Editorial Contouring

Back in the early years of make up, the likes of Max Factor first introduced the art of contouring to our make up regimes in 1940. The reason behind this was to make the actress's/actors appear more defined on screen. Because most films were shown in monochrome the contour would have been significantly darker.

Many of us across the years have tried contouring our face at least in our lifetime, but getting it right for our face shape is another story. Since the Kardashian/Jenner familes took the media by storm in the beginnning of 2010 with their increasingly poular TV show 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians'. Which documented the families lives day in, day out. Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, Kendall, Kylie and there 'Momager'; Kris were constantly splashed all over our magazines, newspapers and social media accounts. The look tha truly 'broke the internet' was the 21st century twist to contouring, created by none other than Kim Kardashian-Wests personal make up guru; Mario Dedivanovic.

In an interview with Dedivanovic he said that 'contouring has been around forever and has always been a trick of the trade – but in the past couple of years it has become huge because people are now exposed to it,’. Now in this day and age where media and celebrirites shape the way we live it is no wonder everyone jumped on the contouring band wagon. When we think of contouring our face we instantly think, slimmer and a more defined shape to the face. Contouring is known to comletley change someones face shape. The basics to contouring the face is shading areas with a cool tone brown with grey undertones. This is put where the light doesnt prominatley hit the face, such as under the cheekbones to suck them in more, the temples of the forehead and along the jaw line. Others do also contour down each side of the nose and the chin. Where the light does hit the face is where the highlight is put. This should normally be done in a colour 2-3 shades lighter than the clients skin colour, or with a shimmer highlighter to emphasize the areas. Highlighter is placed above the cheekbones, centre of the forehead, cupids bo on the lip, down the centre of the nose and also under the arch of the brow.

Face Shapes:

Lecturer Demo:

We had a guest lecturer come into the class and teach us her interpretation of contouring for an editorial look. Firtstly, Sarah cleansed, toned and moisturised Vitas face to make sure all prior make up or oils were wiped away from the skin and prepped properly for the make up appliacation. Sarah then identified Vitas face shape in order to know where to put the contour for the ideal face shape. A full coverage foundation base was appied to the skin (further details found in 'Skin base blog post'). The eyebrows were groomed through using a clean spoolie. Dark brown powder eyeshadow was used through the brows, starting with the bottom of the eybrow she followed the natural shape of the brow to give definition. Then lengthened the tail of the eyebrow for stronger more defined shape. She then made the top lof the eyebrow slightly bigger by overfilling slightly. The front of the eyebrow was then blended so it still looked natuaral. A light concealer was used underneath the eyebrow to clean up any edges that were not sharp enough. Dark browns and greys were used to create a smouldering smoky eye. However the colours were too strong as it would take away the aim of this look; the contour. She used a beige colour from the Ben Nye Eyeshadow palette just as a base. Then loaded a dark brown shadow onto a small fluffy brush and lightly buffed it into the crease. The using a darker grey she buffed the colour lightly into the outer corner of the eye. Then again, using a larger fluffy brush blended the two together, buffing upwards towards the brow bone. She then applied a few layer of black lenghening mascara onto the lashes using a spoolie, this opened up the eye more.

Sarah then moved onto perfecting the contour. Using a grey undertoned brown scultping powder from mac and a small contour brush, she started chisinling out the hollows of the cheekbones. Using small circular motions it proved most effective as it was blending out the harshness whilst building up the colour. More colour was nearer the top of the cheekbone closest to the ear to give more dpeth. She then finished the cheeks with a light blush on the cheeks as the focus was primarily on the strengh of the contour. Finally a light shimmered highlighter was used on the tops of the cheekbones, down the nose, centre of the forehead and patted on top of the cupids bow to ecsentuate the features and bring forward. The lips were lined with spice lipliner by MAC and then a burnt red/orange lipstick was used to fill the lip shape.

We were then given the chance to recreate the look.

1. I prepped the face as normal, using a sesitive cleanser, toner, moisturiser to remove any unwanted oils and make up from the face.

2. To reduce the apperance of unwanted dark circles, i used a colour correcting concealer in the shade D32 to remove the blueness under neath my models eyes. Then over the top of this i packed on a neautral concealer closest to sophies natural skin colour.

3. Then using MAC full coverage foundation in the shade NC15, which is for lighter complexions. I mixed together a small amount of strobe cream with the foundation. Using a medium sized duo fibre brush i buffed this all over the skin, using more product where more coverage was needed. I found that the most coverage was needed on and around the cheeks because of rosaceia.

4. Once i was happy with the base i moved onto the eyes. For this i used two different coloured eyeshadow. One in a grey tone and the other a dark brown, similar to what sarah had used. Using a fluffy blending brush a swept the grey along the whole eyelid. Then using a smaller fluffy brush buffed the dark brown into the outer corner of the eye and slightly in the crease. I then applied a few layers of mascara just to finish the eye.

6. Sophie, had generallly a nice shape to her eyebrows anyway so was easier for me to follow the natual shape, however lengthening the tail and also maing the arch darker. I used espresso eyeshadow from MAC on an angled liner brush for more control.

5. Then i moved onto the contouring. For this i used an angled contour brush. I chose the MAC sculpting powder in the shade sculpt. Starting from the top of the ear using small circular movements i started to go under the cheekbones. This was done to give dimension to the face. I then went over it again, however, concentrating more on deepening the colour to give more definition.

Recreated Look: