This article has been updated since its initial publish date to include more expert insight.
Contouring is a powerful makeup technique to master as it can transform your face without ever needing to go under the knife. It’s all about accentuating your best features, like cheekbones, eyes, jawline, etc., and can deliver successful results at any age. We checked in with beauty blogger and makeup coach Casie Paterson to learn more about three essential tips and hacks to keep in mind when contouring, and how they can take years off your look.
Contour Hack #1. Draw The Eye Upwards With Blush
Contouring, Paterson explains, is all about lifting up and using multiple tools in an upward direction. Firstly, she suggests to “use your contour cream or powder and work it upwards, just underneath your cheekbones for a sculpted and lifted look.”
Blush can also become your best friend when used in a similar manner. “Don’t place blush on the apples of your cheeks,” she advises. “Instead place blush on the high points of your cheekbones and blend into your contour.”
#2. Extend The Tails Of Your Eyeliner & Brows
Your other makeup tools, she adds, can work together to lift your face including eyeliner. “Use a lifting eyeliner technique to draw the eyes upwards.
With your eyeliner or eyeshadow, extend the tail upwards,” she stresses. With your eyebrows, Paterson notes to “create a higher eyebrow arch which helps to lift and open up the eyes.”
3. Use A Transitional Eyeshadow Shade
Other ways to draw eyes up and away from any drooping or sagging skin, she says, involve eyeshadow and mascara. “Create the illusion of an eyelid crease by placing a transition eyeshadow shade—which is 2 shades deeper than your skin tone—where your crease would be.”
This, she says, “opens your eyes and camouflages” droopy eyelids. Using a volumizing mascara or “lash extensions/ a natural looking false lash” can also help to open the eyes, as drawing attention to them is often a major goal when it comes to contouring.
The Bottom Line
Lighter makeup, Paterson says, is the way to go overall, as anyone with mature skin should “avoid heavy foundations, concealers or powders which will settle into lines and cause you to look older.”
Whether you’re drawing lines under your cheekbones to blend or creating a sharp cat-eye, what manny makeup artists will say to keep in mind is that the ultimate goal is to draw the eye up rather than down as this will promote a slimmer, more lifted effect.
