How to Contour and Highlight Your Face With Makeup

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By Stephanie Saltzman and Alyssa Kolsky Hertzig, allure

When it comes to highlighting and contouring, there's a fine (sometimes bronzer-caked) line between enhancing your features and painting on an entirely new face, not to mention it can be intimidating to look at a powder or cream several shades darker than you skin tone and be told it can somehow create a natural-looking shadow effect, as opposed to looking like dirt smudges. We get it — contouring and highlighting techniques don’t come naturally to most of us. But luckily, over the last decade, as the techniques that were once mastered only by makeup professionals have become more popular — and even part of many mainstream, everyday makeup routines — they've also become demystified. Products made specifically for creating a sculpted, defined look are now available at every price point, and there's no shortage of beauty-vlogger YouTube tutorials to help guide your blending brush and make the most of your facial structure, right down to your specific face shape and features. But before you go digging through umpteen videos, start right here. We spoke to makeup artists Ashleigh Ciucci, Troy Surratt, and Molly Roncal — all of whom can contour and highlight in their sleep — to reveal the basics you need to know for bringing out your cheekbones, reshaping your nose, and subtly sculpting your face whenever you feel like it.