Contour 101 according to a celebrity makeup artist

Complexion products such as concealers and foundations are great for evening out skin tone and covering up blemishes. However, these products do have a tendency to make the face look flat and one-dimensional.

And here is where contour comes in.

Contouring accentuates one's facial features and brings back all the angles that were covered up by foundation.

For makeup beginners, the technique may seem scary as some tutorials online have complicated steps. Also, contouring the wrong way may actually leave one's face looking worse.

In Albert Kurniawan's latest YouTube tutorial, the celebrity makeup artist showed easy ways to contour the whole face using just two products.

For an easy and seamless contour, Albert suggests using a matte brown contouring powder which is one to two shades darker than one's skin tone. This shade is meant to emulate the shadows of the face. He then uses a warm bronzer with a slight shimmer to blend it all out.

Here is how Albert contours the cheeks, jawline, forehead, nose, and lips:

1. Cheeks

Albert's trick to finding out where to start the cheek contour is to have his client clench their teeth repeatedly while in a neutral expression. Doing so, one can feel a bone moving in their cheek which indicates where to apply the contour.

A common mistake Albert frequently notices is that some are very “gigil” with their contour making it too harsh. The makeup artist always starts at the point where the cheekbone and ear meet, he then brings the product forward slowly until it fades. After the contour, he diffuses everything with a bronzer to soften it.

2. Jawline and Chin

From the cheekbone, Albert draws the contour down to the corner of the jaw to make sure that the proportions of the newly-contoured cheek align properly with the jaw. To contour the jawline, he drags the powder from behind the ear to the chin. He does this to make the skin tone look even and to minimize the jaw more.

For a smaller, pointed chin, Albert draws a V-shape on the sides and under the chin with a mixture of the contour and bronzing powder.

3. Forehead

According to Albert, applying contour to the forehead depends on the width of the area. For those that have quite a distance from the brows to the hairline, he adds contour on the peak and sides of the forehead and blends it down with the bronzer.

For smaller foreheads, Albert just contours the sides and the temples focusing more on the hairline and diffusing everything with the bronzer.

4. Nose

Based on his observations, Albert notices that Asian noses tend to be rounder at the tip. To create the illusion of a pointier nose, he draws a V-shape on the sides and under the nose's tip. For those with a high nose bridge, he no longer adds a nose line on the upper part to avoid making it look too harsh.

Albert also likes to build the nose contour softly. Whenever he makes a mistake, he just adds a layer of face powder on top to blend everything.

Watch Albert's handy contour tutorial in his YouTube video below:

With his video, Albert hopes to see everyone sporting a nice and soft contour on their faces.