If one of your New Year’s Resolutions was to finally figure out contouring, you need a few products to perfect the look, as well as some helpful hacks and tutorials. Whether you are a newbie or you have long ago mastered Kim Kardashian’s contoured look, you need to have a few basics in your makeup bag, including a natural-looking darker bronzer shade, a good highlighter, and you can’t forget about the brushes. Whether you prefer powder, sticks, or creams, these contouring products will all help you fake sculpted supermodel cheekbones.
(Related: 13 Amazing Contouring Tutorials From Pinterest That Will Demystify Defining Your Face)
1. The Sculptor Contouring Face Slenderizer (Tarte)
Whether you want to change the shape of your nose, slim your jawline or sculpt your cheeks, this universally-flattering crayon will do it.
2. Studio Contouring Blush And Bronzer Cream (e.l.f.)
This cream-to-powder duo is perfect if you haven’t made it passed Contouring 101. The formula is lightweight, and you can layer the product, which is great for days when you want a super sculpted look.
3. Contour Kit (Anastasia Beverly Hills)
When you want to try some complicated Kardashian contouring, try this kit. It contains three highlighters and three dark shades that you can blend together to create the most natural look. It also comes in a light to the medium kit and a medium to tan formula for the most flattering effect.
4. Flatter Yourself Contouring Brush Set (Sephora)
It’s not hard to come across makeup brushes that cost $40 per brush, so this set offers good value for your money. You get a stippling brush, buffing brush, and angled blush brush to help define your face. Don’t worry; the kit also comes with instructions on how to use them.
5. Watt’s Up (Benefit Cosmetics)
Powder compacts can be intimidating, but this applicator stick shouldn’t scare you. It’s just like drawing on your face, but instead of using crayons, you’re using champagne-colored makeup. You can use the blender to soften any lines or mistakes.
6. Shade + Light Contour Palette (Kat Von D)
You don’t have to worry about finding any unflattering shades in this palette. The matte colors were designed to look like actual shadows and highlights. The lighter shades have a subtle luminous finish (read: not sparkly) for extra enhancement.
7. Step-By-Step Contour Kit (Smashbox)
If you take contouring one step at a time, it doesn’t seem as complicated. This set has three colors for highlighting, contouring, and bronzing. And you don’t have to worry about buying a brush, because this angled one is included.
8. Lowlight/Highlight Perfecting Palette (Becca)
The cream texture of these two colors enables to you to create a realistic contoured look that won’t have people wondering, “what happened to her face?”
9. Stippling Brush (Real Techniques)
The applicator is just as important as the product. This budget-friendly brush helps to create a seamless finish, so everyone will think that your defined cheekbones are thanks to good genes.
10. Le Duo Contour & Highlighting Stick (Lancôme)
The stick duo is easy-to-apply and fits into almost any purse, in case you’re in need of a midday touch-up. The best part is that it comes in five different shades, so you don’t have to worry about blending the colors to get a flattering hue.
11. Contour Kit (ULTA)
There’s no need to look at Kardashian selfies to figure out how to contour. This kit has easy-to-follow instructions to help you shade and highlight your face.
12. My Sculpted Face (IT Cosmetics)
This six-color kit takes the guesswork out of contouring. It comes with step-by-step instructions, so you never have to utter “where do I put this darker brown color?” again. Furthermore, the shades are universally flattering and were developed by plastic surgeons.
13. Contour Blush (NARS)
If you want to keep things simple, stick with this kit. Use the dark shade to define and the shimmer-free light shade to highlight. The kit comes in three different colorways, so there is a flattering match for every skin tone.
What Is Your Favorite Contouring Product?
Contouring is a massive beauty trend. It’s the Sriracha of the makeup world; it’s everywhere. It’s no longer a mystery beauty technique that only the Kardashians how about. There are countless tutorials so everyone can sculpt their faces and create their own supermodel cheekbones. Every day there seems to be another new contouring product being released, and there are new contouring sub-trends popping up. There’s now colorless contouring, cleavage contouring, and even hair contouring is a thing now. So, what is your favorite contouring product?
(Related: Everything You Need To Know About Colorless Contouring And How It Works)
I’ve been playing around with cream and stick contouring products recently. NYX Cosmetics Wonder Stick is one of my favorites. It comes in four different shades (light, medium-light, and universal). The dual-ended stick has a highlighter on one side and a darker shade for contouring on the other. It’s very easy to sweep on and then blend with your finger. It’s a good product for contouring newbies because the applicator makes it seem like you’re drawing on your face, and it has two basic colors. However, if you want more shades, you can always layer the two colors together, which is what I sometimes do if I want to create a softer look.
In this open thread, we want to know: What is your favorite contouring product? Let us know in the comments!
