Makeup Monday

Last week’s installment discussed the creation of your makeup canvas, and this week we’ll take a look at the next layer of color: Blush and contouring!

I’ll start with a little history on the concept of contouring. This method uses light and dark to shade the planes of the face, adding depth to bring out the various features of one’s face. It is this subtle depth that prevents your makeup from looking flat. The famous Westmores invented the concept of contouring; this family team of makeup artists was highly sought after during the heyday of Hollywood and revolutionized the art of face makeup. The Westmores used contouring the add balance and enhance or downplay the features of the famous actresses of the time. By adding balance, we mean to add symmetry to one’s face—soften a square jaw or add width to the temples and jaw line of a diamond-shaped face.

Contouring is a subtle art, especially when used for your daily face! In other words, this is not the racing stripe blush so popular in the 80s. The most commonly contoured facial feature is the cheekbones, though; adding shadow to the underside and highlight above this area enhances or brings out the bone structure. Contouring can also be used to subtly narrow the width of the nose or add fullness to one’s upper lip. It’s a fascinating art form, to say the least!

Rouge choices were decidedly different from the natural nude and soft pinks and peach shades in favor today. Colors were often bright, intense shades—crimson, coral, bright rose—that were applied and well blended to add a soft flush to the face. Rose and raspberry shades were favored in the 1920s, with a brief orange fad in 1925. Very light pinks were the rage in the early 1930s, moving to raspberry reds, yellow reds, and purple reds during the mid-late 30s. Pink-based reds, bright fuchsia pinks, and bright rose were the colors of choice in the 1940s. And finally, roses, light pinks, corals and peaches, and pink-orange shades were the popular choices in the 1950s.

An excellent line to explore is the very inexpensive pro-brand La Femme. This brand offers well-pigmented dry rouge cakes in a wide assortment of period-perfect colors for a mere $3-5. Favorites of mine include Indian Rose (a bright coral pink) Pink Velvet (a true raspberry fuchsia) and Peach Sparkle (a rich, shimmer-free peach). The high pigment ratio of this brand makes them a lovely choice for darker-skinned women; paler ladies can pull them off too by applying them with a light touch. If you cannot find this brand locally, visit the Web site www.adiscountbeauty.com; it’s well worth checking out! Another favorite brand of mine is Joe Blasco; again this pro-brand really delivers in the blush department! Flamingo is a soft peachy pink, and Orchid is another fantastic period choice. Revlon (they make a lovely matte rouge) and Cover Girl (Plumberry Glow is a nice bright coral pink) also offer some lovely and inexpensive options; for higher end brands, check out MAC (Dame and Pink Swoon are favorites of Dita Von Teese; Pinch O’Peach was used on Gwen Stefani for her role as Jean Harlow in the Aviator.)

If you decide to try your hand at contouring, you may select a powder or cream foundation a shade or two darker than your skin tone to add shadows, and one that is slightly lighter to bring out or add width to your features. Soft, matte nude shades of blush or eye shadow (yes, eye shadow!) also work well; you might try MAC Emote, NYX Taupe, or Shu Uemura M Beige 820.

Blush application and contouring can be broken down by face shape; for this portion of the article I am referencing a 1946 copy of Beauty Your Figure magazine. According to the article, it is “imperative to know the shape of face that you have, so that if you desire to change that shape, or enhance it, you will know how to proceed. Decide whether your face falls into the category of the oval, the square, or the round…[with] proper make-up you can create an illusion of ovalness—the most desired of all face shapes.”

Longer faces are enhanced by patting strokes of rouge along the sides of the face, with the apex of color directly under the cheekbone and blended toward the ear and hairline. The longer the face, the lower the rouge can be blended toward the jawline and earlobe, to add width to the cheeks; avoid applying or blending rouge to the areas under the eye, near the nose, or toward the lips.

For the round face, the technique employed is essentially the reverse of that used for the long face; rouge should be worn high on the cheeks, blending off toward the temple and hairline. The rounder the face, the higher the rouge should be blended. Again, it is important to not blend the color toward the nose or under the eye or toward the jaw.

Rouge for the oval face should be worn just below the cheekbones, with the apex of the color in the hollow under the cheekbones, blended upward over the cheek and toward the temple, ears, and hairline. Once again, avoid blending the rouge under the eyes or near the nose.

So there you have it—a brief rundown on blush application and contouring! I hope you enjoyed this installment in the series; come back next week to read an article on period eye shadow!

XOXO,
Amanda Lee

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