Tutorial: Glowing, contoured face.

Happy Saturday everyone!  I decided to put together a short tutorial this morning showing how I do my foundation.  It's somewhat of a process, but it looks great every time... and really, it's simple!  

I use two colors of NYX's High Definition foundation.  The darker shade is the foundation that matches my skintone, and the lighter shade (the lightest one NYX makes) is the color used to highlight.

Apply both shades as shown above; the picture on the right might be easier to follow.  The highlighting shade is put in areas where light would generally hit the face.  The lighter shade will bring out areas of your face, while the darker shade will minimize (and thin) other areas.  A lighter shade above the top lip and a darker shade below the bottom lip will enhance the appearance of your lips.  Overall, the face will look thinner, and the cheekbones more defined.

Blend with your fingertips, but make sure the contrast between the two shades of foundation is still there.  Alternating between fingers (one for light and one for dark) or keeping a tissue on hand to wipe off excess foundation will help.

The two foundations create a bright blow and a minor contouring effect.  You could stop here, or add more depth with a contouring powder of your choice.

The contouring color that I use is part of a blush duo by Avon (you can definitely tell I use this a lot).  A good contouring color is darker than your skintone, but not too dark that it looks unnatural even after blending.  Bronzer can be used for some contouring, but I find that it has too much orange in it which makes it look less natural.  Plus, sometimes I like to use bronzer instead of a pink blush after contouring... when both are applied, you can definitely see the difference in color.

Apply the contouring shade to each of the areas where the darker foundation was applied.  The contouring powder adds more contrast between the two colors, which adds more definition.  Blend until it looks more natural. I use an eyeshadow brush to draw two lines down the length of my nose.  This can help to make a nose look thinner and more straight. When blending these lines, I avoid blending towards the center of my nose (where the highlight is), and focus more towards blending down the sides.  Sometimes I add more contour color under the inner eyebrow, into the inner corner of the eyes.  This can help make eyes that are farther apart look closer together.

Add some blush or bronzer, and you're all done!

What do you think?  Does your foundation routine involve several steps as well, or is yours more simple?  Let me know if you try this!

-M.