Basic Contouring & Highlighting for darker skinned beauties

If you're reading this, I'm sure you're quite familiar with what contouring and highlighting are, if not, in simple terms, 'contour' means to give something shape. If you wear foundation you might have noticed that after you've applied it, your face looks very one dimensional; if you typically have high cheek bones, you might notice that they don't look quite as high when your foundation is on. SO, the way to get around this is to 'contour' i.e. add the shape and shadows back to your face. You can contour with anything darker than your skin tone, preferably something matte like an eye shadow or a matte powder foundation; the reason why your choice of contour has to be darker than your skin is because, darker colours make things look slimmer and lighter colours make things look more prominent (or in other words, bigger), so the key is to highlight the areas that you want to look more prominent and contour/darken the areas you want to make less prominent i.e. cheeks, nose and forehead

I've been contouring & highlighting for quite a long time, however I've only recently discovered how key concealer is in the whole process. So, I decided to post this to show how and where I do it:

Step 1) Using (clean!) fingers, I prime my face with No7 ' Beautifully Matte - Make up Base ' I really like this base/primer, it works for me and my oily skin (I'll elaborate more on Primers for oily skin in another post)  I try not to use Primers too often because they block your pores and using them everyday could cause breakouts

Step 2) Apply my foundation. In this picture, I'm wearing Mac Studio Fix Powder Foundation in NW50 (since this picture, I've started using Sleek Makeup New Skin Revive in 'Henna' which I  prefer and I personally think it works better for my oily skin)

Step 3) Using a concealer brush, I apply Sleek's Correct and Concealer Palette (couldn't find a link for this) to my under eye, down the bridge of my nose, on my Cupid's bow (the little bit above my lip) and my chin - you'll see this in Pic 1 - the purpose of this is to highlight the places that I want to accentuate/draw the light to and these are also the places with the most bone structure i.e. you wouldn't highlight your nostrils or your cheeks, instead you'd highlight where the bone is i.e. the bridge of the nose and the cheek bones

Step 3) I rub it all in with my (clean) fingers, then I contour using Sleek Face Form Contour Kit in Medium which I love (I'll do a Why I love Sleek Make Up Post soon) !! To do this I simply make a fish face (suck my cheeks in) and put a brown line just on/under my cheek bones using my C454 Contouring Brush from Crown Brush that I referred to in my previous blog post. You should be able to see this subtle line in pic 2. I also contour my forehead (along my hair line) to add a slight shade to it to make it appear less prominent (this isn't necessary for everyone), my temples and my nostrils and the sides of my nose

Step 4) I then apply a pressed powder on my whole face with my KB8 Angle Kabuki Brush from Crown Brush (In this picture I used a powder by Fashion Fair but I think this is now discontinued) and use Mac Mineralize Skin Finish in 'Gold Deposit' over the areas where I put the concealer. I enhance the contoured effect by enhancing my cheek bones even more with  Sleek Makeup Blush by 3 in 'Sugar' which I LOVE!! it's subtle but very warming and adds a glow, it's perfect for women of colour or women with a tan, I blend all 3 shades and sweep just above the contour line on my cheeks and blend it subtly in the highlighted area. the point here is that from the contour line the colour should go from dark to light to lighter (you should see what I mean in pic 2) I then finish the rest of my make up with eyeliner (Sleek Make Up) mascara (YSL Baby Doll) and a nude lipstick (Perspective by Lush Cosmetics) with a bit of clear lip-gloss on top and VOILA done! (pic 3)

Hope this is useful :)
Thanks for reading
Love, you
Jennifer