Kiko Cosmetics: My first contour attempt

 

Hi Everyone,

Today I wanted to share with you my first time not only trying the Kiko cosmetics contouring pencils, but my first time actually contouring in general. I know, I know I’m behind the times. I always add some sort of definition with my bronzer, but I haven’t ever tried a contour kit or set. To be honest I felt like my makeup skills just weren’t up to scratch to even attempt contour. This is mainly due to seeing professional makeup artists and Kim Kardashian do their contour, and obviously that is a little more extreme for an everyday look.

I started my makeup the same way as usual, using the Illamsqua liquid foundation, added concealer (MAC Pro-longwear) and blended this all in for a clean base to work with. I recently read a quote regarding contouring which said that once you add your base, your face is all the same shade, and we therefore need to add in the definition we naturally have. I love viewing it in this way, as I think some people still see contouring as excessive. But when you think about it, we do need to define our face with the natural cheek bones we have. Yes, we can use clever tricks to make our face more defined than it naturally is, make our nose smaller and even change your look further, but for a basic contour, it is useful for everyone.

Step one: Contour Cheek bones and Jawline

The first part of the contour I did was to define the jawline and cheek bones. This is when contour can be really effective in adding just a little definition or a LOT of definition, depending on what you are going for. I chose to go start off small, and just add a little, I didn’t want to try anything too crazy on a first attempt. The pencil does feel quite like a crayon, so though it glides on smoothly enough, you sort of feel like it won’t blend in, a little strange to say the least, but these pencils are easy to apply to the right targeted areas, which really helps.

Step two: Contour nose and Forehead

Next step is the nose. You can really go to town here as well, using the lines to simply add to your nose, or even adjust it to look smaller. I didn’t want to change my nose too much so I didn’t go all the way to the brow bone. My nose is wider at the bottom, so I could also add some contour to the beginning of the nostrils, but I just focused on a small amount to see how this turned out.

It is important to remember to contour the top of the forehead as well. There are some great websites to show how best to contour for your face shape, but if in doubt, you can use the same method of bronzer as a starting point. Just hitting where the sun would naturally catch your face. As this was my first time I stuck to safe zones of my face 🙂

Step three: Highlight Nose

I enjoy the highlight part more than the contour because it’s a little simpler, and slightly more straightforward where you need to highlight. Although research is better as you can see how best to accentuate your natural beauty, standard highlight really is about highlighting the nose and high point of the cheekbones.  With the nose, you just want to highlight the center and travel up to the forehead. You don’t have to just use a highlight for this however, as a concealer just in a few shades lighter than your normal shade will also be perfect. I also added a little highlight to my cupids bow to brighten the lip area too.

Step four: Highlight Cheekbones

Highlighting the cheekbones, is what I find can really take your look to the next level. It brightens up your entire face and it adds so much more to your overall makeup look. Highlighting cheekbones is what I really think finishes off your look perfectly. With the pencil, though it applied easily enough I didn’t get the same sort of finish I was hoping for. The cheekbone highlight in my opinion is what brings it all together, it makes you look polished and beautiful, so for me the KiKo highlight in its pencil form just wasn’t enough. I would suggest using a powder highlight or illuminator for the ultimate glow.

Step five: Blend! 

You’ve probably heard the word blend so many times when it comes to beauty blogs and youtubers but it is the most important step. This is what will pull the look together, add further to the definition you are looking for and of course, set your contour in the right places and make it look natural and beautiful. To blend I used my real techniques Sculpting brush. This worked really well for the contour parts, as the shape is perfect for the cheekbone areas. I did use a smaller brush for the highlight on my nose, but the sculpting brush was fine for all parts of the face. The crayon feel of the pencil really was more evident when I began to blend, and it almost felt a little tough at times. I would recommend taking the product off the pencil with a makeup brush and applying it that way, rather than direct from the pencil. That being said, they blended out quite well I think, and the highlighter was subtle but effective enough, though I would still use another for a better result.

Step six: Finish off makeup 

After it is all blended and beautiful, you can then just finish off your makeup. Add blush, masacra, eyeshadow or whatever you need for the look you are going for. As this was just an everyday look, I literally just added blusher and masacra.

Trying out this contour did make me more excited to try other makeup techniques. and be braver to try. Why should we be afraid of trialing out anything. Whether it’s a new eye shadow, eyeliner flick, or even strobing. From the comfort of your own home why not go a little crazy and experiment. Makeup is supposed to be fun, yes it enhances our looks, and for some even do more than that, but more than anything it should be fun. I found the Kiko Cosmetic contour pencils were a great introduction to contour, and though I do think they were a little hard to blend at times, they are a really great product.

Thanks for reading everyone!

 

Love

xx