How To Contour And Highlight Your Face

For this tutorial, I used powder products to contour (add shadows) and highlight (bring forward) my face.  I like using powder products, because I prefer to set my foundation after applying with a loose hydrating powder.  My favorite is Smashbox Halo Hydrating Perfecting Powder.  You could use a cream or liquid product to add your contour and highlight prior to your foundation for a more natural look or after the foundation for a stronger look and then add your powder over the top.

Products Needed:

*Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Bronzer- a matte dark bronzer with a delicious chocolate smell!
*Stila Eye Shadow in Kitten- careful this color is very very shimmery so use sparingly!
*Real Techniques Contour Brush
*Real Techniques Setting Brush
*Crown Brush IB106 Angle Blush Brush- from their Italian Badger line

Step 1:

* After you apply your foundation (watch how I apply it with a Beauty Blender™ style sponge here!), concealer, and powder, dip your angled blush brush into the bronzer and apply it under the cheekbone from the back of your cheek forward. Stop it just below the apples of your cheeks.  Repeat on the other side.  (Check out the video to see how I hold the brush and how to find where the perfect placement for your contour shade.)

Step 2:

* Using your angled blush brush, apply the bronzer at the temples and along your hairline to give some dimension to your forehead.  This will make the center of your forehead look brighter without having to apply a shimmery highlight in your t-zone, which could make you look oily or shiney in photos.

Copyright Too Faced Cosmetics. Image from the Sephora website.

Step 3:

* (Optional) Using the setting brush, apply bronzer in a narrow line down the sides of the nose to make it appear thinner.  Be sure not to take it all the way to the tip of your nose, or it could look dirty.  Blend it out very well so it's just the hint of a shadow and not a dark obvious line.

Step 4:

* Swipe the contour brush over Kitten and tap the excess.  Apply the highlight over the top of your cheekbones from just before the temples to just over the center of the apples of your cheeks.  Do this for both of your cheekbones to highlight.

Step 5:

* Without adding any more product to the brush, swipe the brush in a "C" shape over the outer edge of your eyes to bring a touch of radiance to your eyes and really bring out this area of your face.

Step 6: 

* Use your setting brush to get a very tiny bit of Kitten on the tip of the brush and swipe it down the center of your nose and over the bow of your lip.  Make sure to blend away any edges with your fingertip so there is no obvious makeup here.  You just want it to catch the light a bit and add a glow, not a frosted stripe.

Step 7:

*  If you need to tone down any of your contouring or hightlighting, use your buffing brush to soften the edge with a bit of your face powder.

Step 8:

* Don't forget to add some color to your cheeks!  Even if you don't want a real "pink" or "peach" color to your face, you should use a blush to blend the area between the highlight and the cheekbone together.  You can always try a very nude color with a hint of brown to it for a very "no makeup" look, but honestly I prefer something with a touch of pink.  Nobody's face is completely devoid of natural flush, so eliminating it has the tendency to make it look very unnatural.

How to Powder Under the Eyes and Around the Nose

Keeping your concealer from creasing under your eyes can be a major headache for some people.  Not only do you need to find a product that doesn't move and still gives you the right amount of coverage, you can't go and ruin that by applying your powder incorrectly.  Even if you don't have the perfect product, knowing how to powder it can at least give you better staying power until you do find that perfect product for you.

Personally, I love the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle Treatment Concealer.

Then, I set my concealer with loose powder. Smashbox's Halo Hydrating Perfecting Powder is great because it works to hydrate the skin throughout the day, so it won't dry out your under eye and make it look more creased.  You can purchase both of these products at Ulta.  If you don't have an Ulta near you, the Maybelline products are available at any drugstore, and Smashbox is available both online and at Sephora.

Step by Step:

1. After you apply your concealer to your undereye area- Take a two-ply tissue and peel it apart so that you are left with an even thinner piece of tissue, and then wrap it around your ring finger.  Use that finger to gently pat away any excess pigment and oils from the products.  Once the concealer has been warmed up by your body, the concealer can move, so this takes away an extra that can settle into the fine lines and look cakey.
2. Dip your small fluffy brush into your loose powder and shake the excess off.
3. Lightly run the brush under the eye area to add some of the powder to the concealer and set it into place.
4. Lightly run the brush around the sides of the nostrils, upper lip, and your bottom lip to set any concealer you may have placed there.  The small brush will also allow you to target these smaller creases a larger traditional powder brush would miss.

Check out the video I filmed for my YouTube channel here!

Products used in this video were:

*Smashbox Halo Hydrating Perfecting Powder in Fair
*Real Techniques Setting Brush

How To Apply Foundation With A Beauty Blender Style Sponge

I never used to use sponges for anything other than applying moisturizer to clients before putting their foundation on.  I certainly never used them on myself, and I always saw them as a disposable product necessary only for sanitation needs in a professional environment.  Having worked for makeup counters for so long, I was a firm believer in applying foundation with a foundation brush and a foundation brush only.  Even after I discovered the world of airbrush makeup, I still put my own foundation on the traditional way day in and day out.

Then I discovered the "beauty blender style sponge".  The original is called the

Beauty Blender™.  It came out a few years ago, but I never paid much attention to it.  I got one as a gift from someone once and didn't even take it out of the package.  Through some industry friends, I found out about a generic version online from Qosmedix.com, and I decided to buy a few (since they are only about $2 a piece there) for friends and stick them in with the makeup gift baskets I'd made for them that Christmas.  I had an extra one laying around for myself, and this past October I tried it out for the first time.  I wasn't impressed.  But little did I know, I was using it incorrectly!  The most important thing to remember is to use it wet, and use it to dab the makeup on the surface of the skin!  It made all the difference in the world.  Now I don't use anything else to apply my foundation, and it's changed the way my makeup wears on my skin for the better.

Here's how I compare the "original" to the "generic" version:

* The generic version has an indent in the center of the egg shape which makes it perfect for blending and softening out the edge of your makeup around the jawline and smoothing down the sides of the nose.

* The generic version is available in either pink (perfect for girly girls) or black (which doesn't exactly hide the dirtiness the way you'd think).  Either color will have some staining that even the amazing original Beauty Blender™ sponge cleaner can't remove.  Once the sponge starts to break down and not work well, it's time to toss it, but with regular cleaning, you can reuse it over and over and over!

* The generic version is sooooo much cheaper!

Copyright Qosmedix.com Oblong Blending Sponge, Pink

Now for the Step by Step to applying your foundation with the sponge:

1. Wet your sponge thoroughly with water, then squeeze out as much as you can.  The sponge will swell to twice it's size and give you ample surface area to apply your foundation with.
2. Apply your moisturizer and primer to the skin and allow it to sink in.  In my YouTube tutorial, I used Ren Ultra Moisture Day Cream and Smashbox Photo Finish Hydrating Primer.
3. Apply some foundation to the back of your hand and dip the flat "butt" of the sponge into the foundation.  I used Benefit's "Hello Flawless!" Oxygen Wow Liquid Foundation in Ivory.
4. Start in the center of your face to the side of your nose and start patting the foundation onto the surface of the skin.  Work your way to the outside of your face, applying the foundation in areas where you need the most coverage.
5. Use the pointed end to smooth out any edges under your eyes and around the nostrils and the indented side to smooth out the edge around your jawline and down the sides of your nose.

And there you have it!  Beautiful, natural looking foundation!  Be sure to watch my Tutorial on how to use the sponge as well as the other videos in my "Basic Face Series" on YouTube which covers getting the perfect canvas for your makeup application.  Don't forget to like the videos and subscribe to my channel to see more great tutorials and product reviews!

Back to Beauty Blogging

It's 10 pm at night, and I've been fiddling with my old blog for a few hours now.  I think I've finally gotten it to where I want to be, but knowing me I'll probably meddle with it some more in the coming months.  It's been a long time since I've even looked at it, considering I'd moved on from my personal makeup business to a merger of my bridal makeup side of things with a wedding hairstylist to form the company Bridal Beauty Associates.  That completely consumed the last two years of my life~ in a very good way mind you~ but now that I've made the decision to leave the world of weddings behind after a very intense five years at it, it's time to go back to my roots- makeup education.

When clients would come see me at the makeup counters, they could expect a full education on the products they were buying. Knowing the ingredients, their uses, and the very in's and out's of a product was my passion.  I loved passing that information along to my clients, because I knew that an educated buyer was more likely to continue to buy from me.  And let's face it, those makeup girls in the department stores... we LIVED on our commissions.

Even now, working with brides and their families, I get questions all the time from women asking for my favorite product recommendations.  I'll get a Facebook message from a bride I haven't spoken to in years asking for a good replacement for her Mary Kay lip scrub or a non-smudging mascara.  Even the makeup artists on my team seek me out for the nitty gritty on everything beauty under the sun.  They are all excited about heading up to New York City on April 6th for IMATS (International Makeup Artist Trade Show), because they know I'm the kind of girl to score big and pass along the savings where I can.

But now that I've decided to make this my last year doing weddings, and I've turned over the wedding blogging duties to my business partner on the BBA blog, I'll be dedicating my efforts to bringing my readers the inside scoop on not only the best (or worst!) beauty products on today's market, but also tutorials and insider access to my life as a professional makeup artist.  (If you look back through the archives, I've deleted all the posts pertaining to my old wedding business and left just the product reviews and other general information.  From here on out, there will be general beauty related information posted.)

And because every good blog post should be accompanied by a photo, here's a recent image of me working!  Enjoy!