Baton Rouge makeup artist shares the basics of face contouring

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You’ve probably seen this trick on your favorite celebrity. The secret to a movie-star picture-perfect face? A good makeup artist who knows how to do facial contouring.

Bronzer is used to create face-slimming shadows while highlighter is used to reflect light and enhance features.

If you want to try facial contouring at home, local makeup artist and Glam 2 Geaux owner Kimberly Newman says proper lighting is key. She suggests buying a “natural light” or “true light” bulb. Put the bulb in a shadeless lamp, and set it on your bathroom vanity or makeup counter.

“It will help you to actually see and evaluate your application so you can determine any unevenness in your makeup,” she says.

Newman shares her step-by-step process here.

–YUWA VOSPER

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How to contour

1. Prime. After applying primer, let it sit on your skin for a minute before putting on foundation, Newman says. Her favorite primer is Too Faced’s Hangover Primer.

2. Apply foundation. Newman’s secret weapon is a beauty blender. She advises wetting the beauty blender first so that it becomes moldable.

3. Conceal. Purchase a concealer one shade lighter than your skin color. Allow it to set into the skin after applying it. Newman’s favorite concealer is Maybelline New York’s Instant Age Rewind Eraser Treatment.

4. Highlight. Choose a highlighting product containing shimmer to reflect light. “Your highlighting product does not have to be white, but it must match your skin undertones,” Newman says. Draw an upside-down triangle under each eye with it. Draw a line down the bridge of the nose and one more upside-down triangle above the browbone. Blend with a beauty blender.

5. Contour. Get a non-shimmer bronzer that’s one shade darker than your skin tone. Newman likes Benefit’s Hoola bronzer or Kevyn Aucoin’s The Sculpting Powder. “You do not want anything that will reflect the light,” she says. “You want it to look like a shadow.” Apply bronzer below cheekbones, following your face’s natural curve. Apply bronzer to your forehead, just along the hairline. Last, apply it along the ridge of the nose, extending from the eyebrows downward and forming a V at the tip of your nose.

6. Blend. Using your makeup brush or beauty blender, blend in a sweeping motion, making sure not to create harsh lines. Apply blush right above the contour of the cheeks. Set your makeup with a finishing powder—Newman’s favorite is Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder.

Ta-da! The result: