Since your cheeks constitute a large part of your face, it can be tricky to locate the portion that needs to be contoured. To find this spot, simply place the tip of your index finger on the tragus part of your ear. If you don’t know what part that is, then you can do two things. First, you can try making a fish face and suck your cheeks in, or second you can make a 45° angle between your lips and your ear. When you keep your finger inclined at such an angle you can feel your cheek bones above your fingers. This then is the area that needs to be contoured or shaded.
What you’ll need
While most people use different cosmetics to contour and chisel their cheeks, there are a couple of cosmetics that are a must. To begin with, a good quality foundation, a highlighter, blush, bronzer, and of course, a flattering powder palette that suits your skin’s undertone is a must. Along with this, you will need some sturdy makeup brushes.
Choosing and applying powder for contouring
Shades of brown powder work the best on most cheeks, especially the ones with grey undertones. Once you have chosen your shade of powder, you need to use a good quality angle powder brush and sweep it across your color palette. Next, angle your brush in such a way that it brushes against the highest part of your cheek where your finger was earlier positioned.
Keeping in mind the 45° angle you had made earlier, firstly move the brush upwards in a straight line. Ensure that the brush movements are smooth and the color simply glides on your cheeks. Continue doing this till you reach the area at the end of your eyebrow. Take the same brush and make circular movements over the line that you have drawn. This technique ensures that the darkest shade of the color is near your eyes and then gets lighter as you move downwards.
However, if you think that the color has become too dark, dust some translucent powder on it to lighten it. Another quick way to do this is to take your foundation sponge and gently “sweep” over the dark area. Remember to factor in the time of day when you are stepping out. This is crucial because day time contouring needs to be more subtle and detailed, as the natural light is bound to reflect off it. On the contrary, contouring your cheekbones for a night event is easier as dull and dim light always flatters contoured cheeks.
For most women, cheek contouring means sucking in your cheeks and applying a darker shade of the contouring powder to the hollows of your cheeks, and a highlighter on the top of the cheekbones. They dust some blush or powder on it to ensure their makeup stays in place. While there is nothing wrong in contouring cheeks this way, you must know that there are different kinds of cheekbones, and each kind requires a different corrective contouring technique.