Once you have covered your face with a foundation or concealer, you could feel despondent about how much discernible depth and dimension your facial features have lost as a result. This situation helps to explain the rationale for contouring the nose.
“Nose contouring cinches the most pronounced feature of the face and for some people, it can make them feel more confident if they’re insecure about the shape or size of their nose,” celebrity makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic tells Byrdie.
However, it’s important to approach nose contouring with a realistic perspective. While makeup has its magical effects, it doesn’t hold the power to completely reshape your nose’s underlying structure. Your nose has unique characteristics that might not be as malleable as you hope through makeup alone. In some cases, achieving a specific look, like a more pointed appearance, might require additional steps beyond cosmetics.
For those seeking more profound changes, there’s an alternative avenue: rhinoplasty, a surgical procedure offered by many a rhinoplasty surgeon in Beverly Hills (and elsewhere) designed to reshape the nose. It can address concerns that extend beyond the scope of makeup, and it’s a decision to be made thoughtfully, considering both its potential benefits and risks.
For others, some magic with the brushes can certainly work wonders. So, how exactly should you contour your conk?
Use the right contouring product
There are various products available for use in nose contouring, but you could find that picking up a contour kit complete with palette and brush gives you everything you need to achieve a visually pleasing effect with your contouring.
You should avoid contouring creams if possible, as you could struggle to properly blend using them – particularly when setting with a powder once the cream has been applied.
Connect the dots rather than draw a line
Your initial instinct with a contouring product could be to use it to draw a line on either side of your nose. However, Matin, another celebrity makeup artist to have shared wisdom with Byrdie, has advocated instead drawing, where you would have put each line, a series of dots lined up vertically.
After following this advice, you could smudge the dots together vertically so that the contouring solution is likely to leave a subtle gradient instead of a harsh line.
Apply contour across the bridge of your nose
It’s not the most conventional tip for how to use contour effectively, but it’s advice that has recently risen in prominence due to Ariana Grande.
As revealed on Instagram, the singer likes to add contour in a cool-toned shade not just to the sides of her nose but also horizontally – across the nose’s bridge – and just before the nose’s tip.
Cosmopolitan enthuses that this technique “will result in a snatched look without endless buffing and blending”.
Contour the tip of your nose
“To make the tip look more sculpted, you can just add a little bit of contour [to the tip of the nose]. Think of contour as a shadow, not as a colour or as a bronzer,” Matin has advised, adding: “You should not be able to see lines or any type of redness.”
It could help if you start contouring your nose only after giving the rest of your face this treatment. Dedivanovic says that this tactic “helps me gauge how much or how little product is needed on the nose”.
Use a highlighter down the bridge of the nose
You could find that the same brand you get your main contouring product from also offers a highlighter product you could use to thin out any contour you have add to the centre of your nose.
The makeup brand ICONIC London, for example, offers Illuminator – a highlighter that can be applied in the form of liquid drops shimmering in pigment and available in a range of colours.
