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| Benefit Blogger Event - contouring master class |
Contouring - a technique I've never had the confidence to master. However, I have recently had the pleasure of attending a Benefit Blogger Event where I participated in a contouring master class so can now share the wonders of this technique with you all!
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| The stages of contouring: Where to highlight and where to contour |
The best way to master this technique is to see each stage of contouring on some one else - I managed to snap away whilst Kirstie (Manager at Benefit Bristol) contoured Brooke's (Beauty Consultant at Benefit Bristol) face. There are many diagrams of contouring easily accessible online, but these can often lead to a huge mess of confusion as to where to highlight and where to contour, especially as we all have different face shapes. You should use a concealer that is a shade lighter than your skin tone to highlight the following areas of your face: under your eyes, above your cheekbones, above and between your eyebrows, down the centre of your nose, the middle of your upper lip and the middle of your chin. Once you have done this you can then move on to using a concealer two shades darker to contour the following areas of your face: under your cheek bones (this should start from the centre of your cheek, in line with the pupil of your eye, and work upwards in the direction of your cheek bone towards your hair line) and the sides of your nose.
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| Tip: Blend, and then blend some more |
Once you have completed the application of your contouring you are now ready to blend - soon to become your contouring saviour. You can use either a brush or sponge to blend, personally I feel a sponge makes the process quicker. When you are happy with your blending you are ready to finish the 'extreme' contour look off with a splash of Benefit's Bronzing Powder in Hoola on the contoured areas of your face (this will stop shine and give you a perfect matt finish to your contoured look).
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| Tip: For a quicker contour try using just 'Hoola' Bronzing Powder |
If you love the sound of contouring but cannot possibly find the time to apply this 'extreme' contour look, we also got to grips with a 'quick and easy' contouring method during the evening. The steps of this contouring technique are similar to those above, but without the coverage of concealer. Simply give your face a base (I chose to use a CC cream as my base as I was not looking for heavy coverage), then apply Benefit's Hoola Bronzing Powder to the following areas of your face: under your cheek bones (this should start from the centre of your cheek, in line with the pupil of your eye, and work upwards in the direction of your cheek bone towards your hair line) and the sides of your nose. This 'quick and easy' look is completed by applying a small amount of blusher (I chose to Benefit's Dandelion Brightening Face Powder) to your cheek bones to give your face that healthy Spring/Summer glow.
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| Left: Boi-ing Concealer in 01 - light, Right: Boi-ing Concealer in 03 - medium |
Contouring has always scared me as I have such a fair skin complexion, anything darker than the lightest shade just shouldn't touch my face surely? However, this is the exact reason contouring is a great technique for fair skin too - I chose to use 01 (Benefit's lightest shade of concealer) and 03 (Benefit's medium shade of concealer) - not everyone has to use the darkest of shades to contour, a common misconception when talking about experimenting with this technique. The swatches above show the colours I used for my skin tone when using the 'extreme' technique for contouring. Although these swatches are both concealer, they are great highlighting and contouring products, for all skin types - hoorah! The most important thing to remember when applying these products is blend, blend until you can blend no more!
Head to your local Benefit store or concession stand and ask for a contouring demonstration - they'll be happy to help with technique or deciding which shades are best for you. Comment below or tweet me to tell me your favourite contouring technique, 'extreme' or 'quick and easy'. Enjoy showing off your new technique and cheek bones,
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