How To Cream Contour with Concealer

Discover how to use concealer as a cream contour that shapes and sculpts the look of your face.

Darlings, if you’re searching for a fabulous cream contour, look no further than your concealer! Concealer can do much more than help to disguise dark circles and make blemishes appear banished – choose a deeper shade than your perfect match and discover that your favourite concealer formula can double as an easy-to-blend cream contour that leaves you with a more sculpted-looking facial framework!

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What is Cream Contouring?

Cream contouring is a way of using cream makeup products to play with light and shade to help make the high points of the face appear more prominent. Makeup artists have been using deeper shades that mimic a natural shadow on their clients for years to create the illusion of sculpted cheekbones, noses and jawlines. This was traditionally done with cool-toned sculpting powders, however, the rise of cream contour has been taking over social media and beyond!

You can use dedicated cream contour products like Charlotte’s Hollywood Contour Wand to achieve a more sculpted look, or even deeper shades of concealer - Charlotte recommends her medium-coverage NEW! Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer for cream contouring your complexion to perfection!

Learn more about contouring

How to choose a Contour Concealer Shade for Cream Contour

When applying concealer as a cream contour, the aim is to create the effect of a shadow on the face, so it’s best to use a concealer that’s about three shades deeper than your skin tone. This contrasting shade will help to build dimension by creating the look of natural shadows, which, when applied to the correct areas of your face, can help create the appearance of a more sculpted bone structure. Charlotte’s Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer has 30 SHADES to choose from, making it easy to find your perfect shade match for cream contour.

Tilbury Tip: Cream contouring with concealer works best when sticking to shades that are cool toned to give the most shadow-like appearance, so choose pink or neutral shades over shades that have undertones of yellow, gold or red.

Shop Charlotte’s Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer

Where to Apply Concealer to Cream Contour

The most common areas for contouring are under the cheekbones, the sides and tip of the nose, the jawline, forehead and temples. However, before you apply your cream contour, it’s important to think about your face shape and facial features as these will influence your placement.

Certain face shapes tend to be inclined to contour different areas, for example, if you have a round face, you might want to apply your concealer deeper at the sides of the face and under the jawline to create a more sculpted look. If you have a square jawline, or square forehead you may like to apply more concealer along the angles of your jaw and forehead for a softer appearance. If you have a larger forehead, then a swipe of deeper concealer along the hairline will make the area recede and similarly, if your face is oblong then a swipe of the concealer along the chin will have a similar shortening effect. Whatever your facial features, you can use concealer as a seamless cream contour – remember darlings, it’s all about PLACEMENT!

Tilbury Tip: Look in the mirror and VISUALISE the parts of the face you want to contour, then make it happen using Charlotte’s Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer!

Learn more about your face shape

Full face Contour Placement graphic

How to apply Concealer as Cream Contour

Cream contouring with concealer gives you a more sculpted-looking facial framework while blending effortlessly into the rest of your complexion! Here’s how to apply concealer as a seamless cream contour:

  1. Arm swatch with contour concealer shades of Charlotte's Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer

    STEP 1: Choose your cream contour shade of Charlotte's Beautiful Skin Concealer

    Select a shade of Charlotte’s Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer that’s two or three shades deeper than your skin tone. For example, if you have a medium skin tone, select a shade from the deep category that will act as a natural shadow.

    Shop Charlotte's Beautiful Skin Radiant Concealer

  2. Illustrated face showing contour makeup placement down sides of nose, jawline, temples and under cheekbones.

    STEP 2: Apply Cream Contour for your Face Shape

    Apply your concealer in small strokes following your natural bone structure in any areas that you want to appear more sculpted – think across the hairline, underneath the cheek bones, along the jawline and the tip and sides of the nose.

  3. A double-ended face brush for contouring, applying foundation, blush, and bronzer, with the handle in black and gold colour and the synthetic bristles in grey-blonde and black colours.

    STEP 3: Blend out your Concealer

    Blend out your concealer using Charlotte’s Hollywood Complexion Brush, making sure not to disperse the product too far from your facial structure.

    Tilbury Tip: You can also take a lighter shade of concealer and run it underneath the areas where you’ve applied your cream contour. This will tidy up your work while also acting as a bright highlight that adds even more dimension to your complexion.

    Discover how concealer can be used to CONCEAL, CONTOUR and BRIGHTEN!

Cream Contour vs Powder Contour

Using concealer as a cream contour instead of using powder to contour allows you to sculpt the look of your face while maintaining the dewy, skin-like finish that you love. Contouring with powder on the other hand leaves the complexion looking more matte, helping to chisel the look of the face while staying put in place for longer. You can get a similar effect using powder and cream contour products – it comes down to personal preferences such as natural makeup lovers enjoying the radiance of cream contour or those with oily skin finding more success with powder products that help keep oils at bay.

Tilbury Tip: Get the best of both worlds by layering cream and powder contour! Use your concealer to lay down your PERFECTLY CARVED contouring, then apply Airbrush Bronzer over the top of your concealer to set your cream contour in place.

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