Fashion Bomb reader Samantha wrote in asking “I’m a dark ebony skinned woman who is desperate to achieve the bright under-eye look with the dark contoured cheek that Kim Kardashian, Kelly Rowland, and Lala Vazquez have perfected. I’ve tried using concealers and powders two shades darker than my complexion, and Cover Girl Queen Collection’s Ebony Bronzer, yet I still cannot achieve the look I’m going for. Are there any darker bronzers I can use or perhaps a better highlighter color? Thanks!”
Contouring and highlighting is a great way to “sculpt” the face that allows you to decrease the appearance of a facial feature or play it up. It’s done by using a contour (a foundation stick, blush, eyeshadow, etc. about 2-3 shades darker than your skin tone) and a highlight (a foundation stick, blush, eyeshadow, luminizer, etc. about 2-3 shades lighter than your skin tone. You place the contour on areas you want to recede (or make smaller or “less obvious”) and you place the highlight on areas you want to reflect light (or make more prominent). For instance, if you want to fake prominent cheekbones, you’d apply the contour to the hollows of the cheeks and the highlight to the apples.
But if you’re a deep ebony hue, it may not be so easy to find a contour shade. And as of now, Cover Girl Queen Collection Bronzer in Ebony Bronze is the darkest bronzer I’ve seen.
As with many makeup techniques, there’s more than one way to approach this. One would be to focus more on highlighting. So grab your foundation stick, blush, eyeshadow, etc. that’s about 2-3 shades lighter than your skin and get to work on what you want highlighted (cheekbones, bridge of nose, etc.).
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For brightening the under eye area, I absolutely love Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat highlighting pen. It comes in 6 shades and you go for ther one that’s slightly lighter than your skin tone (for ebony skin try either #4 Luminous Toffee or #6 Luminous Amber). This luxurious golden pen contains a creamy concealer that helps to disguise as well as visually lifts and brightens (if you have very pronounced dark circles, you’ll need to use a more heavy duty concealer like Eve Pearl Salmon Concealer and then use Touche Eclat on top). You can use it under the eyes, on the tops of the cheekbones, on the bow of the lips, and at the temples to highlight. It also gives a more subtle highlight as many times celebs who highlight can look very obvious in pictures.
Not only do I love this but while doing backstage coverage at NYFW I spotted a huge bag filled with this stuff. It’s $40 so if the price is making you feel a bit iffy about it, go to your local YSL counter or Sephora store to try it before you buy it. Sephora also offers a great return policy if you have to order online and/or prefer to try on at home.
Now back to contouring. The other way is to use makeup that’s 2-3 shades darker than your skin. Since it’s not often a woman with such deep ebony tones finds many options that match her skin, it’s certainly a challenge to find one that’s even darker than her skin. But know that contouring doesn’t just involve foundation. You can use eyeshadows and eye liner pencils, too–you’re more likely to find one (preferably matte or as close to matte as you can get) to contour your skin. Try shadows like MAC Eyeshadows in Handwritten, Brun, Mystery, or MAC Creme Liner in Dark Brown.
If you’re very dark and daring, you can try a matte black shadow like MAC Eyeshadow in Carbon or MAC Full Coverage Foundation in Black with a very light hand and blend thoroughly to avoid any harsh lines.
As with any makeup technique, practice makes perfect. If you need a refresher, check out The Power of Contouring and if you’re still stuck contact me.
