While makeup can be super fun and be an artistic outlet, many forget that it is also a science! Although everyone has different features, there are tried and tested ways to work with the shape of your face to improve your look. Here are some expert tips that will help you look even better and what's more will accentuate your best features.
First, you will need to find out the shape of your face, and here's a simple way to do that:
- Tie up your hair to get it off of your face.
- Draw a few dots with eyeliner bordering your face.
- Connect the dots to help you see the shape with the common types being oval, heart-shaped, round, diamond-shaped and square/rectangle.
Now that you know your face shape, it's time to move on to contouring & highlighting your face. Follow the steps below for your face shape:
OVAL:
Celebrities: Rihanna, Megan Fox
This shape is the most envied and experts even call this shape the most balanced and proportional. In this shape, the forehead is slightly wider than the lower face with prominent cheekbones. Being so proportional, people will this structure can experiment with all sorts of trends.
What to do:
- Since the shape of the face is already defined, only a little contour is needed under the cheekbones, and along the sides of the bridge of the nose.
- Do highlight the high points of the face: temples, brow bone, bridge of the nose, Cupid's bow, and chin.
HEART:
Celebrity: Reese Witherspoon, Christina Ricci
A heart-shaped face is characterized by a wide forehead, high cheekbones and a tapering chin. Makeup can help you shift the focus away from the wideness of the forehead while widening the lower half of the face.
What to do:
- Highlight on the bridge of the nose, high points of the cheeks, underneath the brow bone, onto the jawline, Cupid's bow, and on the chin.
- Play up cheeks with matte texture blush to downplay your high cheekbones.
- Avoid highlighting the cheekbones as it'll define the already shaped cheeks.
- Shift the focus away from the forehead by wearing soft feminine colours like sheer pinks or reds on the lips and cheeks to soften the shape of the face.
ROUND:
Celebrity: Kirsten Dunst, Selena Gomez
A found face will have equal length and width. So when it comes to accentuating this face, you will need to create the illusion of length and reduce the width of the face. Contouring is the holy grail technique for this face shape.
What to do:
- Choose an angular shape for your eyebrows to downplay the roundness of your face.
- Bronze or contour the outer corners of the face and under the cheekbones to add cut and definition.
- Go ahead and use highlighter on top of your cheekbones make them more pronounced.
- A cat’s eye will create an illusion of wider eyes and add depth to the upper half of the face.
- Apply blush a little lower than the cheekbones to give the face a narrow structure.
Celebrities: Tyra Banks, Viola Davis
A diamond-shaped face is highly angular with wide cheeks tapering towards the forehead and the chin. The aim of the game here is to create an illusion fullness by widening the forehead and the lower half of the face.
What to do:
- To draw attention to the cheekbones, go with peach and apricot colors for blush
- Apply darker than your normal foundation outside the cheekbones to minimize it. Amd apply lighter foundation to the area you want to your chin and forehead to emphasize them.
- To avoid making the cheeks look fuller, use a tawny peach/brown blush rather than a pinkish shade.
- Do not overline your lips as this may make your chin look even thinner.
SQUARE:
Celebrity: Liv Tyler, Victoria Beckham
This shape will be equidistant from jawline to jawline as from temple to temple. The best looks for this face are soft and feminine with shimmery textures that will soften the angular features and promote roundness.
What to do:
- Contour the temples and jaw with a fluffy applicator and brush upward for a natural look. Apply a rosy-toned blush on the apples of your cheek.
- Use highlighter liberally in a "C" shape around the high points of the cheeks and temples.
Fascinated by the science of makeup yet? Let us know what worked for you in the comments.
