Duo-fiber Face Brush. For highlighting I use the E.L.F. Small Tapered Brush.

 

How to?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 1: Apply your foundation (and eye makeup if you want). Make sure you finish off with powder, as it makes blending the contour shades easier.

 

Step 2: Suck in your cheeks to find your cheekbones. Grab your contour brush and apply the contour shade in the hollows of your cheekbones, starting at your ear blending towards your mouth. Be sure to not go further than the outer edge of your eye. Apply the contour shades

 

Step 3: Grab a bigger brush (I use the Real Techniques Duo-fiber Face Brush) to blend your contour shade. Blend the contour towards your temples. Always blend upwards, not downwards, as you want to create a lift.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 4: To warm up your face, grab any bronzer you like. You can use the brush you used to blend out the contour to apply your bronzer, but I used the Real Techniques Blush Brush. Apply your bronzer slightly above the contour shade and blend it up towards your temples and slightly down your neck. I used Natural Bronzer by Rimmel.

 

Step 5: Now it’s time to highlight. We’re going to highlight the places where the sun would naturally fall on your face. If you’re using a shimmery highlight, I suggest applying this to the upper cheekbones (above the bronzer), down the bridge of the nose and on the Cupid’s bow. If you want to use a matte highlighting shade (as in the Seventeen Define & Conquer Contour Kit), you can apply this underneath your eye to brighten this area, and underneath the hollows of your cheekbones to draw more attention to your carved out cheekbones.

 

Step 6: This step is optional. If you don’t like to wear blush, you can skip this step and you’re good to go. But if you’re a blusher gal, go ahead and grab your blush and any blush brush you like (I use an E.L.F. Stipple Brush). Apply the blush to the apples of your cheek and blend into the bronzer.