How to Contour and Highlight Like a Pro

Contouring and highlighting aren’t just meant for red carpets.

Made famous by celebs like Kim Kardashian, these beauty tricks will chisel out your bone structure, strengthen your jaw line and highlight your best features—and you don’t need a professional makeup artist to do it.

I spent a morning with the artists at Sephora learning the basics of this must-try trend in one of their 90-minute Sephora Beauty Classes, which take place mornings in the store before it opens (also on the schedule: brow shaping, how to create the perfect smoky eye, master skin-care basics and more).

These are their best tips to contour and highlight like a pro.

1. Complete your usual skin-care routine first: apply moisturizer, primer, foundation, concealer, etc.

2. Begin with a darker contouring powder and a lighter highlighting powder (powders are quick and easy for beginners; creams are more advanced, but can help achieve a more dramatic look). Contour powders should always be matte, but highlighters look best with a luminous shimmer. Check out the NARS Contour Blush for beginners, a duo containing both shades you need “to create natural-looking dimension,” or the Smashbox Step-by-Step Contour Kit. (My favorite bronzer for contouring is Benefit’s Hoola Matte Bronzer.)

3. Always apply your contour before you begin to highlight.

4. Use a softer, fluffier brush for a softer look; a smaller brush will create a more defined, intense contour.

5. Use your darker powder to apply your contour right down the actual jawbone. Start behind the ear and brush under jaw line to the chin using short strokes. Blend downward and sweep down the sides of the neck to avoid leaving a line.

6. Next, imagine you’re connecting the corner of your ear to the corner of your lip, and apply the darker powder just below your cheekbones in a “Nike swoop” motion, lightly sweeping from the baby hairs back by your ear down below the apples of the cheeks and up and around to the center of your face by the nose. Blend to soften. You can also apply a small amount of the darker powder up by the temple; along either side of the nose, and right under the nose to shorten.

7. Apply your highlighting powder to the cheekbones right above your darker contouring powder. Do the same above the contouring powder on the jawbone. Buff the lighter color slightly on top of the darker color to diffuse and soften. Pro tip: Use the brush to lightly tap the product on your face rather than swiping to better build up the product. I love the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Ethereal Light and Laura Mercier Shimmer Bloc. (BECCA’s Champagne Pop and Opal highlighters are two more of my favorites!) Finish the look by applying a blush to the apples of the cheeks.

8. Use your finger to apply the highlighting powder just above and below the brow bone to give your eyes lift and make them really pop. You can also apply your shimmer highlighter near the tear duct to bring light into the face and remove darkness or redness. Finish by lightly highlighting the bridge of the nose, Cupid’s bow (to make lips appear fuller) and chin. Highlighting these high points of the face helps catch light.

9. Set your complete look with a small amount of finishing powder. Try the Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder or the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light (shown left in the palette below, which comes complete with an exclusive shade, Incandescent Light, that works great for highlighting). Before applying, tap the brush on the side of the compact to shake off excess powder, rather than blowing on the brush, and apply in a light tapping motion across the face.