Forget plastic surgery! These 7 makeup tricks could completely transform your features
Nose contouring instead of a nose job
If you find your nose too big, too wide, or too something else, get ready to transform it with contouring. For the uninitiated, contouring is the process of strategically placing bright concealer or highlighter on areas you want to catch light, making them more pronounced, and darker products on places where you want to create shadows, making them less noticeable.
There are specific contouring techniques for each nose shape, but in every case, you’ll want to apply concealer that’s two shades lighter than your skin tone to the bridge of your nose, and a greyish-brown or dark taupe colour (a powder or liquid) to cover bumps, wide nostrils, or hook shapes. Always blend the light and dark colours into place using a beauty blender sponge or a rechargeable makeup brush, which evenly disperses granules of makeup in thin, even layers for an airbrush-like finish. The results are like an instant nose job – no surgery required!
Strategic eyeliner instead of an eye lift
Oh, the wonders of a good eyeliner. Whether your eyes are too small, too big, too down-turned or too something else, applying eyeliner in the proper style and colour is the perfect way to visibly alter their shape. To open up the eyes, adding white liner to the lower lash line creates an optical illusion as it acts as a continuation of your eyes, making them look bigger.
For down-turned eyes, nothing works better than a reverse cat eye in black liner. For hooded lids, apply smokey eyeliner to enhance the outer corners for the illusion of lift.
Shading cheekbones instead of fillers
Women have been turning to pricey injectable fillers to fake supermodel cheekbones, but there’s a much easier – and cheaper – way. For this no-fuss three-step process, all you need is your trusty contour kit (foundation that is two shades lighter than your skin tone, plus a base that is two shades darker), which you will use to outline and highlight the apples of your cheeks.
First apply the one-shade lighter cream foundation on your cheekbones to draw light; then apply the two-shades darker base below the cheekbones to help those areas recede. Finish with a pop of pink or peach on the apples of your cheeks, and dab a few drops of liquid highlighter at the top of cheekbones. Blend, et voila – Hollywood cheekbones.
Smoothing foundation instead of botox
Many foundations are prone to caking, cracking and flaking, which are likely to make any wrinkles and blemishes more noticeable instead of concealing them. If you want your face to look younger, one of the easiest ways is by smoothing skin.
That means starting with a primer, which smooths the canvas of your face, like a painter would spackle and prime walls before applying colour. Follow with a satin foundation for a silky smooth, practically Photoshopped face.
Overlining lips instead of injectable plumpers
Less is definitely more here, but this tiny adjustment will make a huge difference in the appearance of your lips. The trick is to first apply a neutral-coloured, matte lip liner all over your lips; then trace slightly outside the lines. Don’t venture more than a few millimetres beyond your natural lip line, as that looks too obvious (and a little scary).
You can also strategically choose the areas you want to overline, like the cupid’s bow or bottom lip instead of the entire rim. Once you’ve overlined, apply your favourite matte lipstick not only to your lips, but onto the overlined area as well. A matte finish will hide the line you’ve added, whereas shiny lipstick emphasises it.
Chisel your chin with powder instead of surgery
If your jawline isn’t quite as sharp as you’d like, shaping powder is an easy way to get more definition. Take a greyish-brown powder (nothing too orange) and apply it along your jaw line from behind your ear all the way down to the tip of your chin.
Repeat this application on the other side of your jaw. Blend the powder down your neck so that there aren’t any noticeable lines or colour differences. You’ll absolutely love the look of your sharp new bone structure.
Slim your silhouette
Though some celebrities manage to rock a round face, the rest of us can feel insecure about so-called chipmunk cheeks. A great way to slim your face is to use a contour stick and bronzer to hollow out the cheeks, then apply blush and highlighter above the bronzer to make your cheekbones more pronounced.
This will not only elongate your face shape, but will give you those model-like chiselled cheeks.
Image credits: Getty Images
This article originally appeared on Reader's Digest.