How To Choose Your Contour Shade

The Ultimate Guide

Contour is one of those things that most people find a bit of a struggle at some point….because it’s very easy to get wrong. It’s easy to either overcomplicate it or get slightly wrong without realizing why. Most of the advice you see tells you to go for something really cool or grey-toned because it’s meant to mimic a shadow. And while that sounds right in theory, in real life it doesn’t always translate well.

Not all shadows on your face are grey. If you actually look at your skin in natural light, the depth in your face usually has some warmth to it. It’s not flat or ashy. That’s why when you use a contour that’s too cool or too grey, it can look great in one light and then completely off in another. It can make your skin look dull, or like there’s something sitting on top of it rather than blending in naturally.

What you’re really trying to do with contour is create depth, not draw a line or create an obvious shadow. That depth should look like it belongs to your face. It should blend in so well that you can’t really tell where it starts or ends.