Makeup is powerful. With the right makeup products and application techniques, you can flaunt your best facial features and conceal the ones that you are not fond of. In this article, we’ll discuss the basic rules of makeup that everyone should remember. Let’s begin with one of the most important makeup skills to master: contouring and highlighting your face. Honestly, contouring for beginners is tough especially if you don’t have knowledge about how light naturally hits your face.

Consider these five basic rules of contouring before you get started:

Contouring and highlighting are different

You need to know the areas of your face that catches the light and casts a shadow in order to contour properly. Use a contour powder that’s two shades darker from your skin tone to shape your cheekbones, forehead, nose and chin. Pair it with a highlighter that’s two shades lighter than your skin. This duo is like peanut butter and jelly on your sandwich—they are better together.

Get the best products for your skin type

The cream contour and highlighter works best for people with dry skin. On the other hand, the powder format suits people with oily skin.  If you have sensitive and acne prone skin, use products with mild and organic ingredients.  It will be difficult to find the best product, hence it’s better if you try it to see how your skin will react to the product.

Do the makeup in an orderly fashion

Step one will always be the primer. This is the base of your makeup and it ensures that everything you wear will last longer. Next, apply your foundation—powder, liquid, or cream. This will be your second skin and will set to give you a smoother complexion. Then, you hide the remaining obvious imperfections of your face with a concealer. Use it to conceal large pores, dark circles, age spots, wrinkles and even eye bags. After these ticket makeup items, you may now contour your face. Set everything with powder before you wear your highlights!

Don’t over do it

One time, a trend called colour or clown contouring caught our attention. It involves the use of contour and highlight sticks to draw fun shapes on your face, then blending it together to enhance your face shape. Here’s a video we found which closely teaches you how to do it:

But just like any beauty trend, clown contouring soon went out of the limelight.

This is why it’s better to apply fewer makeup products. If you have good skin, there’s no reason to put on heavy makeup.  Only use the products you need, gorgeous!

Finally, always sanitize your hands and tools

A lot of ladies use their hands when applying cream contour and highlighter products. It’s not ideal, but if you have no choice but to use your fingers, wash your hands. Do this to avoid spreading bacteria which causes pimple breakouts. Same goes with your makeup brushes—wash it fortnightly.

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