The Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Contouring and Highlighting

Face Shape: Heart

Is Your Face a Heart? A heart-shaped face typically has a pointy chin, and the face is widest in the brow and forehead area. Some people with a heart-shaped face have a widow's peak, but it's not a hard-and-fast rule. Overall, the face shape resembles an upside-down triangle.

The Strategy: The goal is to balance out the forehead and chin, so you want to minimize the width of the forehead by contouring along the upper temples. Then, focus your highlight shade on the center of the chin to emphasize the area.

How to Contour Cheeks on Heart-Shaped Faces

To find the perfect placement of the cheek contour, use your makeup brush. Place the end of the tool behind your ear and follow the angle of the brush from the top of the lobe down onto the cheekbone. Your contour should go no lower than the nose and shouldn't reach any further than the outer edge of the eye.

How to Highlight Heart-Shaped Faces

When working with a heart-shaped face, you want to make the chin more prominent to balance out a wider forehead. Bettelli recommends a mix of yellow and pink tones to brighten, adding more of either shade depending on your skin tone.

Face Shape: Oval

Is Your Face an Oval? An oval-shaped face resembles an upside-down egg. The forehead is slightly wider than the chin, and the face is longer than it is wide.

The Strategy: Oval faces have the easiest contouring route. "You can pick and choose the things you want to highlight and contour, because there is a softness to the face," Bettelli says. "You can add in angles to accentuate the features."

How to Contour Oval-Shaped Foreheads

Focus the contour on the forehead and chin to draw the eye to the center of the face and condense the length. Make sure to work the darker color all the way into the hairline; otherwise, your faux bronze could look a little too obvious.

As a tip, consider using a cream eye shadow or shadow base instead of concealer when highlighting the face. Bettelli recommends MAC's Paint Pot ($21, originally $28). "Concealer is often too orange, especially on light-to-medium skin tones," she says. "So, use cream eye shadow for contouring. Creams are so much more forgiving to move and shift."

How to Contour Noses on Oval-Shaped Faces

To make your nose appear slimmer, apply a reflective highlight along the bridge and a subtle contour along the sides of the nose. "Be sure to start your brush at the top of the nasal bone and stop the eye shadow before the tip to avoid a shiny bulbous nose," Bettelli says.

How to Highlight Oval Faces

Bettelli recommends using the MAC Prep + Prime Highlighter ($23, originally $30) to highlight, since it has brightening yellow undertones. Under the eyes, create a triangle shape to level out the depth of the cheekbones.

Face Shape: Square

Is Your Face a Square? The most prominent feature of a square face is the angular jawline. The sides of the face are straight, and the width of the face is almost equal to the length.

The Strategy: On a square face, the goal is to round out the sharp-angled features to create softer edges and lines. Sweep the contour shade onto cheeks in a rounded, banana-like motion to counteract the boxy face shape.
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Square-shaped faces already have defined edges without contour. Contouring the perimeter of a square-shaped face will help the edges appear rounder and get rid of any angular features.

Concealers, such as MAC Studio Finish Concealer ($21, originally $28), are the best way to contour deeper skin tones. When applying your product, start out with a precise brush, such as MAC Large Shader Brush #252 ($26, originally $34), to mark your territory. Blend it all out with a fluffy brush or a wet sponge for a nice blurred effect. "The diffused edges look good in person and in photography," Bettelli says — meaning you won't have strangers wondering if you have dirt on your face.

How to Highlight Square-Shaped Faces

When highlighting a square-shaped face, you'll want to place product on the forehead, the bridge of the nose, above the brow bone, underneath the eyes, and underneath the cheek bone. This will add length to the face. "Orange brightens, so the same way you would use vanilla on a [light] skin tone, use oranges and caramels on [dark] skin," she says. Highlight the cheekbones with a reflective powder, such as MAC Mineralize Skinfinish ($32, originally $43).