NOSE CONTOURING: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

I feel as if even the people that don't follow me on Instagram but just read my blog will really enjoy this one (don't look so guilty ;)). It's that one blog post that I spill ALL. My pet peeve is when I see obvious nose contour! As a perfectionist, harsh contour really irks me. I don't know if people know that they are doing it or are intentionally going for the drag queen contour? not that there's anything wrong with drag queen makeup, If you like it then that's ok. Each to their own.

If that's the look you're not going for then read on! I'm going to explain my knowledge on nose contouring as much as I can and I will include diagrams to show you. Many of you reading this have either a bulbous nose, hook, slight hook, drooping tip, wide bridge, crooked from the front, long, short...which ever shape you have there is ways to make it less prominent. I'm not a surgeon so I won't promise perfect results...just enough for it to look smaller? defined? Yes.

Some of you, like my sister Sonia might be blessed with a perfect sloped nose and others may have decided to choose to go under the knife and try rhinoplasty which is a personal preference. Some may fear of being unconscious and having their nose broken and reshaped. That's where contouring comes in (woohoo!)

The first thing to remember when contouring is: THE MORE YOU SHADE THE MORE OBVIOUS IT WILL LOOK! I see women in real life and all over social media and I am automatically drawn to the middle of their face because the contouring is either too harsh, too orange or too muddy making the nose look more prominent and masculine. 

The contour shade you choose for your nose must be lighter than the one you use for your cheeks and the rest of your face. Whether you're using cream or powder it always has to be a cool tone. Cool tones mimic the natural contours and shadows of the face. ORANGE IS A NO!

STOP following the contour pictures you see on IG, everyone's nose is different and seeing the same contour and highlight on everyone's nose bothers me.

HERE WE GO.

1. If you have a wide bridge concentrate on shading out the darker areas of this diagram and then connect with the sides of the nostrils. This is best done with a cream contour. It will take some practice before you perfect it.

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2. You want to make your nose appear shorter but a little wider too. down your nose use a concealer that's three shades lighter after that apply the contour shade. Concentrate on the tips and the sides of the nose. Blend well is a 224 brush by MAC until seamless. 

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3. STOP highlighting all the way down, you only need the tip highlighted. Shade out the bump, like shown in diagram. 

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4. Common mistake I see all the time. If you have a dent why make it look more obvious by adding darkness to it? Opt for the lighter concealer in this area. Don't worry it won't look funny, it's all about blending it well. 

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5. Use a flat concealer brush to apply cream contour for precision, follow where the light grey colour on the diagram. You want to stop where I have put the black line. Use a powder or a white eyeshadow in the centre, making sure it's a thin line. Buff and blend with any small blending brush.

Best done over your foundation because it shows more but not too obvious. the key is to blend. I took so much time out to do these images. It's pretty simple to follow the pictures that's why there's less description. Be patient and practice. I'm not promising miracles but it's a difference. 

Conquer that contour! wooop!

Fyza xoxo

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My New Foundation - Sonia

Long over due blog post guys! I'm currently in Istanbul, it's a nice evening and I'm just relaxing on the sofa on a Friday night and thought I better get this post done. I'm such a procrastinator and literally got a text from Fyza saying "do a blog post!" 

I recently started using a new foundation and concealer, I'm always searching for the ONE...foundation that is. I may have found the one but there's a drug store one and a high end one. I have oily skin so primer is a must, I'm using Maybelline baby skin Primer at the moment.

For every day makeup I go between L'Oreal True Match Liquid Foundation in W6 (I use a darker shade because of my tanning mousse) and Makeup Forever Ultra HD foundation in Y335.
I blend my foundation in with a Beauty Blender and use Tarte Creasless Concealer in Medium Tan for under eyes. 

To set my makeup I prefer to use a loose translucent powder, MUFE HD loose powder is great to buff everything together but make sure to blend this powder a lot to get the flawless finish that is awesome for photographs to.

I keep Yves Saint Laurent Touhe Eclat Blur Perfecter in my bag to control the shine on my face. This product is like an oily skin person's saviour in a little case! It oil control's the areas you want without removing or budging your makeup at all! It's weightless and the pretty packaging is most definitely a bonus.

If you have oily skin and have an olive undertone be sure to give these a try. Foundation has always been so difficult to find, especially for my skin tone so I had to share my current favourites :)

Sonia X

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Fun Blue Make-Up Look

I love a little colour once in a while! Recently I thought I haven't done make-up on my sister, Sonia in a while...so on one of my days off I decided to do that. I didn't think of a look in my head I just went with the flow.

She already had a fresh tan with the help of Million Dollar Tan and the 48C Middle East sun, so I knew I wanted the skin super bronzy.

SKIN PREP
I started skin prep with Kiehls ultra face moisturiser, Primed with Benefit Professional primer and i let that sit on the skin for a while before starting on the base.

FACE 
Colour Correction - of course I can't do a make over with out this. I corrected the redness around her nose with green corrector, a salmon coloured concealer around her eyes slightly. Once I blended that into her skin I used Benefit Cosmetics Boing concealer to conceal any blemishes individual with a small brush and also the under eyes, I used the concealer to go over the areas I corrected with the green and salmon concealer.

Using Motives Cosmetics colour perfection quad in medium dark I slightly contoured below her cheek bones, nose and forehead- I did this before applying any foundation, concentrating on perfecting the skin with concealer, it's always best to use more concealer than foundation. Using a mixture of L'oreal True Match and MAC face and body in C4 with a Beauty Blender to blend the contour and concealer together. I take a while to blend it all together until it is seamless, you're not supposed to be able to tell where you started and where you stopped. The skin should be glowing and contoured to perfection at this point - no harsh lines or muddy looking nose (if you want to know more about tones to contour i have a blog post on that too!)

To add a little OOMPH! to the under eyes I used Maybelline Age rewind foundation in Classic beige, this brightened the under eyes without the ashy/grey look. Blend with mini Beauty Blender for the best result.

EYES AND EYEBROWS
Primed with Benefit Stay Don't Stray eye primer, as a base colour I used a black kohl pencil starting form the lash line, I smudged that up to the crease using a Wayne Goss #20 Brush, I created a wing with the kohl pencil and smudged it to give a smokey effect, using the colour Naked from the Naked Palette I applied it to the crease using a Wayne Goss #19 brush, for the main blue colour I wet my Wayne Goss #18 brush  and with L'oreal infallible eye shadow in midnight blue and pressed it onto the lid, this intensified the colour. I blended that in the a clean fluffy brush so it blended in with the Naked crease colour, I finished the eyes by smoking out a black kohl pencil on the lash line and water line, wetting the brush again with the midnight blue colour and applying that on the bottom lash line.

I highlighted her brow bone and inner tear duct with Laura Mercier candle light highlighter.

For brows I used MAC brow pencils in lingering and spiked, setting them with Benefit Cosmetics Gimmie Brow blonde - this technique lightens the brows!

SETTING POWDERS AND BLUSHER
I set the under eyes with Colourless Ben Nye loose powder, I powder contoured with Smashbox bronzer, Cheek bone highlight by Laura Mercier loose powder in candle light, blusher is MAC fluer power.

LIPS
Estee Lauder Lip liner in nude with Nars Lipstick in Chelsea Girl



I used the buffing technique to blend it all together at the end!
If you want to know more about the buffing technique I use you can watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7XjD4a7xv8


I hope you benefited from this post.

Fyza xoxo
Instagram.com/soniaxfyza
soniaxfyza@gmail.com

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