Face Makeup: How to Camouflage Your Features like a Pro

Kendra Richards, Los Angeles Celebrity Makeup Artist:

Hi, I'm Kendra Richards. I am a Los Angeles-based celebrity makeup artist and I'm going to demonstrate some contouring techniques today on Molly.

I'm going to do this contouring with brown eyeshadow. Sometimes I like to use a bronzer but in this case I'm just going to do some bronzing of the cheekbone.

I'm going to have Molly go ahead and pucker a little bit so we get some placement. I am going in right here, down underneath her cheekbone and blend all the way up. Now, I like to apply this in layers so that I can really have a nice subtle approach as opposed to just really laying down a strong color. And then you just blend up into the hair line; again on this side, same thing. OK you can relax your mouth. That creates a little bit of a definition on the cheekbone.

Apply this same makeup technique with the same colors up at the hairline to help bring that hairline visually down just a bit. Molly doesn't really have a high forehead but if she did this would really help make it look like it wasn't quite so high. And again the trick is blending. Just really want to keep going over it and blending it out, softening those edges. Now, another great way to help soften edges is to take your makeup sponge and just lightly soften the edges.

Now the last technique I'm going to show is on the nose -- a little contouring there as well. I like to use a smaller makeup brush because it's a smaller area. And starting right up at the top of the nose, just carrying it all the way down to the tip and then blending it down the side of the nose just subtly. Blending down the side of the nose is a great way, for starters, to really blur the line and to make it look a lot less noticeable, in terms of what we're doing. It also helps define the side of the nose. The same as doing it here at the bottom, it's a really important part of the defining process because it just sort of fades off. If I wanted to just shorten the length of her nose, I could also give her a little bit right at the tip. And there you go, a quick and easy makeup trick!