Masculine and feminine contouring

When you are highlighting and contouring you are changing the appearance of characteristics and shapes. Beauty contouring is usually defined by feminine (female) and masculine (male) contouring. The typical male contouring in beauty are often used on male performers like actors, on drag"kings" and to make a female face more masculine. However, some do the masculine contouring whilst trying to achieve a feminine face and vice versa. And that can lead to some unintentional results. So either you can use this for character building purposes, to make a face more masculine or to avoid doing any mistakes.

The masculine contouring brings forward more hollow and strong features, such as sunken in cheeks, deep temples, larger nose, more defined eye hollow and so forth and so on. To achieve a more masculine result you should lengthen your lines, build up slowly a more defined, paler and darker result. I often use elements of the masculine contouring to create a more defined face, like hollowing out my cheekbones and slightly lengthen my lines. This is because I have a very feminine face shape, oval, and personally prefer a more defined face but not transforming. A trick I always use when I am transforming a face, or doing male makeup is to add highlight first. In feminine contouring highlight is best to add in last because the round shapes will catch the light in a different way then masculine shapes would. Masculine faces are sharper and more defined.

Before blending

After blending

The feminine contouring is softer, it doesn't hollow out the face, rather defines the features. As mentioned it can be an advantage to apply highlight last, as a female rounder face will catch the light on a larger area. In contrast the male face has more stiff features, the light that hits the face will highlight angles and will not diffuse out.

 The cheekbone contour ends in the middle of the cheek and are often stronger towards the hairline to give the look of a slimmer and more defined face, while still keeping your natural feminine features. I like to bring in an ombrè effect in my contour and place the darkest shade underneath the cheekbone and a lighter color towards the eyes. I usually use my real techniques buffer brush and my naked basics palette, swiping it over "Naked 2" and "Faint", and slightly mixing them together and then applying from my temples and out.

You contour what you want to make slimmer on your face, but it tends to be in a 3 shape somehow anyways. The temple, cheekbone and under jaw  mashed together to bring out face out. Adding also contour around the hairline, and adding highlight in the middle of your forehead will create the illusion of a smaller forehead, a long forehead is often something we associate with males (hair loss). And remember, what you've contoured, make sure to highlight over it to create a put together look.

Before blending 

After blending