Happy Monday, everyone! At least, I hope you're having a happy Monday :)

I have another simple post to add to my Makeup Basics series. This one is about contouring and highlighting your face.

Edit:

Please note that I have updated my contouring routine, and have filmed a YouTube tutorial for it. See below for the embedded video!

Contouring and highlighting can really add dimension to your face, not to mention conceal areas that you want hidden and brighten areas you want highlighted. It also helps you fake a healthy, sunkissed glow.

Contouring the Face


I'm starting here with a blank canvas - pictured below is a picture of my face which hasn't been contoured yet.


The most basic step to contouring is the "3" shape. As shown by the darker shading in the picture below, use a contour shade to form a "3" shape, framing your face. It basically starts from the forehead down to the temples, then underneath your cheekbones, and then down to your jawline. This will define your cheekbones and also make your face appear slimmer.

The light yellow shades indicate the places where you should highlight your face. The highlight under the eye and on the inner corners of the eyes are meant to lift the eye and open up the eye, respectively. The highlight on the cupid's bow is meant to define your lips.


Below is the 'after' picture - with contouring.


You can also add the contour colour underneath your bottom lip. This gives the illusion of fuller lips.

A few things to note when choosing your contour and highlight shades:

• The colour of your contour shade should be the colour of your skin where the shadow falls on your face
• The shade should be matte - shimmery shades tend to make you look 'dirty'
• You can use a foundation that is a shade or two darker than your skin tone, or a bronzer is a great contouring tool
• Your highlight shade is ideally shimmery and frosty
• For highlighting your cheekbones and the tip of your nose, use a large fluffy brush to spread out the pigment evenly
• For contouring your cheeks and face, you can use an angled contour brush, or a small fluffy brush to concentrate the shade
• For contouring your nose, I highly recommend a blending brush, so the lines don't come out too harsh - remember to blend very well!

If you have a relatively small tip, then you want to wing the contour shade outwards at the tip, forming a sort of upside-down V.

This is largely trial and error, because some noses are best left alone, otherwise you might make your problem area more prominent instead. Try these techniques at home with a flash camera. If the contouring is doing nothing for you, then skip it.

Below is the final picture, after contouring and highlighting.


A few contouring palettes and shades that I recommend are:


Benefit's Hoola Bronzer - a matte, one shade fits (almost) all bronzer. Great for contouring
Stila's Highlighting and Contouring Trio - a great palette for beginners. It comes with an instruction booklet teaching you the contouring basics
Sleek Contour palette - a great, more affordable version of the Benefit Hoola bronzer

A few wonderful highlighters are:

TheBalm Mary Lou-Manizer
Benefit Moonbeam, Girl Meets Pearl
Stila All Over Liquid Illuminator


I hope this helps! Check out my previous post for tips on how to contour your eye area.

And as promised, here is my new contouring routine (it is perfect for both Caucasian and Asian features, but has extra tips for Asian features).

Hey guys!

Yesterday, I was looking through some photos online, and started noticing these really beautiful, contoured cheeks. My cheeks are usually pretty standard, pink blush on the apples of my cheeks and a little bit of bronzer underneath.

But since noticing these beautiful sculpted cheeks, I thought I'd try them out too, and share the tutorial with anyone who might be interested in re-creating this look.


So what you'll need is a Kabuki brush and a blush brush. The cheek products you'll need are a pinky blush (mine is really light, but you can use something slightly darker for a more glamorous look), a bronzer (matte is much better), and a luminizer.


How to:

Prep your face. Use a good moisturizer.

Do your eye makeup.

Put on your foundation, then set it with a loose powder.

Swirl a Kabuki brush into your bronzer, tap off the excess, then blend it onto your cheek, underneath your cheekbone. Remember to blend it out!

Sweep your bronzer onto your temples, closer to your hairline, and underneath your jaw.

Swirl a blush brush into your blush, tap off the excess, then lightly buff into the apples of your cheeks. Do not bring up to your temples. Concentrate the colour onto your cheekbones.

Take your luminizer, and sweep onto the tops of your cheekbones, up to the inner part of your temple, outside your eye. Then, highlight underneath your brow.

Finish with a coat of nude lipstick. Top it off with lipgloss (optional).


Here are the products I used:

i.d. Bare Minerals Foundation in Fairly Light (though I'm considering changing to Light now)
Rimmer 8Hr Mousse Bronzer in Medium Glow
Elianto blush
TheBalm Mary Lou-manizer (luminizer)
NYX Round Lipstick in Circe

If you liked the eye makeup look in this makeup tutorial, I will be posting about it soon, so stay tuned!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope everyone's New Year was really awesome, and I hope you all partied your hardest, whether it was at home, or out at a restaurant, bar or club  :)

I just thought I'd share my New Year's look with everyone. I just hope you guys don't think it's horrible! (p.s. excuse the faces, I was kinda sleepy and I'm not very photogenic ;))

So here's how you start:

Prep and prime your face and eyelids.


Sweep a cream eyeshadow onto your entire eyelid. Then, apply a dark blue shadow all over your eyelid. It doesn't have to be neat, you'll be blending it out later.


Using a blending brush, blend out the blue shadow. Then, take a light green shadow, and apply it into the inner 1/3rd of your eyelid.


Take your dark blue shadow again, and focus it on the outer 'V' of your eye. Then, lightly blend that shadow inward towards the green.

Then, using an eyelinder brush, mix the green and dark blue shadows and line your lower lid. Then, take an eyeliner pencil and line your upper lid, and the inner rim of your lower lid.


Curl your eyelashes, and put on your false eyelashes.


Then, apply blush to the apples of your cheeks, and apply a coat of lipgloss. Take a shimmery highlighter and sweep it into the tops of your cheekbones, the tip of the bridge of your nose, and in the inner corners of your eyes.

And here's the finished product! (Please excuse the funny faces I am making!)



Here are the products I used:

Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation
Benefit Lemon Aid Eyelid Primer
Avon's True Colour Eyeshadow in Midnight Plum
Elianto Holiday Palette in Light Green
TheBalm Mary Lou-Manizer
i.d. Bare Escentuals Blush in Riches
Bloom lipgloss
False eyelashes (no brand)
Chanel Le Crayon Kohl Eyeliner
Eyebrowz Brow Powder

I consider myself to be fair-skinned, and I like that about me. I don't use self-tanners, and I stay away from the sun as much as I can because I tan very easily.

I never thought I'd ever want to use bronzer. Everytime I read about it in magazines and blogposts, I pass it off as something that the tan girls use, and don't give it a second thought. Some time back, Raudhah and I decided to go with the boys to the musical, 'Wicked'. We stayed over at the guys' house that night, and I forgot to bring my blush with me.

I mentioned before that I am pretty pale without makeup, so I decided to borrow a blusher from Raudhah. She didn't have blusher, but she did have the Body Shop's Bronzing Balls in shade #3. It didn't look too dark, so I decided to use it anyway.

Looking back through the photos, I noticed I looked a little different, but couldn't quite pinpoint the difference until much later. The bronzer was really light, but it managed to give me a very subtle healthy-looking glow.



I fell in love.

I tried looking for the bronzing balls in Malaysia, only to be told that they had phased the product out. Its predecessors have not quite managed to replicate the effect of Raudhah's bronzer.

Since then, I have researched and perfected bronzer techniques. I also found out that the glowing, bright T-zone that I always wanted to replicate was not in fact done by applying copious amounts of luminizer to the T-zone, but by framing the areas outside the T-zone with bronzer.



Just recently, I was looking around for a good, affordable bronzer that I could take with me to Bali. I wanted something portable and long-lasting, too. I stumbled upon Rimmel's 8Hr Mousse Bronzer, and looked up some reviews. They were all positive. I am going to buy it today, and I'm really excited about trying it out!

Anyone interested can buy this on eBay for about AUD 6.30 here. I asked around, and was advised to purchase this in 'Medium Glow', because it is quite sheer and the 'Light Glow' shade is very orangey.
Here are a few tips on how to apply a bronzer.

1. Apply it under your cheeks, not on. A bronzer is meant to sculpt the shadows on your face.
2. Frame your face with a bronzer. Apply it in a '3' motion, from your temples, down your cheeks, and then on your jawline.
3. A great way to slim your jaw and neck is to apply bronzer under your jawline to give the illusion of a slimmer neck and hide double chins.
4. Dab a little bit of bronzer under your bottom lip to make your lips appear larger and fuller.