Very often I receive your e-mails and comments about problems with your foundation, so here is the article (and the video below) to solve all of your problems! In this article I'll be talking about creating the perfect face for ballroom dancing, which will also include highlighting and contouring, both very important for the stage appearance.
Always start with a clean face and pull back your hair, then apply your makeup primer using a cosmetic sponge, a foundation brush or your clean fingers. Then start with applying your foundation. I recommend using brushes instead of sponges, but if you're using foundation in a stick, you must first apply it with a sponge and for a better result, blend it well with a flat top kabuki brush. When applying your foundation, don't forget to apply it into your hair line, on and behind your ears and under your neck and on your cleavage. This will eliminate any white spots and balance your face color with your body.
The next step is contouring. The point of contouring is to slim down your face, add dimension, to make your face more structured and defined by darkening and lightening specific areas of your face.
I like to start with lightening some areas of the face. First, create a triangular shape with a cream concealer under your eyes, starting from the tear duct outwards and straight down to the end of the nose. Using a blending brush or a Beauty Blender, blend your concealer. Then create a reversed triangle in the middle of your forehead and blend it well. Using the same concealer, create a straight line on the arch of your nose, and right on your jaw line. You can apply the concealer around your lips, that will also prevent the lipstick from smudging, and on your chin to eliminate eventual shadows. Blend those lines well, too. Set everything using your mat bronzer, but do not over do it – we want these areas of the face to stay lighter than the rest of it.
Now, it is the time to give your face some depth, and we'll achieve that by applying some mat bronzer on the certain areas of the face. Darken your hairline and the corners of your forehead. Then, create a line in the hollows of your cheeks (the best way to find them is to suck in your cheeks). The most important thing is that the line has to be parallel with your jaw line. Also, that line shouldn't go to much into the center of your face; it shouldn't cross the imaginary line going down from the center of your eyes when you're looking straight forward. The beginning of this line should be in your hairline, to look natural. You can also darken the sides of your nose to appear more defined.
It is also worth mentioning, that in my opinion, guys should also do these steps. As we know, they also apply makeup for competitions. Applying just the foundation makes the face appear flat, not to mention it doesn't fix the problem with a sweaty and a shiny face (which is a common problem for the guys). But, applying makeup for them is a topic for another article, because of the beard
Here is the picture of a face with and without contouring and highlighting:
When you're finished with contouring, it's time to do some highlighting. Use a cream highlighter and apply it just above your eyebrows (not in the center of the forehead), on your cheek bones, on the arch of the nose, and on your cupid's bow (the V shape on your upper lip). You can fix the cream highlighter with a powder one, or just use the powder highlighter. You can use a fixating spray now and after you're done with the rest of your makeup, or just when you're completely done.
And that's it, your 'base' is now done, and you're ready to do your hair. I always recommend doing the face/skin first, and then to do the hair because otherwise if you do the hair first, foundation will stick with the hairgel/ hairspray in your hairline and will look messy. Once you're done with your hair, you can go back finishing your eye makeup etc.
Here is my video tutorial where you can see me doing all these things I wrote about:
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through my Facebook page (Dancesportmakeup) or on my email(sara.makeup@yahoo.com).
Stay beautiful,
Sara
