Back to basic: contouring

Today I continue with bronzer theme and would like to write about the contouring. As I mentioned last Monday, not every bronzer is suitable for the contouring. It should have cool undertone to fake natural shadow that is created when the light hits your face and it should be matt as well.

Contouring of face parts is very individual, depends on each person as we all have different face features. Also everybody would like to enhance or maybe hide something else.

Classic contouring:

• creates more prominent cheek bones (apply bronzer under the cheek bones, from place where the ear begins towards mouth, you can find that place under the cheek bones by making a fish face),
• creates thinner face (apply bronzer on temples, around hair line),
• changes partially nose shape (if it’s too wide or misshaped like mine L),
• hides partially double chin (by applying bronzer under the chin),
• fakes for example cleavage, bigger décoté (at least I don’t need that J).

(left) blush-bronzer NYX in Taupe, (right) highlighter The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer

Besides bronzer you can use highlighter which creates better contrast between darker and lighter parts of your face: what is lighter stands out, comes forward and what is darker recedes. Highlighters come usually in powder format, but creams and liquids are used as well. It can be few shades lighter than your foundation, it can or cannot have glitter, shimmer, it all depends on personal preference what you are going to use. Highlighters without shimmer/glitter appear more natural and girls who are not used to wearing lot of makeup usually prefer those (in this case try a regular powder that is few shades lighter than your powder, or product/eyeshadow with light pearl colour).

(from left to right) Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Diffused light, The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer, MAC Mineralize Skin Finish powder in Soft and Gentle

Swatches (from left to right) MAC Mineralize Skin Finish powder in Soft and Gentle, The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer, Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Diffused light  

In this video the makeup artist, Wayne Goss (gossmakeupartist on YouTube), used bronzer and highlighter as well. Contouring is a bit extreme but at least you can see really well the difference in shades. He used cream products and blended it all with foundation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow1rdFOlxnk&feature=relmfu

Here the contouring is less extreme; the makeup artist, Lisa Eldridge (Lisa Eldridge on YouTube), used powder bronzer, cream and powder highlighter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8g3orq4M7U&feature=plcp

As bronzer for contouring I recommend:

• Nars Laguna bronzer (in Sephora) 
• NYX blush in colour Taupe (in Germany in Douglas perfumery, or for ex. at cherryculture.com)
• Sleek Face contour kit (it has bronzer and highlighter, in UK in Superdrug, or at sleekmakeup.com) 
• Solait Maxi bronzer (in UK in Superdrug) 
• ELF contouring blush & bronzing powder (it comes both in powder and cream format, few different colours, at elf-kozmetika.eu/sk in Slovakia, at eyeslipsface.be in Belgium) 

Highlighters I recommend: 

• ELF blush in colour Gotta glow 
• The Balm Mary Lou manizer (in Belgium in some DI drugstores, try to see in your drugstores) 
• MAC Mineralize skin finish in colour Soft and Gentle (in MAC stores) 
• Physicians formula Powder palette Mineral glow Pearls in colour Translucent Pearl (in some drugstores in USA, or at www.iherb.com, code IPO591 for a discount from your first purchase, you’ll get your code for your friends as well) 
• Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder vo farbe Diffused light (in USA, in Sephora)

How to find your fashion style

I have to confess I’m not extremely interested in fashion; I’m mainly makeup and cosmetics fanatic. However I cannot walk around all dolled up and wear just gym pants! Especially, since I work in an international environment and some decent look is required.

Some years ago I read about a good trick in some magazine on how to help yourself to sort out what clothes and styles you like and to shop accordingly. Basically, you create your own “fashion book” where you keep pictures from magazines and internet websites/blogs. Then, when you go shopping just look at the pictures and put a shopping list together. I use it not only for this but also when I get bored of outfits I’ve been wearing for some time already. I always come up with new outfits which is definitely good for my wallet. I started my fashion book in July 2010 and since then I collected 270 pages.

I usually get the urge to go shopping mid-season like now (January sales are longtime gone and July sales far to see…) and by finding new outfit inspirations I can actually restrain myself. This time I found 55 outfits I could create just by mixing different clothes I already have! No shopping here for sure! But of course when creating these new outfits I also created a shopping list (57 items) which I will keep till July sales:).

Here are the websites I cruise from time to time and print pictures for my fashion book:

http://www.collegefashion.net/
http://www.dulcecandy.com/
http://www.pennypincherfashion.com/ (recent discovery of mine, very much obsessed)
http://www.elle.com/fashion/street-chic/
http://www.peoplestylewatch.com/people/stylewatch/
http://www.whowhatwear.com/

If you have your favorite fashion blogs I should take a look at, please let me know!

Back to basic: Bronzer

It looks like the candy shop in my bronzer drawer: everything is brown, something with glitter, something like caramel, dark or milk chocolate…every time I open it, I crave something sweetJ. If my boyfriend looked in this drawer (fortunately he didn’t so far), he would shake his head in disbelief why I need so many “brown powders”! But the answer is simple; every bronzer has its own use. I admit, if I weren’t a makeup addict I would need just two: for bronzing and for contouring. What is the difference?

Bronzer for bronzing/tanning purposes: depending on your skin shade, it should have, of course, different shade but always with warm undertone. In case of fair skin, if you want to fake tan really well, use little bit of pink blush as fair skin tends to have somewhat pink undertone, not only brown one when it suntans. Depends on your personal preference, you can use matt bronzer or one with light shimmer. I use both, shimmery one in summer as it looks good with tan and matt one in winter when I stay paler. If you have problems choosing right shade, here is a small trick: try regular powder that is 2-3 shades darker than your skin (the same goes for cream bronzers replaced by foundations).

Application: stick to the places where the sun naturally hits your face and tan it. That means on the cheeks, on the nose, on the forehead, on the chin, or even under the eyebrow. Apply bronzer towards your neck and cleavage to avoid difference between face and body.

In this video, Samantha Chapman (one of the Pixiwoo sisters on YouTube) fakes even the freckles!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk9KWFdykEU

Beside powder bronzers you can also buy cream or gel bronzers, they look more natural than powder ones. Unfortunately, there are not sold that much in drugstores.

Bronzer Essence Sun club blondes with warm undertone

NYX Blush in Taupe with cool undertone

Bronzer for contouring purposes: imagine how the natural light and shade hit your face and thanks to your bones and muscles structure create lighter/darker parts. For instance, when the shade is created under your cheek bones, your face looks slimmer. Some people get it by nature (I so envy them) some have to fake it…with bronzer. Now you say “I already have a bronzer for bronzing my face and that is enough”. Well, that is not really enough if you want to fake it well. Natural shade has cool, almost grey, undertone and that is why we should use bronzer with cool undertone not the regular bronzing one with warm undertone. It should also be matt as it is more natural.

I will talk about contouring in detail in next back to basic post.

For bronzing your face, I recommend:

• Essence Sun club blondes (powder, in DM drugstores, in Belgium in Kruidvat)
• Bourjois bronzing primer and Bourjois BB bronzing cream (cream and liquid bronzer, in DM drugstore, in Belgium in DI drugstore) 
• NYX Matte bronzer (powder, in Germany in Douglas perfumery or for ex. cherryculture.com) 
• Soleil tan de Chanel (cream, in perfumeries where they sell Chanel)