Sara found me on recommendation from her hair stylist, who knows my hair stylist. She was married on a g o r g e o u s Autumn day, and we created a subtle smokey eye with what I call sunset colors: gold, peach, plum. Here’s the final look:
And here is how we did it.
Thank you Sara, and congratulations!!
Welcome back, and thanks for sticking with me. Last time, we talked about contouring and bronzing. Now, we’re moving on to concealing, highlighting, and illuminating. Here we go…
What does a concealer do?
It conceals. Under eye darkness, redness around the nose, blemishes, redness in the skin…my favorites are liquid and cream products, and it’s best to have two separate concealers in different colors – one a little lighter than the skin to conceal dark under eye circles, and one that matches the skin to cover redness and blemishes. It goes on after foundation (in most cases...we'll get into that later). Depending on your skin and the concealer’s formula, you could just use the under eye concealer as a highlighter. If you don’t need concealer, don’t use it! It’s one of those products that’s tricky and can look cakey, dry, exaggerate fine lines, and can actually make the area look darker.
What does highlighter do?
Highlighter tricks the eye into thinking there is light on the face even when there isn’t. Another way to think of it: all the special lighting they use in photography and film? This is a cheat for that when you don’t have special lighting. Typically, areas to highlight are in the center of the forehead, down the center of the nose, under the eyes, around the nose and mouth, and the center of the chin. If you don’t have dark circles, you can just use highlighter to brighten that area without any extra concealer. Highlighter also goes under the name of brightener, and comes in liquid, cream, and powder forms.
What about illuminator?
Illuminator, also known as luminizer, and sometimes referred to as highlighter, has light-reflecting particles that brighten up an area when the light hits it. I usually only place this product just on the tops of the cheek bones; even if using a powder version (though I typically use liquid or cream), it could make other areas look oily.
I made this video to demonstrate. Remember, this is just the general idea – contouring, highlighting, and everything else, is incredibly individualized and, like basically everything concerning makeup, should be customized for occasion, longevity, and so on. We’ll get more into the details in time but for now, have fun experimenting. If you want another take, check out this how-to from Byrdie.
Get comfy, grab a cup of hot cocoa, and let me apologize for this long, rambling, multi-part post. Highlighting and contouring has become such a fad, and it is the number one thing I am asked to teach. Countless YouTube videos and products are dedicated to this technique, but I have yet to find one of either that expresses my take on it. In this two-part blog, I’ll explain my version, starting with contour, in very broad terms. I’ll break it down further in future posts and videos.
What is contouring?
Contouring is the process of defining or creating receding areas of the face to give it definition. That’s it. Areas typically contoured are the hollows of the cheeks and eyes, down the sides of the nose, around the perimeter of the face, and down the center of the neck. I do some form of contouring every day because I like it, but I promise that you can live a very long and happy life without it.
Where things start to get confusing is when we try to figure out the difference between bronzing and contouring. Bronzer is meant to bronze the skin as if you had been lying out all day and were bronzed (slightly reddened) by the sun, which as you probably know, happens on the high points – not the hollows – of the face. This is why I like to keep my bronzer and contour separate.
So can you use your bronzer to contour?
Absolutely. But I have a different bronzer for contour and one for bronzing.
What the heck is the difference?!?!
(Precisely why this is a post entitled “Mass Confusion”). It comes down to the undertones in the product. A product with more grey for contouring will create shadows, while a product with more red for bronzing will mimic what the sun does to your skin after a day at the beach.
So can I use the same product as contour and bronzer??
Yes and no (insert hair-pulling): yes you can, but not at the same time. I mean, you can do whatever you want – it’s makeup – but have you ever seen people with what looks like giant brown rectangles on the sides of their faces? That’s what happens when contour and bronzer collide. I’ll contour with my red-ish bronzer and forgo the contouring product depending on the look I want to achieve and how tan I am. I’ll rarely use a contouring product to bronze, though, because that’s where it’s really easy to get into muddy- or dirty-looking territory.
Another option is to contour with one product and bronze with another, using the bronzer in place of blush (remember we still have to highlight, and there’s only so much room on the cheek, so while you can contour, highlight, bronze, and use blush, but that can be a bit much).
A third option, especially if you want to use blush, is something I do commonly for special occasions: contour for definition, add blush and highlight, then set the highlight with highlighting powder (more on that in the next post), and lightly set the perimeter of the face with bronzer instead of powder. Here’s a video of this process.
TO RECAP:
That’s enough for now. Take a deep breath, re-group, and I’ll meet you for Part II. May the force be with you.
Makeup can be (is…) expensive, so I’ve adopted some solutions to use up that last bit of product.
BOTTLES
The first one is pretty obvious, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown away nearly-empty bottles for no good reason.
Simply use a spatula – or a long cotton swab – to remove the product all the way at the bottom. It’s ideal to keep fingers out of jars/bottles to keep from spreading bacteria.
GLOSS
There is a little plastic ridge at the top of your lip gloss that scrapes the excess product off the wand – which is wonderful until it keeps you from using all of the gloss. Enter: a safety pin.
By sliding the safety pin into the plastic and popping it out, the wand will not only be able to pull the gloss off of the bottom of the tube, but also the sides.
LIPSTICK
When your beloved lipstick (pictured: Hue by M.A.C.) has reached the point of no return, do not lose heart. You have about half of the original amount left:
Use a spatula, toothpick, or something similar to slide out the lipstick inside the plastic base and place in an empty jar. You can do this with a few different lipsticks to make a new color or add some lip balm to make a gloss.
Most eye makeup application is horizontal. I’ve found a shortcut, and it requires vertical application. Not only will this look work on every eye shape (since it doesn’t discriminate based on where your natural crease lies), but it can fulfill every look from The Work Appropriate to The Go-To Glam based on the contrast, intensity, and finish of the shadows used. For every day, cream shadow that melts into a soft brown will give polished definition, while a shimmery taupe blended with a deep, rich plum is perfect for a big event – especially when peeking from under wispy false lashes and paired with a sophisticated nude lip.
I made a video to demonstrate this technique using M.A.C. shadows in Folie, Honesty, and Dazzlelight. Have fun playing around with different shadows and remember as long as you blend well, you can go from very pale to very dark.
