Look Like a Celeb, Contour Your Face

by Deepica Mutyala – Guest Contributor

It’s the trick used by every girl walking the red carpet to make their nose look thinner/longer or their jaw line/cheek bones more defined. Rhinoplasty isn’t necessary to make that bump on your nose go away. You’d be surprised at how many plastic surgery rumors circle around (granted in Hollywood, most are true) when in reality it was a fabulous makeup artist who knew how to restructure a celebs face simply with the use of cosmetics. You don’t have to be famous or pay someone a crazy amount of money to get the same effect. Learning the tricks are simpler than you think. By using specific products in distinct parts of your face, you too can make your round face more prominent.

Having a round face myself, I learned these tricks to help certain features of my face stand out. Instead of looking through your favorite magazine and wishing you had certain features of your favorite celeb (we are all guilty of it!), make note of these simple techniques to help define your face using bronzer, blush, and highlighter:

BRUSH: Before you can think of contouring, having the right tools will give you the best results. An angled brush is your best bet. I recommend MAC’s 168 Large Angled Contour Brush. What I love is that this brush is that it is great for blush and bronzer, so you’re really getting your moneys worth.

BRONZER: Bronzer is great for contouring because it is usually a shade or two darker than your actual skin tone. My favorite bronzer is bare minerals warmth, but you can use whichever you feel works best with your skin! A substitute to this is buying a foundation or powder that is two shades darker than your skin, but I feel like that is a waste of money when most people already own a bronzer. Here are different places to apply the bronzer:

• Under the apple of your cheek bone diagonally or parallel to your jaw line to make your cheekbones pop.
• On the sides of your nose from the bridge coming straight down. This will make it look longer and thinner. BLENDING IS KEY HERE!
• On your jaw line and under your chin will make your round face look more elongated and who doesn’t want that?!

BLUSH: Blush contrasts well with the bronzer or any shade you chose to you that is two shades darker. By applying the bronzer under the cheekbone and putting the blush directly on the cheekbone, you really make the apple stand out. Applying this has the same guidelines as the bronzer except it should go one level above where you applied the bronzer going parallel to the jaw line.

HIGHLIGHTER: If you want more details about highlighter, read my post on how highlighter can make you glow like the stars do. In the post, I mention the power of highlighter and how versatile it is. It can be used to:

• Line the bottom and top middle portion of your lips to make their shape more prominent.
• Cover a small bump on top of your nose (used by so many stars like Kim Kardashian and Jessica Simpson)
• Line the top of your brows, acting almost as an eye shadow
• Make your cheekbones stand out even more. This is the last touch in making those apples pop. After applying the bronzer and blush, the line above that is where highlighter should go, and once again parallel to your jaw. I added just a little dab right on the apple on top of the blush just to add a little more pop.

After reading this, you will start to look at pictures of celebrities differently. You’ll notice the line of bronzer, blush, than highlighter as you move higher up and to the inner portion of their faces. The first person I really noticed it on was Tyra Banks but virtually every celeb does it. I think the reason people love going to get their makeup done is really because of how good the makeup artist is at contouring. It’s a trick that takes practice and perfecting to fit your specific face shape, but once you do, you won’t feel the need to go to MAC and buy $50 dollars worth of makeup just to get your makeup done for free anymore! Hope the diagram (although rough) helps you better understand contouring:

Read more of Deepica’s tips at http://skinDEEPblog.tumblr.com. You can also follow skinDEEP on Twitter: @skinDEEPblog  and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/skinDEEPblog.