Hello everyone,
I have another beauty 101, I really enjoyed doing my last one because I love sharing my beauty knowledge with you. I am going to do this one of contouring and bronzing, everything from the products to the tools. I am also going to one of these 101's on highlighting because they comes into contouring a lot. Just for reference I am a NC15 from Mac.
Contouring is when your bring out and essentially hiding your features. This is a very clever art of defining the places you want to essencuate, when your contouring your making 'shadows' to define or create cheek bones for example. Bronzing is as simple as adding colour to your face, this is mainly to make you look more bronzed and to give you that healthy glow.
The image above shows where are the best places to contour and highlight. You should start off by doing the 'fish face' this is where you suck in your cheeks, this reveals where your cheek bones our, you should then contour in that area. Also on your temples, cheek bones and jaw line are in a 3 sort of shape, this is the main places to contour. Going down the sides of the nose gives the illusion of a thinner nose, contouring your cheek bones gives you well defined cheek bones, also contour above and below your collar bones, can give the illusion of collar bones. Also you need to contour around your hair line to make your face match your head basically. Lastly contour down your neck just makes your face match the rest of you body, without leaving any harsh lines.
The Products
Starting off with my all time favourite product for contouring, I use the Benefit Hoola Boxed Powder, this is a matte bronze colour, this is perfect for getting a defined but not muddy definition to the face. The best thing about this product is that you only need a little bit, but it's very build able.
My other high end favouirte, the one everyone knows which is Nars Laguna Bronzer. This is a tiny bit deeper in colour then the Benefit one, but it works nicely for pale skin. With this I reccomend to go much lighter with this, a duo fiber brush would be perfect with this.
A drugstore classic which is the Bourjois Bronzing Power, this smells amazing (Like chocolate if you can't already guess. Colour wise this is a tiny bit more 'muddy' but very wearable, this isn't the best for really pale skin, but you need to build this up more because the pigment isn't very strong. I would use this more for bronzing the face because of the colour, this would give pale skin people more of a natural glow rather than a defined contour.
Something different, which is a loose powder. Bare Minerals are known for their loose, mineral products this is the power in warmth. This is very dark compared to others I have mentioned, this is more pigmented aswell a little goes a very long way. This is more of a bronzer because it is too dark of a contour for me.
Another drugstore cult favouirte is the Sleek Face Contour kit, I have the shade light for obvious reasons. This is a lovely colour for contouring, one of the best contour products on the high street market. The colour is perfect because this kit comes in light, medium and dark. This is like the Nars Laguna were you need a light hand.
Something quite different than all the others, and the cheapest of the bunch. The ELF Golden bronzer is more for the people how like a little shimmer to their bronzer. This looks lovely for bronzing very lightly, but also very nice as a highlight.
Swatches
Left to right - ELF Golden Bronzer, Nars Laguna, Bourjois Bronzing Powder, Sleek Face contour kit, Hoola Bronzer and Bare Minerals powder (Warmth).
Contouring and Bronzing tools
Contouring - For contouring I love a very precise brush, something that is going to place it where it needs to go. The Real Techniques contour brush is perfect for this, small enough to fit in the hollows of you cheeks and around your nose. Then I also prefer something that is duo fiber, the Real Techniques Duo Fiber Face Brush is great because it doesn't apply too much product, but it's small enough for a contour.
Bronzing - When I am bronzing I prefer something that is much bigger to fit around the face. the Real Techniques Blush brush is very nice because the point applys the product, and the outside blends it very nice. The other one is the Bare Minerals Flawless Face Brush, this just applys product very nicely and just the right amount.
What are your favourite bronzing and contouring products? Comment below
