Marya Zamora : Cream Contour & Highlighters 101

Hi everyone!

Really sorry that I didn't post anything last week, I was a bit busy with college. But today I wanted to do a "tutorial" kind of post, that is all about cream contouring and highlighting. One of the biggest trends in makeup since Kim Kardashian came to the fashion and beauty world, probably one of the oldest tricks to change the structure of the face, but one the most requested looks from all times! So let's jump right into it!

CHIAROSCURO is the art of highlighting and shading(contour) it is about the principal of lightness(highlighting) and darkness(contouring) that applies into any colors, in art is referred as the use of contrast between light and dark.

What we all makeup artist and beauty lovers try to accomplish with the highlighting and contouring trick is to give definition and depth or a 3D effect to the face. We naturally have shadows on our skin, but most of the time we don't have highlighted cheekbones or noses (at least not naturally), and to give depth and definition to your face you kind of need both of them.

What is Highlighting and Contouring?

Highlighting: it brings out your features and gives light to your face. It also makes the features that you highlight prominent, giving an illusion of shape.
Contouring: it pushes back the areas of your face, giving depth to your face.

Now, to show what I'm rambling about i have several pictures to show you what you have to do, keep in mind is not that much makeup, i'm using my normal foundation, my concealer to correct my under eyes, another one to do highlight and a dark foundation to do the contour.

Bare face (my eyes are done)

Step 1: conceal any under eye circles, i used the Glamouflage concealer by Hard Candy in Tan. Not much just enough to cover the under eye area and then I drag it out with a flat foundation brush.

Step 2: I apply the foundation i'll be using that day, my same skin color to the middle of my cheekbones, above my eyebrow, the center of my nose, cupid's bow, chin and above the edge of the jaw line, and to the "smiley lines"

Step 3: I apply Sleek to the sides of my nose, underneath my cheekbones, right under the foundation i applied earlier, around my forehead (I normally don't do this because my forehead is small, so it kind of makes disappear, but for the sake of this i did it), to the side of my eye and to the jaw line, kind of going to my neck.

Step 4: Blend the highlight and foundation first, and then star blending the darker shades. that way when you are actually blending out the dark shade it will be easier to see where to stay and how strong you want it to look.