Contouring & Highlighting 101

Okay, so let's get right down to it. There's this makeup technique that has been around for ages in the industry but is fairly new when it comes to regular people like us. And it's getting a lot of buzz. Why? Because this is one of the ultimate secrets - sculpting your face. It's a method of making your face look amazing in pictures which, being a 2-D medium are, by default, flat. But it can also be used in everyday life! It's one of the questions I get asked a lot and it's one of those things people seem to be a bit wary of (which, fair enough, if done wrong, you can look crazy!)

I've always known that I was never super happy w/ how my face looks in photos. I'm Asian (obviously, haha) so my face is flatter and I also have monolids. In photos, I can look pretty damn flat, even though in real life, I do have cheekbones and eye sockets. When I first discovered contouring, I was thrilled. In fact, I went super crazy and probably looked utterly absurd for the longest time (streaks of bronzer right down my face anyone?) But this is something that everyone can do. And, yeah, there are a million tutorials on this, but I'm throwing my hat into the ring also, okay? Haha, enough rambling, right?

This is picture-heavy and will still be pretty long, so let's get this show on the road!

Contouring & Highlighting 101 - Favorite Bronzers

Okay, this is the bronzer suggestion part of my contouring/highlighting blog. Originally I planned on making one big post, but it would be so fucking long that it wasn't even remotely funny, nor did it seem like a good idea even w/ page anchors because who wants to read all of that?? So instead of being one massive blog, this is going to be a four-parter - the actual contour/highlight explanation, and then three separate blogs about my favorite blushes, bronzers, and highlighters. I don't use bronzer all over my face, so none of these are overly shimmery and the shimmery bronzers I DO own are definitely not my favorites.

So this is going to be my bronzer suggestions for contouring. These are the ones I've tried. There are others that I've heard about (Tarte's "Park Avenue Princess", Too Faced's "Chocolate Soleil", etc) but I've never used them so I can't really recommend them, ya know? This list covers all price ranges and should hopefully work for a variety of skintones!

This is picture-heavy and will still be pretty long, so let's get this show on the road!

Laura Geller Balance-N-Bronze Review

This is going to be part of a mini review set I'm doing. I recently purchased a box set from Ulta by the brand Laura Geller. It was $60 (or $45, w/ my employee discount) for five full-size products and a couple of brushes. Unfortunately, the Baked & Beautiful set seems to be fairly hard to find. Also, five products is a lot to review in one post so since all of these products are available for single purchase, I'm just dividing these reviews up by product. This review is going to be on the Laura Geller Balance-N-Bronze powder duo in "Regular".

This product is a duo of the Balance-N-Brighten powder foundation and the Bronze-N-Brighten bronzer. Now, most pictures of this product online show an even split b/t the foundation and bronzer but mine has a lot more foundation than bronzer. Which is totally fine w/ me and I will get into that in the review. All LG Baked Collection products start out as a blend of liquid pigments which are then baked for 24 hours on terracotta plates. This is supposed to result in a really fine, silky powder which, due to the different color swirls w/in the powder, are supposed to match all skin tones and also be good for all skin types. This product is $31 alone and can be purchased at Laura Geller's website, QVC, and drugstore.com for sure, and probably anywhere LG products are sold. It comes in two shades - "Fair" and "Regular".

Rimmel London Sunshimmer Maxi Bronzer Review

So here is the second bronzer review from Rimmel. I'm getting a bit smarter, haha. Instead of posting the main Product Line Overview posts and then frantically trying to get the reviews up, getting bored, and then forgetting about them (although I SWEAR I will be working on my e.l.f. reviews and my Studio M reviews!), I'm posting all the reviews up first and then I will make the big overall post! That way, no one is sitting around waiting on my lazy ass, I can post these reviews at my leisure, and they're more likely to actually see the light of day. I already talked about the two Rimmel London Natural Bronzers that I own and now it's time to talk about the Sunshimmer Maxi Bronzer!

This bronzer is available at most stores that stock Rimmel cosmetics. There are some stores that only have the smaller bronzers, so you'll have to look around. They range in price from $6 to $9, so I would wait until Rimmel products go on sale. I've also seen these bronzers have dollar off peelie coupons on them, so keep your eyes peeled. Based on sizing and pricing, it's actually a better deal to purchase the Natural Bronzers. You only get a grand total of 0.10 oz extra product in the bigger bronzers and I suspect that it's the same exact formulation...just w/ a different raised pattern and some golden shimmer that wears off.

Rimmel London Natural Bronzer (2 Out Of 3) - Review

I like how I start doing bronzer reviews AFTER summer ends. But then again, maybe it makes sense since everyone will start getting a lot paler. I don't self-tan. Or rather, I don't self-tan my face. There's this L'Oreal self-tanning lotion and Oh. My. God. It has this VERY noticeable multicolored shimmer to it and I look like a Twilight vampire that rolled around in Cheetos. After that tanning fail, I just don't use self-tanners. I get pretty bloody pale in winter, but I tan quite a lot if I'm actually in sun. I used to be obsessed w/ tanning. I'd go to the beach just to lay around. But lately I've been pretty ambivalent about tanning - if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, well...I don't look like I was slaving in a rice paddy all day, ya know?

This particular bronzer is anywhere from 3-5 dollars at any drugstore in which Rimmel is sold. If you live near a Meijer, it's currently 30% off until Saturday! If you don't, check your Halloween makeup displays at whichever grocery/super store is nearest to you - Rimmel has a Halloween makeup display, w/ mascara (do not get the mascara; if it's the same as the one near me, it's the Glam'Eyes Day2Night mascara and that stuff is not good), liner, two different (permanent) eyeshadow quads, and a couple of nail polishes...but also a dollar off coupon. Hopefully this isn't some kind of Michigan only thing!

Maybelline Fit Me™ Review - PT. 2 (Blushes & Bronzer)

So, as usual, I am tardy to the party once again. This is going to be part two out of two reviews on the Maybelline Fit Me™ range. (For the review on the foundation, concealer, and pressed powder, click here!) I've decided to divide up the review because, well, there's a lot of stuff to talk about! In this particular post, I'm going to talk about the blushes and bronzer that come in this line. For reference, you could honestly use this review as a reference to any pressed powder blush or bronzer that Maybelline releases in this type of compact because they're pretty much the same thing. There are some cream blushes and some limited edition baked products that are different, but for the most part, all of the blushes that come in this type of packaging are very similar - the only difference is, obviously, the colors.

These products can be found anywhere the full Maybelline range is sold, like Walmart, CVS, Rite-Aid, etc. It has its own display in the Maybelline line and can still be found in some random end-caps. It will be cheaper at places like Meijer and Walmart in general but when drugstores or Ulta have BOGO sales, I recommend checking those out. These products are typically about $5.50 a pop. So they're not super expensive but they aren't the cheapest out there, as far as drugstore goes.