Contouring // Errors You Shouldn't Make

You may hate her, you may love her but regardless of your thoughts towards Kim Kardashian it's fair to say she definitely highlighted the benefits of contouring your face to highlight and define the face. While this certainly can make you look more put together, healthier even it can also work to change how a part of your face looks - celebrities tend to use it to slow down noses and to define cheekbones giving them that almost superhuman chiseled look.

There are tons of celebrities that do it well; and then there's a few who get it oh-so-wrong. Take for examples these celebrities, some are absolutely shocking and either need to get a makeup artist or sack their current artist; some on the other hand aren't that bad, they may just need to get their product tones more suitable, check them out...

First up Nicki Minaj,what was she thinking? do you think this was a deliberate ploy for attention because even her lipliners not blended, she's not blended in her product yet she's done her eyes? is it crazy to think that you'd get your base down before applying lipstick and eye makeup?

Lindsay Lohan's offence here is the cheek product. When you're contouring you don't want to apply your darker shade in the same way as you do a blusher, you want to drawn an 'E' (curly as in a backwards 3) shape from the top of your forehead down the side of your cheek to your jaw. blending until you see no clear lines.

Demi Lovato and Khloe Kardashian have got so close, they're lighter product is too light. When you're contouring you want to choose a shade or two above your skin tone for your darker product and a shade lighter for your illuminating or highlighting product.

Karina Smirnoff's problem isn't hugely visible at first glance but if you take a closer look at her nose you will see the un-blended lines down each side of her bridge. Her product is the right colour tone but it's just not been blended very well.

You can really choose any face coverage product to get the same effect, to get a really spot on effect it's advisable to use a matte or satin formula for your darker shade otherwise it's going to look so wrong when your side burn area starts to spangle and to chose a highlighting effect, pearl or diffusing finish for your lighter so that your skin looks radiant.

If you're not brave enough to try a darker cream foundation on your skin (and many won't, I know I wasn't to begin with) you can start off using your typical bronzing pearls, powder or creams and building up from there - honestly I think a bronzer works better because it looks natural, when you're going about your day to day life a heavily made up looks can look out of place. Nights out, photographic occasions and darker months of the year are more suited to the heavier cream foundations.

Want another reason as to why bronzer and highlighting products can look more natural? take a peek...