Lights and Shadows

There are 2 important factors when mastering the art of artistry. This applies to all artists. This is mastery of light and shadow.  Everything around us is in 3D. We see perception and depth. As artists, we try to mimic this on paper, canvas, a face, etc. Light and shadow is what gives life to the art you're doing. For makeup, your focal point to base your light and shadow is above and in front you. Placement of the light and shadow (highlight and contour) can go either way, enhance your features in a negative or positive way. For example, if you were to put a contour color under your eye, it may give the illusion of a fatigued eye, maybe even a black eye. Remember, whatever you want to HIGHLIGHT, you want to bring bring forward. Whatever you want to CONTOUR, you want to recede. Here's a face contour example:

There were different products I used and love to use on myself and clients. 

First I start with a clean face, moisturizer, primer and this wonderful Urban Decay B6 toner/spray. Think MAC Fix+ with vitamins and B6. 

Next, I use cream products to highlight and shadow. I prefer cream based products as my base because they adhere to the skin better and the coverage is always flawless and the staying power is great as long as you use minimal product. Yes, again, a little goes a long way. The rule of thumb is - cream to cream, powder to powder, liquid to liquid. In other words, it is not suggested to have a cream foundation on, then start using a powder for contouring without setting the cream first. What happens is the powder contour won't blend well. It'll adhere to certain areas more than others, it'll look blotchy. So if you're using cream or liquid, remember to set with powder before moving on. 

For my contour I used MUD (Make-up Designory) Pro concealer palette, using the darkest colors. 

For my highlight, I used the MAC Pro concealer palette in medium light. I mixed all the colors on the left on to my palette. 

I used my Coverfx Total Cover Cream Foundation in N80 to marry everything together, blending well so as not to see the demarcations. Make sure it's as natural as possible, seeing lines on a face is disastrous. 

Now to seal everything, you must set with powder. I dusted the Ben Nye Camel powder all over to set the whole thing. Then I used the famous Ben Nye Banana Powder to emphasize the highlights. 

And the last step was to emphasize my contour with Kevyn Acouin bronzer mixed with Coastal Scents contour powder

Tips: 

Look at your face in the mirror. Imagine it being the shape of an oval. Now using the technique of light and shadow (highlight is to bring out, contour is to recede or push back) you can carve out the perfect shape you want. Every feature on your face can be enhanced with that same technique. 

Go ahead, try it! See how far you can take it. For fun, you can even reverse highlight for contour, it's pretty fun. Ok artists, sleep tight!