You’re prepping yourself for an at-home photoshoot for Instagram. You’ve selected your ensemble, done your hair, and recreated a makeup look you had bookmarked months ago on Pinterest. But something about your makeup is amiss. If you cannot figure out what, it’s probably because you didn’t factor in the shape of your face, and what technique flatters you the most while doing your makeup. Let’s determine through the technique of face-framing which colours, shades, techniques, and sizes compliment your face.
- How to apply makeup on a round face
- How to apply makeup on an oval face
- How to apply makeup on a rectangular face
- How to apply makeup on a diamond-shaped face
- How to apply makeup on a square-shaped face
How to apply makeup on a round face
Image Courtesy: @glamourmag
If you have fuller cheeks and a shorter jawline, you must focus on contouring. Just apply bronzer on the temples, hollows of the cheeks and jawline. Don’t contour your chin. Dab a little highlighter on the bridge of your nose, above your cheekbone, and the centre of your forehead to play into the illusion of a longer face. Accentuate your eyebrows by brushing them upwards, and go over the arch and tail of the brow with a darker shade. Sweep blush across your cheeks, from the apples up toward your ears.
How to apply makeup on an oval face
Image Courtesy: @elle
An oval-shaped face is balanced. The application of makeup for this shape is standard. A few tips include not doing too much with the cheeks. Your cheeks don’t require much makeup. Go light with your highlighter and bronzer. Opt for glossy lips over high-impact lipsticks, and balance out the subtleness with dramatic eyes, we vote for a cat-eyed look. Never try dramatising both, focus on one feature.
How to apply makeup on a rectangular face
Image Courtesy: @theworldnewsdaily
The goal is to soften the edges of your face and shift focus to the midsection of your face instead of the forehead and chin. Add a dash of blush on the outer forehead and under your cheekbones. Blend it outward toward your ears. Dot the centre of your forehead with a little bit of highlighter. Don’t go all out with your lips. Choose a soft hue instead, and dramatize your eyes with different patterns, vibrant shades, or a smokey look.
How to apply makeup on a diamond-shaped face
Image Courtesy: @cosmopolitan
Don’t do much with your eyebrows. Stick to a soft or medium-arched brow to flatter your angular features. Don’t accentuate the arch too much. Add a pop of highlighter to the highest points of your cheekbones to enhance them the most, brush some along your jawline, and sweep a little on your forehead between your brows. Define your cheekbones with a warm-toned blush - hues of peach and apricot are ideal. When you’re working on your cheeks, make sure you’re using upward strokes along the apples to create width.
How to apply makeup on a square-shaped face
Image Courtesy: @wmag
Just like rectangular faces, you must soften the edges for a square-shaped face as well. Sweep a bronzer along the sides of the jaw and forehead - remember that this shape requires you to contour the edges of the face. Apply a highlighter that’s one shade lighter than your complexion to the centre of your forehead and under the tip of your chin. Add some to the cheeks too. Use a tawny blush in the hollows of your cheeks, and add a lighter shade of the same colour along your cheekbones as well as the apples of your cheeks. Blend properly. Keep your eyebrows rounded. Paint your lips a dramatic hue, and for a puckered pout, add highlighter to your cupid’s bow and the centre of your lips. You can overline a little too.
Image Courtesy: @glamourmag
Written by Urvi Shah on Jan 06, 2022
A professional writer by day, and a poet by night, I'm a journalism graduate with experience in the news, travel, and food sectors. A frantic compiler of excerpts from books I've read, you can count on me to incorporate quotes and phrases into everyday conversations without a warning. On days I'm not working, I station myself in front of my laptop, and try to work my way through month-old drafts of my writings.