Face Shapes, What to Highlight and Contour

Knowing how to do makeup doesn’t mean you get to apply the same formula to all clients. Getting acquainted with the different face shapes will guide you how to deal with your client’s features and know which areas to contour and highlight.

These are the general categories of face shapes:

1. Round

Drew Barrymore

A round face is nearly as wide as it is long. The cheeks are full, which is the widest area of the face. The forehead and chin are rounded.

What To contour:

• temples
• cheeks: suck in the cheeks and find the hollows. sweep a darker shade into the hollows and down to the chin line
• jawline What to highlight: - forehead - underneath the eyes above the cheekbones, blend upwards
• center of the chin

2. Square

Isabella Rosellini

The forehead, cheeks and jaw have the same width.

What to contour:
- temples
- apples of the cheeks to help draw away attention from the corners of the square and make it appear more oval
- jawline

What to highlight:
- forehead
- underneath the eyes
- tip of the chin


3. Heart- Shaped

Jennifer Love Hewitt

Forehead is wide which tapers to a pointed or narrow chin, like an inverted triangle

What to contour:
- temples
- cheeks

What to highlight:
- chin, to broaden it
- jawline
- underneath the eyes, just above the cheekbones to draw attention to the center of the face

4. Oval

Tyra Banks

The forehead is wider than the chin . The cheeekbones are prominent and face narrows gently downwards from the cheeks. The length of the face is greater than its width, around 1 and 1/2 times. It usually needs no contouring and highlighting as this is considered to be the ideal shape, but you can play with it.

What to contour:

• apples of the cheeks and along the cheekbones
• temples

What to highlight:

• above the cheekbones near the outer corner of the eye

5. Long

Leelee Sobieski
This face is long and thin with a more pointed chin. Similar to an oval face but with higher cheekbones and high forehead.

What to contour:
- hairline
- lower cheeks
- chin

What to highlight:
- temples
- above the cheekbones

Highlight and Contour 101

Applying these 2 concepts on the right places will prevent your face from looking flat on photos. The idea of accentuating and concealing will be largely dependent on how well you can highlight and contour.

These are two essential principles in makeup artistry:

Contour- gives the illusion of depth. A darker shade gives your features more depth and definition by mimicking shadows. This is usually applied to areas you want to recede.

Examples of areas commonly contoured:
sides of the nose
cheeks
eye creases
any prominent feature you want to downplay (jawlines, chin, etc)

Highlight- the opposite of contour. A lighter shade is usually needed to achieve a highlighting effect. Highlighted areas protrude and helps draw attention to the specific area or feature.

Examples of areas commonly highlighted :
cheekbones
browbone
bridge of the nose

To illustrate:

Areas of Jennifer Lopez’ face that are contoured:

Cheeks- to define the hollows of the cheeks and for a more sculpted look
Nose- even if you have a well-chiseled nose like JLo, contouring the side of your nose is will prevent strong lights from making your nose look wider.
Eye creases- the smokey eyeshadow gives strong contrast to the neutral shades on the rest of the face.

Areas of Jennifer Lopez’ face that are highlighted:

Browbones- this defines the arch of the eyebrow and opens up the eyes
Under the eyes- for a fresher and brighter look
Cheekbones- to make it appear higher and add glow to the area
Bridge of the nose- to add contrast to the contour on the sides.