Contouring 101

Hey pretties! 

Sorry took me so long, but I really wanted my second tutorial to be on contouring, and for that, I needed a victim (besides the fact that I don’t like contouring my face, I have weirdly sharp bones, so it’s hard to see any difference on photos, I tried, didn’t work).

So here is, a basic, simple contouring guide. It’s no one of those ‘ How to do Kardashian’s contour’ because, let’s face it, if you are not used to makeup, chances are: you end up with stripes on you face or you end up with your face in the wrong colour (go to heavy with the darker or the light, and it does look like you took someone’s head and attached it to your body)
Oh, sorry for the background on the photos, we made it in my living room to enjoy some day light!

My victim, I mean, friend with no makeup on

She had moisturize on her face already, so I just mixed some foundations to make the right colour for her, applied with my clean little hands.

On this side I’m using cream product (from a concealer pallete). Apply in a triangle shape from near your hair line following the hollow on your face towards your mouth (under your cheek bone). Stop around 3 fingers before from your mouth.

And a tiny bit on your forehead, close to your hair line.

Now blend. I prefer using my hand, I think the warmth helps to blend it with the skin, but you can use a brush, a sponge, a beauty blender… Always do it upwards! Gravity already brings everything down without our help.

Second half, powder version. Honestly, I struggle to find bronzers or darker powders with a good colour for this(specially for pale people like me), everything seems to give me an orange(ish) tone, I guess it has something to do with the fake tan culture here in Ireland. My solution? Eyeshadow or brow powder. Any ash brown will do (as long as it’s not extremely dark for your skin).

Same thing, apply in a triangle shape from the top down, stopping at least 3 fingers before your mouth. I would recommend start to apply a few centimeters from your hair line, 3 or 4 only. It will be easier to blend it up than it is to take the excess from the baby hairs. Blend it in circular motions, trying to keep it upward.

Add some on your forehead, really lightly and blend it (this one works better for people with big foreheads if it’s not your case, skip it).

Now, to get a sharper looking face, apply it behind your jaw bone and bring it down, blending it under your chin. This will help to make the ‘second chin’ less visible and the face a lot more square shaped. I prefer to do it with powder than any other product, I think it blend easier in this area.

Nose! I wish I was paid extra every time I was asked ‘How do I make my nose look thinner?’

I extremely dislike this, but I think it is worth a try. Before you judge me, let explain myself. This looks amazing in photos and videos, but in real life the stripes are in the sides of your nose are pretty visible, even if you blend it, will still be to weird lines on your nose. But here is how you do it:

Literally draw to lines in the side of your nose using an eye shadow brush.

Then, blend the outsides with a clean blending brush . Don’t blend the top, we will highlight this area on the next step.

I’m using just a concealer to highlight. It’s one of those concealers made to brighten up under eyes. Here is where you want to highlight: under eyes and top of cheekbones, top of the nose, top lip, a little between your brows. You should look this cool!

Bleeeeend it! Again, I’m using  my fingers, as always. Tap it into the skin! Promise me you will never ever run your finger back and forward on your concealer!

Powder all over the face (I use a sponge for the under eyes and T zone, than I just go all over the face with a big face brush to take the excess). 

I’ve just applied a brown eye shadow on her eyes, mascara and a pale pink lipstick, and  that’s all!

Hope you enjoyed the post and have some fun giving it a try! See you soon!

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Smokey!

Hello, beauties! 

 What better way to (re)start if not the most basic and requested look? Smokey eye! That’s usually the main request I get in the classes. Prepare your hands for blending, let’s do it! You are going to need 3 colours : a really pale one (white, silver...), black and medium brown. And a lot of patience. 
Probably you will see a lot of difference between this make up and some other ones during my post, so to avoid some 'what the heck is going on?', this was one of my first posts 3 years ago, and my technique changed a lot  in the last few years. I'll re-post some of my old favorites sometimes.

Tip of the day #1: when you are working with black shadow (or other dark pigments), leave your skin for last. Black eye shadows tends to do a biiiiiiig mess under your eyes. 

 After applying your primer, apply the lightest colour you are using all over the lid until near your brows.

Tip of the day #2: it’s much easier to blend the black shadow on top of another powder than it is on top of your primer. The black won’t stick and will go wherever you push it during the blending process. 

 Start applying the black close to the lashes and wing out.

Using what you still have on your brush (or a tiny little bit more), draw a V shape a bit lower than the shape you want as final result. Don’t worry, it will get higher during the blending process.

Now that you have a rough shape to work with, you can start to bring a bit of black in, covering around half of your mobile lid.

With a blending brush, apply a little of your transition colour (some brown close to your skin colour) to blend from the edge of the black into your skin. Shall the blending begin!

Keep blending until you get the gradual effect, you can keep applying the transition colour (in tiny amounts!) to help the black to fade into the skin. If you think that it's getting to light, you can apply the tiniest amount of the black in the hollow of your eye, and blend it up. With the brush you used to apply the black, apply just the rest under your eyes (close to the lash line) and softly blend it.

Highlight the inner corner and under the eyebrow.

Add mascara and do your face makeup (soon a tutorial on that) , finish with a lipgloss or a nude lipstick. And that’s it! You can always go for brown tones if you want to rock a smokey eye during 

the day time. Now go and have some fun!

Hope you enjoy it! See you next time in the same bat-channel.

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Welcome!

Hello hello! After 3 years away from my lovely blog (and from my life), I’m back. If you are new here… Hi! My name is Cris. I went to Fashion School just to find out that makeup is my thing, so I’ve been doing it since my first year in college (can I just say many, maaaany years ago? I’m afraid to count how many.) After years working on fashion shows and photo shoots, I’ve found my real love in teaching. So here I am, teaching private classes and giving a new shot with online tutorials. If you’ve been here before, welcome back! Enough with the introduction! From the next post on, just makeup and beauty! Hope you all enjoy the blog (and my weird sense of humour). See you all soon!

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