Hello all, it’s Nicole! Let’s talk about contouring, highlighting, bronzing, all that crazy stuff Pinterest tells you to do:

Contouring color: Typically a cool toned color leaning toward the taupe/grey side

Highlighting color: Typically 1-2 shades lighter than your foundation to highlight the high points of your face. Powders can be matte or have a glow.

Bronzing color: Typically 2 shades darker than your foundation and a warmer tone

Fun fact: You can do whatever the hell you want. Don’t let the contour police come after you (trust me, they’re out there…wander over to the beauty blogging world and beauty vloggers and check the comments). Makeup is supposed to be fun and it’s about doing what looks best on you. Guidelines are great for a start but you need to do what works best for your skin.

This is my personal routine:

I started with my normal foundation, CoverGirl Ready, Set Gorgeous in 105. You can read more about it here.

The peach concealer under my eyes is to cancel the purple. It is Maybelline Dream Lumi in Radiant. Around the areas I get red and down the center of my nose is the Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Vanilla. Personally, I feel like highlighting is to let your natural features shine. You do not need the full Kim K “triangle” under your eyes for everyday but it’s good for events/photos.

I dot a cream *gasp* bronzer into the hallows of my cheeks, around my forehead, and sides of my nose, then blend with a damp beauty blender. I take the excess under my jawline to balance.

Finally, I add the NYX cream blush in Natural. If I want to feel extra glam, I also add Benefit’s High Beam on the top of my cheekbones for some more highlight.

Finishing touches: Add the rest of your makeup. Now, you have two ways you can choose to set all of those cream products (something you want to do so they don’t go sliding around). You could do a light dusting of translucent powder all over or you could go over with like-colored products for a more intense, long-lasting look.

Here are all of the products I mentioned, as well as the powder products I use to set. If you want to contour/highlight with just powders, then apply all of the same steps above with the powder products, same formula. Remember, blending is key.

What are your favorite products?