Contouring and Highlighting Like a Pro

Highlighting and contouring are fundamental make up techniques, designed to achieve balance and symmetry.

There are several techniques and products that can be used to highlight and contour the face.

Jacqui Hollins, jane iredale beauty expert says: “highlighting and contouring is all about adding balance and symmetry to the face.

“When done correctly, nothing matches the positive effect it has on the face and the benefit of knowing how to highlight and contour means you transform, enhance and highlight your best features.”

A very important part of this advanced makeup technique is to ensure that products are well blended so that there are no lines and is close to the natural skin tone, thus creating a subtle and natural finish.

We’ve pulled together a list of some of our main tips to consider when attempting to highlight and contour:

1. Highlighting is used to emphasise and bring areas forward; products should be 2-3 shades lighter than your skin tone.

2. Areas of the face that can be highlighted include: Centre of the forehead, bridge of the nose, inner corner of the eyes, brow bone, top of your cheekbone, upper apple of the cheek, centre of the cupids Bow, centre of the bottom lip and centre of the upper lip.

3. Stock up on these jane iredale products for flawless highlighting:

4. Contouring shades mimic shadows and create depth with shades 3-4 times darker than your natural skin tone. Always ensure product is well blended to avoid any lines. We prefer products that have a slightly more matte finish too.

5. Areas of the face to contour are: Around the hairline, socket of the eye, under the cheekbones, sides of the nose; bottom of the nose, jawline and under the chin

Lastly, Jacqui advises: “to keep contouring to a minimum, use a combination of two foundation shades only a shade or so difference and apply the darker shade on the outer edges of the face and concentrate the lighter colour on the inside focusing on the aesthetic triangle. Using emollient or dewy textures will give the face a fresh, dewy and more youthful appearance.”

To learn more about contouring and highlighting we suggest following some of our favourite beauty bloggers including Chloe Morello, Ruby Golani and Lauren Curtis.


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