Beauty isn’t always about perfection; it’s about identifying and appreciating your best features. In the world of makeup, this translates into one rule – highlighting your most attractive facial characteristics and trying to improve upon the flaws that interfere with your overall look. This is referred to as corrective contouring. It’s a popular technique used by makeup artists and stylists. As with any makeup process, corrective contouring involves its own set of techniques, dos and don’ts. This chapter seeks to give you an introduction on contouring and what it can do for facial aesthetics.
So, what exactly is corrective contouring?
In the simplest terms, corrective contouring is a process where a makeup artist aims to apply makeup in a way that minimizes the undesired contours of your face and modulates the same to achieve the desired look. This could mean anything from making an overly round face appear more slender or adding more definition to a weak jaw.
Think of contouring as a belt or a girdle. When you wear one around your waist, you compress it to get that much sought after hour-glass figure. The right makeup techniques and tools will do the same for your or your client’s face. So, the right application of makeup would give more appeal to a bumpy nose while the appropriate eye-shadowing will make round eyes appear wider.
Even Monroe swore by corrective contouring
Hollywood siren Marilyn Monroe leveraged contouring to achieve that perfect face shape. She used contouring on her temples, below her cheekbones, along her jaw line and on either side of her nose, for maximum impact. For that famed button nose, she even contoured below her nose and on her nose tip.
Today’s top Hollywood actresses also use corrective makeup to look their best on the red carpet and at magazine cover shoots. This technique has also found its place in bridal and party makeup.