Contour, Highlight, and Bronzer, Oh My!

Working with Your Face Shape

Too often, the perfectly sculpted and highlighted faces on the red carpet look like they were accomplished with magic. The art of contouring is definitely a skill that can create amazing results, but luckily for the rest of us, it’s not magic. Instead, it’s all about using the right products in the right way. Using contour, highlight, and bronzer, faces can be defined, sculpted, accented, or transformed into a glowing visage that makes anyone look younger, slimmer, and healthier.

If you’re a beginner to contouring, or you aren’t sure how to get the look that you want, this guide will walk you through how to contour for your face shape. The secret is working with your face shape, not against it, to create the look that you want. We’ll also help you decide how to choose the right type of product, and give you some great tips for contouring that will take your look to a whole new level. Let’s dive in.

How to Contour for Your Face Shape

If you were to search for a contouring guide, you’ll likely see pictures or videos of a person with darker color in their cheeks, maybe under the chin, and on the forehead, with some lighter colored pigment on the nose or cheekbones. But when you try to replicate the exact look at home, you don’t quite achieve the perfectly oval face that the model ends up with in the tutorial.

The reason for the difference may not be your skill level, but your face shape. Everyone’s face shape is different, though most of us tend to fall into a general category. If the face shape you start with isn’t the same as the model’s, you’ll end up with different results. Getting a perfectly sculpted face with dramatic cheekbones on a round face requires different steps and product placement than doing the same thing on a diamond-shaped face, for example.

So, let’s talk about the different face shapes, how to find yours, and then how to contour for your face shape…and highlight

While some beauty gurus call the shapes different names, there are generally four categories of face shapes: Oval, round, heart, and square.

• Oval faces are considered the most symmetrical. This face shape has no major focal points, such as a strong jaw or significant cheekbones; instead, the shape is smooth and soft. The overall shape will resemble an upside-down egg, with a slightly wider forehead than chin, and the face should measure around 1.5 times longer than it does wide.
• Round faces also have no major focal points, and the shape is overall round and soft. The face should measure about the same in length and width.
• Heart-shaped faces are wider at the forehead than they are at the chin, and the chin is usually fairly narrow. The cheeks are usually wider than the hairline. There may or may not be a widow’s peak at the hairline, though this is the most classic look for a heart-shaped face.
• A square face has an angular jaw line that is about the same width as the hairline. The face will usually measure the same in width and in length. The big difference between a square and a round face is the angular jaw and hairline, rather than appearing soft and rounded.

There are other types of faces that can fall into these categories as well, such as a rectangular face (a longer square), or a diamond-shaped face (a heart with a narrower forehead than usual), and an oblong face (an oval that is a bit longer than usual). However, these four basic shapes are a good start. In order to figure out which face shape you have, start by taking a look at yourself in the mirror. See if you can identify any strong features, such as a strong jawline, or cheekbones that are very prominent.

In many cases, you’ll be able to simply look at your face and identify that you have a wider forehead with a widow’s peak and a narrow chin, which tells you that you have a heart-shaped face. If you are having a hard time deciding if your face is, for example, more round or more oval, break out the measuring tape and use the length and width to decide which shape you fall more closely towards.

Now that you know what shape your face is, you can determine the best places to put natural-looking shadow and highlighter to best compliment you.

• Oval: On an oval face, the possibilities with contour and highlight are endless. If you want to sculpt very pronounced cheekbones, you can use contour just beneath these, moving from the ear to the middle of the cheeks. If you want to make your hairline just a bit more symmetrical with your jaw, use a touch of contour at the sides of the forehead. Highlighter can be used under the eyes, along the brow bone, in the middle of the forehead, and at the middle of the chin to make your face appear bright, open, and youthful.
• Round: On a round face, the goal is to make the face appear slimmer and more defined. Use contour on the sides of the forehead, along the temples, below the cheekbones, and down the jawline to make the face look longer. The classic “3E” technique for contouring is great for round faces. Use highlighter on the middle of the forehead, the middle of the chin, and just under the eyes to make your face appear bright and open.
• Heart: The goal for a heart-shaped face is to create a little more visual balance between the wider upper half of the face, and the narrower lower half. Use contour primarily along the sides of the forehead and temples to make the upper half of the face appear narrower. You can also use some contour just below the chin to help soften a very pointy chin, but avoid placing shadow at the jawline. If you also want to sculpt cheekbones, place contour from the ears to the middle of the cheek just beneath the cheekbone. Use highlighter in the middle of the forehead and chin, and just under the eye, to make these narrower areas appear larger.
• Square: On a square face, the goal is to make your face appear a little less angular, and a little closer to a smooth oval. Use contour on the sides of the forehead right by the hairline only. You can also use some contour on the jawbone where you want your jawline to appear less angular. If you want your cheekbones to be more pronounced, you can use some contour just under the cheekbones, but be sure to start from the ears and end at the middle of your cheeks. Use highlighter in the middle of the forehead and the chin, as well as at the brow bone, to make your face appear open and bright.

Now that you know how to flatter your specific face shape, it’s time to think about what you are using to do so.

Choosing the Right Product and Tools

There are many things you need to think about when choosing contour and highlighter – and we haven’t even touched on bronzer yet. How do you know how to choose if you should use powder or cream products? Which tools should you use with contour and highlighting products? Let’s dive into everything you need to know.

Related: The User’s Guide to Our Contour and Highlight Kit – Plus 4 Great Ways to Use It!

The first thing to determine is what color contour and highlighter to use. This is a little trickier than choosing a foundation, because you aren’t just trying to color match to your skin tone. With a contour color, you want to create a natural-looking shadow on the skin, so it’s best to choose a color that is about one to two shades darker than your skin tone. Any more, and it will look like there is dirt or a swipe of dark color across the face. With highlighter, the rule isn’t quite as set in stone. A natural-looking highlight should be one to two shades lighter than your skin. But the trend in makeup these days does allow for very light, metallic-looking highlighters, or highlighters in pastel colors. The key is to find something that doesn’t look chalky on your skin, regardless of the shade or color you choose.

What to Consider Next

The next thing to decide is whether you will use cream or powder products. There are pros and cons to each one. For cream products, it is very easy to blend into the skin, and you can use your fingers if need be. These tend to be more moisturizing and better on dry skin. However, they also tend to wear off or even wipe away faster, and they don’t work with powder products underneath at all.

With powder products, you do tend to find that they stay on the skin longer, and that they don’t crease as easily, especially on oilier skin. It is also much easier to mix powder products with other product types, such as layering on top of a cream foundation. However, powder does tend to settle into wrinkles or dry patches, and it does take more time and tools to apply correctly. It can also cause “fall out”, which means the powder may fall on the face, especially under the eyes if you are using a highlight on the brow bone, for instance.

Overall, the choice will depend more on your skin and your preference for how you prefer to apply makeup.

Tools for Contouring

The next thing you will need is to choose the right tools for contouring, which depend on the type of contour products you are using.

Powders require brushes to work correctly. For highlights, you don’t need a big fluffy brush, because you don’t want the highlight to go everywhere. Choose either a thin fan brush that will apply the highlighter just on the top of the cheekbone, or a small fluffy brush that will let you concentrate where you put the highlight.

For contour, a dense blending brush works great. Angled brushes work very well because they mimic the natural shape of the area just under the cheekbones, from the ear to the middle of the cheek, that most people want to contour. If you are using a cream product, you can use your fingers or a blending sponge as well.

Related: Time to Dazzle Those Dramatic Looks!

Quick Guide to Bronzer

Many people in the beauty community use the words bronzer and contour interchangeably, probably because it’s easy to use certain “bronzers” as contour powder, and vice versa. But the key difference is the goal of each thing. Contouring is about using a darker shade of pigment to create a shadow on the face that visually changes the shape. Bronzing is about using a pigment to make the face look as though it has been sun kissed. Because both things tend to rely on shades of brown, it’s easy to use these as dual use products in many cases, but they are still two different things.

When and why should you use bronzer? Bronzer can be used with contour, or it can be used on its own. It’s perfect for putting some life back into your face if you feel like your foundation makes you look a little flat, or if you are feeling tired after a long night. Just dusting bronzer onto your cheeks and forehead can help you look more alive. One tip if you plan to use your bronzer as a contour, or vice versa: to create a natural contour, you’ll want to use matte powders. Bronzers often have shimmer in them for a more glowing look.

If you want to use bronzer with your fully contoured face, start with contour, move on to bronzer the way you might use a blush, then add highlights at the end. Always put the highlight last so that nothing dulls the shine.

With these tips, you can perfect your full beautiful face and get that Instagram-worthy contour and highlight.

Related: How to Get Those Sculpted Cheekbones