Contouring

Contouring has always been around for makeup artists, but has really come to light in the past couple of years. There is a logic to it, but it's totally do-able as either an everyday part of your makeup routine or saved for special occasions.  

Living in Doha I notice a lot of the girls from the Gulf or surrounding Arabian countries love contouring and it is a key trend to highlight and define the cheekbones. Sheikha Mozah (2nd wife of Qatar Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani) is a fashion icon worldwide, not only is her wardrobe amazing, her makeup is always great! 

Sheika Mozah - showing us how they contour in Qatar!

Kim Kardashian has posted a few selfies showing her contouring technique before blending. 

Samer Khouzami is a lebenese makeup artist, he is known as the contour king! He has recently run work shops worldwide, even in Doha! Its worth checking his instagram for his makeovers.

One of many makeovers by Samer Khouzami (Before & After)

What is contouring and highlighting?

By using either cream or powder products, we can change the appearance of our face and showcase our best features. It can define the face making it look slimmer and accentuate your cheek and brow bones. 

As you can see below; I've shown where to put my contour and highlight (with my amazing paint spraygun tecnique). The light is where to put the lighter product and the dark is where to carefully shade in.

What Products Should I Use? Normally you would apply your foundation colour, that matches your face all over so, any change to this may seem weird - but once you grasp the concept, its honestly very easy!    There are a couple of options.    Option 1 - use your normal foundation all over your face and then use a lighter concealer to highlight and a darker one to add the contour. I use a concealer brush to pat on the colour and a small blending brush to blend both products together. 

These mac duo fibre brushes are perfect for applying
and blending cream/liquid contour products.

Mac Pro Concealer palette. 

Option 2 - use two different tone foundations the first 2 - 3 shades lighter than your skin and the second 2 - 3 shades darker, apply over your base in the areas you want to highlight and contour and then blend together. 

These Bobbi Brown stick foundations are perfect for this!
Get a light and a dark shade for a contoured face.

Option 3 - use your normal foundation over your primer and then use a powder product in a lighter and darker shade to give depth to the face. I recently bought Anastasia Beverly Hills contour kit. As I will be using this in my professional kit i went for 6 shades, that will suit lots of different skin tones. You could just go for a darker powder and a lighter powder. 

If this all seems like too much and maybe a bit alien from your normal makeup routine, I'd say a really easy way to contour and highlight is to apply your BB cream or foundation as normal and then use an illuminator, like benefits 'high beam' dotted on the cheek and brow bones and a bronzer in a C shape to nicely frame the face. 

Terracotta Bronzing Powder - Guerlain
This is my fave - it comes in so many colours

High beam - Benefit
Make those cheek bones pop!

Hope this isnt too confusing. Writing this I am beginining to understand why makeup artists get into Vlogging (Video blogging). I feel Pearl & Peach may be in store for some tutorials in the future. I would love to know if you would be interested in video tutorials!   Contour and be fabulous!   Much love,