All You Need To Know About Contouring

Today let’s learn about contouring, its importance and how to do it in the first place. Contouring is giving shape to an area of the face and enhancing the facial structure through makeup, that’s how Beau Nelson, a makeup artist describes it.

You might still be wondering, what’s with the hype and why at all should you bother knowing about it or trying it. Well here is the reason, because it could quiet literally change your life and your face.

 It involves using blusher, bronzer, highlighter and concealer to highlight the parts of your face that you want to show off, to minimize the parts that you don’t like, to create hollows and shadows where there aren’t any and to work your angles; whether you have a round face or a chiseled jawbone.

Every woman wants to standout in a crowd, and living in the makeup world today, you need to make the time to learn every detail if indeed you want to look unique in the midst of the crowd.

First of all, just like in everything, you need to have certain items as the first step.   What’s in your makeup bag? Because you’ll need a set of decent makeup brushes, , a liquid foundation in your usual shade, a liquid concealer in your usual shade, bronzer or a foundation/concealer slightly darker than your natural skin tone, blusher (a cream formula will be easier to blend) and a highlighter.

 Let’s get started, in the first place, you need to apply a base of foundation and primer so that you have something to work from. Clean skin is important with a makeup wipe and a cleanser with a toner also gives a cleaner skin before applying the primer, this moisturizes your skin and makes it ready for the primer.  It’s important to look for a formula that either hides pores or that minimizes their appearance, smoothing the appearance of the skin and evens out tone and texture. Once set, use a foundation brush to apply foundation in any area that needs extra coverage and concealers to any spot that might need to be concealed. Blend using the brush until you have an even perfect base.   

Now you can apply your bronzer using a brush for extra precision. You need to apply it to any area that you want to minimize- if you have a high forehead, just under your hairline, if you want to minimize your nose, brush along either side of the nose, if you want to make your cheekbones pop brush into the hollows of cheeks and if you really want to show off that chiseled jawbone, brush along the edge of the jaw and just under the chin. It might look a bit odd now, but we’ll blend all a little bit later!

When you are done with your bronzer, then comes the part where you apply your blush. For rosy cheeks, apply it above the line of bronzer under your cheekbones. Try not to make it too obvious, because the best features of your face are being highlighted already with the contouring and adding too much blush will just make it more difficult to blend. Just a bit will do.

Then comes the most important part of it all, highlighting!  Opt for a formula that  easily blends into your skin. Now with this, make sure it’s in moderation because too much of it, will make your face shinny and too little will not be noticeable at all. Just dab it on at first and you can always add more later. Apply down the bridge of your nose to hide crooks, bumps or lumps across the top of your cheekbones, add a tiny little dab to your cupid’s bow and just under your bottom lip, if you prefer fuller lips, along the brow bones to make your brows stand out and for extra sheen, over the top of your blusher once everything has been blended together.

At this point, you are almost done. All you need right now is for it to blend so use a use a clean brush to blend and blend  a little bit more until there are no noticeable lines anywhere on your skin. Once you’re all done, dust a setting powder over the surface of the skin to keep all of your hard work in place. And voila! You are good to go!

Hope you’ve learnt something, why don’t you try it and let’s have your feedback, because at Zaron, all we want is to bring out the best in every woman!

Yours Sincerely,

The Zaron Blogger

Beauty is as much what’s Within as Without

People say it would be so nice if inner beauty triumphed over outer appearance.

But for some interesting reasons, that is far from materializing. One could have the fairest of characters but it still takes the outer beauty for one to get noticed. 

There is a vast body of evidence indicating that men and women are biologically and psychologically different, and that what heterosexual men and women want in partners directly corresponds to these differences.

The features men evolved to go for in women i.e. youth, clear skin, a balanced face and body, feminine facial features, a ‘killer’ figure are those indicating that a woman would be a healthy, fertile candidate to pass on a man's genes.

These preferences span borders, cultures, and generations, meaning yes, there really are universal standards of beauty. And while Western women do struggle to be slim, the truth is, women in all cultures eat (or don't) to appeal to "the male gaze." 

The body size that's idealized in a particular culture appears to correspond to the availability of food. It used to be heavy or ‘fat’ women in our part of the world and slim women in other cultures but as the globe keeps going round and round, ideas keep changing and slimmer women are more preferred today but that is not to say plump women are left out entirely because some men are still crazy about them.

As a result of this current state of affairs, many subject themselves to ‘hunger’ and what others term ‘punishment’ tagged dieting just to attain the ‘perfectly beautiful shape’.

Men's looks on the other hand matter to heterosexual women only to some extent. Most women prefer men who are taller than they are, with regular features (a sign that a potential partner is healthy).

But, women across cultures are intent on finding male partners with high status, power, and access to resources, which means a really short guy can add maybe a foot to his height with a private jet. And, just like women who aren't very attractive, men who make very little money or are chronically out of work tend to have a really hard time finding partners which brings back the question, what if beauty is based on only what’s within! 

After all, character they say “contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude, and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.”

So you see, no matter which part of the globe you find yourself, beauty is relative, making the saying ‘beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder’ gain strong grounds.

As we use all use the Zaron Products to enhance the outer part of us, why don’t we try to enhance the inner part of us as well by caring for one another, after all what’s going on in the inside reflects on the outside more than we even know.

We each have our definition of beauty but I say beauty is as much how you feel about others inside as is what’s seen on the outside.

Yours Sincerely, 

The Zaron Blogger