How to contour and highlight your face

Here's how you can get movie-star like looks without going under the knife. All you need to do is follow these simple make-up tips and contour your face:

• Contouring is about highlighting your facial features so that it gives an appearance of a strong jaw line, defined cheek bones and a slimmer chiseled face. It is about shadows and light. Just like a darker colour makes you look thin and a lighter colour makes you look fat. Contouring or shading is done with a darker colour to push an area inward and highlighting is done with a lighter colour to pull an area outward. Blusher can then be used on your cheek area just above your contouring to highlight your cheeks.

• Use powders to contour your face. It is the easiest and blends well. You can also use a bronzer or two different shades of powder compact. One dark colour (at least 2 shades darker than your skin tone) for contouring and one lighter colour (ideally white powder) for highlighting.

• After applying foundation base on your face, you need to contour around your cheekbones area, just slightly under your cheekbones from the hollows to your ear. And under the chin area if you have a double chin. One can also contour into the hairline. This will help your face appear slimmer.

• Using the right brush is very important for contouring and highlighting. Bigger brushes can be used for bigger areas like under the jaw line. Make sure you keep a separate brush for your blush and your contouring powder so as to not mix the two colours. Blending is the most important thing while contouring so that there are no harsh lines visible.