Conquering Contouring & Hints on Highlighting

Alright, let’s talk highlight and contour; the timeless trick to accent bone structure and create natural looking shadows to produce an overall slimming effect. Many women tend to be at a loss on how to go about the application process and leave this step out of their daily makeup routine. Luckily, we're here to help!

To summarize, contouring involves the use of darker shades to create the illusion of a shadow, making areas of the face appear slimmer; highlighter is light powder used to call attention to areas that you want to appear more prominent, such as the brow and cheekbones.

What you’ll need:

- a taupe blush or matte bronzer one to two shades darker than skin tone for contouring

- a light powder for highlighting (you can even use the fair-shaded powders from the Sigma Beauty Eye Shadow Palette in "Bare", shown above)

- an angled brush, such as the Sigma Beauty F40 or F84

Once you’ve applied your foundation, it’s time to contour.

To enhance the cheekbones, locate the hollows of your cheek. Apply your contouring powder starting at the hollows, working upwards toward the hairline in small, circular motions to avoid creating a harsh, unrealistic line. Although contouring the cheeks is the most common place of application, you can lightly apply your contouring powder along your jawline or sides of nose for a slimming effect, too.

From there, apply your blush as usual.

After contouring and blush application, gently wisp a highlighting powder over the top of the cheekbones up to the temples. Also apply highlighter directly under your eyebrow to accentuate the brow bone, using a smaller angled brush like the Sigma Beauty Medium Angled Shading brush (E70). To brighten eyes, apply the highlighter to the inner corners.

There you have it – the simple steps for contouring and highlighting. Give it a go and let us know what you think!

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