How to Contour (Make your face thinner with make up)

^I've been asked numerous times how I made myself look manly when I cosplayed Gakupo, to be honest, I've had a very round and chubby face since forever.
But for me to be able to crossplay (in my case, to cosplay a male character), I need to make my face look more manly or more angled.
Make up really does wonders, my friends told me that contouring would help with my chubby face.


Before, I knew nothing about contouring but I gave it a try and it has helped me cosplay female characters with a more mature appearance and even made me a decent looking guy. :)


I learned from friends and by experimenting, I could safely say that my Sheryl Nome and Gakupo wouldn't be as decent as it is if I hadn't used contouring.


Anyway,
What is contouring?

Contour means to shape or define the outline. In make up, it means to shape the face and add definition to certain areas, making some parts more pronounced by creating an illusion with shadows.

Daily Lives of Highschool Boys cosplay

So far, this tut is the best I could find to help you guys with contouring.
Many thanks to my dear gal pal Sese for this. :3




I don't have a bronzer or a kabuki brush but I found that you can also make due with Brown Eyeshadow and an angled face brush.


This is the brush I use, an angled face brush from E.L.F. You can find this easily in SM Department Stores and I think they cost around 150PhP. (I think it was 130PhP when I bought mine XD)

I am no expert but I experimented and really tried hard, what I know is what I learned from friends and a lot of trial and error.


Here are some examples of what I've done nicely with the help of contouring:

Kamui Gakupo Setsugetsuke version

Photo by z3LL

Costume is courtesy of Jeyel and Kyo, many thanks dears!~

Since my character had normal human colored looking skin, I used foundation in my skin tone and then used brown eye shadow for shadows/contouring.

Ichiihara Yuuko

photo by me XDD

A make up trial I did. Yuuko is pale, so I used white foundation, if I used brown eye shadow or bronzer, the shadows or the contour would look so unnatural so I used gray.

Sheryl Nome White Bunny version
photo by Raisa de Pano
When I cosplay females and I need to elongate or define my face to make me look more mature I go with a lighter shade of brown and I use a darker shade of brown to make my face look more angled for male characters.

I have an eye shadow palette similar to this, actually I was just too lazy to take a pic of mine so I grabbed one from the net but the colors are the same XD
I use the lighter one when I contour my face for female characters and the darker side for male characters.

To know which shade of brown or what color would be best to use for contouring, think of the color of your skin or foundation and go with a color about 3 to 5 times darker, a color that would look most natural as a shadow. Dark enough with out going too dark or too black. Unless your face needs to be gray then I think black would look best for contouring.

Don't be afraid to experiment!


Lemme see how you did!


Go and try this out, hope it helps! :3


P.S.
Contouring is often used to make the face longer, thinner or more angled but you can also make your face look rounder or your nose shorter depending on how you apply these "shadows". Don't be afraid to experiment and play around, you'll learn loads. =)


Also, the video is not mine. I am not claiming ownership, I am just sharing because I think it is the best tut for contouring I have found so far. All credit goes to the dude who made this really helpful video.

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thanks for reading!

 jaa! visit me again, ne!

     arigatou! (*^3^)/~

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