Hey #CityBabes! Welcome back to the #CityColorBlog and if you’re new here, welcome! This is a blog where we talk about all things makeup and all things City Color so we hope you’ll enjoy it. Happy March babes, can you believe we’re already in the third month of the year!? A quarter of the year will have passed after this month… Wow time is flying by but I’m so excited that it’s almost spring! The weather is picking up over here in California and starting to get warmer which makes me so excited because I’m definitely not a winter person. I love the sun and warmer weather. But anyway, today on the blog we’ll be talking about the differences between a bronzer and a contour and how you can use our #BeMatteBronzer to contour. 

It’s not totally ridiculous to assume that bronzing and contouring are similar since both are used to add depth to a makeup look and to the face. They however are in fact not the same at all. Contouring on one hand is used to add shadows to the face and when executed properly it can give the appearance of a slimmer face, more prominent cheek bones, a stronger jawline, a smaller nose and even fuller lips. Bronzing on the other hand, is a makeup technique used to create natural looking warmth – not shadows. By knowing exactly where to apply bronzer, you can make it look as if you’ve been soaking up some sun on vacation.

Now that you know shadow vs. warmth in the bronzer and contour debate, we can move along to talking about how a good bronzer can double as contour. This is by no means a foreign concept. Don’t tell us you’ve never used your lipstick as blush or eyeshadow as brow powder. Well, bronzer can also be used as contour too but only if you do it correctly. Contouring generally uses a soft matte powder a couple of shades darker than your normal skin tone. So, if you’re going to try this technique you definitely want to make sure you’re using a matte bronzer like our #BeMatteBronzer rather than a shimmer bronzer.

Once you’ve reached the step in your makeup routine where it’s time to contour you want to

1. Grab your bronzer, dip into it, lightly tap off the excess to ensure you aren’t getting too much product. (Pro-Tip: It’s better to build up to your desired depth than have a heavy application at first.)

2. Then lightly apply to your forehead in sweeping motions along your hairline. This will make your forehead appear smaller but you want to make sure you are blending and buffing it out perfectly so that it appears natural.

3. Next, lightly brush the bronzer under the apples of your cheeks and swipe in an outward/upward movement toward your ears and hairline. Repeat this motion until you reach your desired depth/contoured look. This technique will help sculpt out your cheekbones and give your face dimension.

4. Moving on to your jawline, repeat the process of lightly sweeping the bronzer on and just under your jawline in a sweeping upward motion again toward your ear on both sides and blend and buff it out until your jawline is chiseled to your perfection.

5. Sweeping the bronzer down the sides of your nose will give the nose a slimming effect.

Well City Babes that finishes off our blog for today. As always thanks so much for reading and I hope you all enjoyed it. Feel free to try out this technique of switching your contour with our Be Matte Bronzer and let us know how it works for you. Tag us on IG @citycolorcosmetics for an opportunity to be featured and keep up to date with us on there too! Until next time babes, stay beautiful!

Xoxo,
Camila