Contouring and highlighting can truly do wonders for your face. By chiseling out the illusion of bone structure, you can actually give your face a different dimension then you were born with. This is great news for me because I was not born with high cheekbones or an oval face! By creating light and shadow, you can mold a more ideal face shape!
Luckily with Tarte’s Park Avenue Princess-Contour Palette, you have a contouring powder and a highlighter (plus a blush) right in the same compact. Since Tarte is a fairly natural makeup line, this takes the guess work out of what products to use in order to create the perfect face shape illusion!
I had been wanting to learn how to contour my face for a while. Honestly, I could never find the right product. It was either too hard to control or not natural. When Tarte came out with this palette I was in hopes that finally I could start contouring my face without too much time, product and effort.
Tarte does not disappoint. The Amazonian clay based powders are long lasting and highly pigmented but not so much that they aren’t forgiving if you apply too much. The only negative comment I could make is that maybe this palette is more suited for light-medium skin tones. The blush is subtle yet buildable but I can’t see it working on a darker skin tone, nor can I see the contour powder being dark enough. As you can see from my pics, it is very dark on me but I am completely without a tan this time of year which makes me very pale. Other then that, I would recommend this product for sure!
I’m going to leave most of my contouring explanations to my pictures. The basic thought in contouring is that whatever you want to recede, apply the dark powder. Anything you want to bring forward, use the white highlighter. It’s really that simple. I have a long face with low cheekbones but my shading is pretty standard for most face shapes. Here are a few guidelines for other face shapes though:
Round faces: Be sure to really hollow out your cheek bones and temples to create the illusion of a thinner face.
Square faces: Shade the squareness of your lower jaw to give more of an oval illusion to the lower 1/2 of your face. Also, be sure to round out your forward by applying the darker powder to the outer edges.
Heart shaped faces: Focus the contour powder on the outer edges of your forehead and bottom of your chin.
Oval faces: You have the perfect face shape so gently hollow out your cheeks below your cheek bones and highlight down the center of your face.
I do suggest you buy the proper brush with this palette if you don’t have one already. The Slenderizer Bamboo Contouring Brush is great quality and works so well with this palette. I’m not one to buy gimmicky add ons with makeup and skin care products but this one is a good idea. It applies and blends your makeup seamlessly. I was actually using my tarte brush backwards until I went back to their website and actually read the directions! It made all the difference to use the dense domed side to apply the powders and the fluffy, slanted side to blend. A denser brush will help you get enough product on your skin but a fluffy brush (I don’t think it has to be slanted) will help blend those harsh lines so you have a natural finish.
Find the palette HERE.
Find the brush HERE.
I hope you enjoyed this easy contouring tutorial! Please leave me a comment if you have any other makeup tutorials you would like to see or comments on this tutorial!
xx, Jenni
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