Here's how to balance a round face without contouring

June 12, 2015 10:54 PM

In place of contouring, there are more subtle ways of balancing or offsetting your rounded features using makeup.

Makeup for a slimmer face

Due to the rising popularity of contouring, thanks to Kim Kardashian and others, its taken its toll on everyone.

It’s obviously a great technique, but it’s a bit much to do every day.

In place of contouring, there are more subtle ways of balancing or offsetting your rounded features using makeup.

Here's a step by step break down for your facial makeup for a slimmer looking face.

Eyebrows

If you want to do the least amount of work necessary to offset a round face, focus on your brows. Arched ones will add some much-needed length to a round face since the arch will lift up your eye area, but flat or straight brows may make round faces look wider. To add some extra angles, go for a sharper shape at the start of the brow and the top of the arch.

Eyeshadow

You can sneak in some angles by sharpening the outer edge of your eye makeup. You can do this by making sure it doesn’t go beyond an imaginary line from the end of your brow to the end of your eye, or by creating a sharp edge with a foundation brush after you do your eye makeup.

Eyeliner

One of the best ways to add angles is with some bold, graphic liner. Try a thick cat eye with a sharp wing that looks like it slopes, not softly curves, when you close your eyes.

Blush

The trick to using blush to narrow a round face is applying it diagonally and extending it higher than you normally would on your cheekbones. You can apply blush on your cheekbones first, and then drag the blush from the top of your cheekbones upward, toward the top of your ears to create the diagonal line.

Highlighter

To subtly add length, you can also highlight down the bridge of your nose and the center of your forehead using a light shadow or a concealer lighter than your skin tone.

Lips

If you have more of a rounded cupid’s bow, you can try making the peaks look sharper with a lip brush or the tip of your lipstick.

Wearing all these techniques together may be too much for faces with sharper features, but a very round face can handle it.

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