Sunday 5 January 2014

How to: The basics of highlighting and shading

It is very useful to know how to highlight and shade a face correctly. You can enhance certain facial features and hide others, you can also change the look of a person's entire facial structure. 
Now, I have a round shaped face so I like to shade under my cheekbones to give the appearance that I do actually have them and under my jaw. 


  • The key is to shade where shadows naturally fall and highlight where light naturally hits the face.



Here is a picture of where to highlight and shade on the face:



These are the areas that I like to shade and highlight on my face, I hollow out my cheekbones using a dark blush and then use a light pink on the apples of my cheeks. Or if you prefer, you can use a foundation that is two tones darker than your natural shade and use that to shade. Apply it with a foundation brush or your fingers and then blend. To highlight I use a foundation that is two tones lighter. 

Depending on your face shape you may not want to highlight certain areas, for example if you have a prominent chin you may want to shade it instead to make it look less prominent. If you want to make your nose look narrower then you can highlight down the middle and then shade on the sides and vice versa if you want to make your nose look wider. 

I also like to highlight under my eyebrows because I think it really helps to make your eyes stand out and it also helps to define your brow shape. Highlighting your cupid's bow also really helps to define your lip shape. Shading your temples and jaw line can also help to make a round face more structured by making it look more square, however if you have a square face and want to soften it then highlighting your temples and jawline can achieve this.

So you can achieve just about anything with this technique!
Hope this helps you and hoped you enjoyed reading.

Bye for now,
Beth x
facebook.com/bethhaggarmakeup

No comments:

Post a Comment