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Contour makeup is one of those beauty products that can serve as the sweetest of gifts or do you zero favors — and it all depends on your contouring skills. While you needn't be a professional makeup artist to wield a contouring brush, it helps to know that there are a few common contouring mistakes many of us are making that are only adding years to our appearance. Contour makeup can bring out your cheekbones, downplay features you'd like to minimize, and highlight the ones you love — but these 5 contour mistakes should be avoided at all costs.
[Photos: The Viva Luxury, Splash News]
Using too much makeup and contouring your entire face
There's a reason why makeup professionals avoid coating skin, and especially dry or aging skin, with lots of foundation and powder: it can backfire and actually make your skin look older when it sinks into fine lines and enlarged pores. To prevent this from happening, use a primer first to smoothen skin and then focus only on specific areas of your face that you want to contour and highlight. For example, adding a darker contour powder beneath cheekbones and a rosy blush and sparkling highlighter on cheekbones may be all you need to brighten your complexion and look more radiant. Less is always more.
Using a contour powder that is too dark
Using a contour shade that's one or two shades deeper than your natural skin tone is more than sufficient to create shadow and light. If you go too dark, the result is a face that can look needlessly angular and aging — not to mention dirty — a total no-no.
Replacing contour powder with bronzer
Perhaps you have bronzer powder in your makeup kit and would rather use that than have to splurge on a separate contour powder. We all love to save a few dollars here and there, but bronzer will not produce the same effect as a powder that is made to create a matte shadow effect under the cheekbones, along the jawline and sides of the forehead, and over the bridge of the nose. Bronzer can add a stunning finishing touch on cheekbones, but it can look odd and slightly jarring (not to mention glittery) when applied as a contour shadow.
Not blending your makeup
The point of contour makeup is to help bring out your features in a subtle, natural way. If you forget to blend your contour makeup with a contour brush, you run the risk of leaving obvious dark and light stripes on your face that tell the world you've just spent the last 10 minutes contouring. These color streaks will also do nothing to enhance your appearance make your skin appear more youthful. At the very end, always blend!
Using dark contour powder under your cheekbones
As we age, we lose volume in our faces and one of the places where this is most noticeable is in our cheek area. If you create an artificial dark hollow beneath your cheekbones, you run the risk of making your face appear even less plump, which can be aging. Consider ditching cheek contouring altogether if this is a concern and focusing on adding a soft wash of blush onto the apples of cheeks and a little highlighter on top of that for a pretty pop.
