How To Find the Contour Shade for your Skin Tone
Whether your skin is fair, medium, tan or deep, read on to discover the best contour shade for your skin tone for a captivating contour look.
- 14th March 2023
- By Charlotte Tilbury
4 minute read
Whether your skin is fair, medium, tan or deep, read on to discover the best contour shade for your skin tone for a captivating contour look.
4 minute read
Darlings, contouring is one of the ULTIMATE beauty tricks for creating a FLAWLESSLY SCULPTED-LOOKING complexion. Contouring enhances your face’s natural features, making it look SCULPTED, DEFINED and REFINED.
But for contouring to work its MAGIC, it must be done right! One of the most important steps in your contouring routine is choosing the right contour shade for your skin tone This way, you can better complement your face’s natural features and perfectly blending and highlighting your contour look will be so much easier!
But how do you know what the best contour colour is for your complexion? My simple guide to finding the right contour shade for fair skin, medium skin, tan skin and deep skin is here to help.
If you have fair to medium skin, then the best shades to use for your contouring are neutrals, taupes and similar cool shades. My award-winning Hollywood Contour Wand in Light to Medium is perfectly formulated for fair and medium skin tones, offering a perfectly lightweight and blendable liquid formula for a BEAUTIFULLY contoured look.
If you prefer to use powders to achieve a soft kiss of sun with your contouring, choose my Airbrush Bronzer or Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer in FAIR. This shade naturally complements fair skin tones, adding dreamy definition to your face and giving you a BEAUTIFUL, HEALTHY-LOOKING GLOW with a SOFT, SUNKISSED finish.
Tilbury Tip: If you’re new to contouring, slowly build up your confidence using the Filmstar Bronze & Glow in Light to Medium. This contour palette provides a subtle yet buildable colour for a naturally sculpted-looking complexion.
If your skin tone is medium, then you can get away with using deeper, warmer and more golden shades to create your contour look. My award-winning Airbrush Bronzer or Beautiful Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer in 2 MEDIUM is perfectly formulated for medium skin tones, giving you IRRESISTIBLE definition and a GOLDEN-LOOKING glow. If you’re looking for a bit more intensity with your contour look, opt for the TAN shade, applying the buildable formula little-by-little to create a more DEFINED and ENHANCED complexion.
If you prefer a creamy formula for your beautifully contoured complexion, medium skin tones can also use my Hollywood Contour Wand in Light to Medium. This easy-to-use, easy-to-blend liquid contour wand is great for on the go, giving you instantly chiselled-looking cheekbones and jawlines with a SOFT-FOCUSED finish in minutes. And if you’re wanting to slowly build up your contour look, choose Filmstar Bronze & Glow in Light to Medium for a subtle, blendable contour colour.
Tilbury Tip: Unsure about whether the contour shade you’re using is right? Before you apply the contour product on your face, test out the product on the inside of your arm, blending as you would on your face, to get an idea of whether it’ll work for you. If it looks too warm or deep, choose a lighter shade or apply it to your face with a lighter hand!
If your skin tone is tan or olive, then you should be using deeper and more golden shades from my collection. My Hollywood Contour Wand in Medium to Deep offers a dark creamy contour formula for a PERFECTLY DEFINED complexion for tanned-skinned beauties.
If you prefer to use powder for your contouring, my award-winning Airbrush Bronzer and Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer in TAN are perfectly formulated for your skin tone, offering you a BEAUTIFULLY BRONZED GLOW for that endless summer feeling! And if you’re using the Filmstar Bronze & Glow to create your contour look, choose the Medium to Deep shade for high definition and a LUMINOUS complexion with the help of the warm-toned highlighter that’s included in the palette!
Tilbury Tip: Don’t forget to find your perfect brow shade to complement your complexion and contour look! My guide to finding your brow makeup shade will help you discover your flawlessly matched brow shade so you can UNLOCK the secret to SUPERMODEL BROWS!
Neutral shades with a careful balance of blue and red undertones are best for darker skin tones. When choosing your contour shade, it’s important to go for tones with lots of warmth and depth to avoid a greyish contour look on your face.
For a FLAWLESS contoured complexion that enhances your natural deep skin tone, use my Airbrush Bronzer or Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer in DEEP to achieve your contour look. This shade will blend seamlessly into your skin, adding beautiful depth and definition to your face and leaving you with a GLOWING, BRONZED and SCULPTED-LOOKING contoured complexion.
And if you prefer to contour with my Hollywood Contour Wand or Filmstar Bronze & Glow then choose Medium to Deep to create your contoured complexion.
Tilbury Tip: Wondering how to create a perfectly defined jawline with your contour? My how to contour your jawline guide tells you everything you need to know!
With over 30 years experience, Charlotte Tilbury MBE is the world's number 1 makeup artist and British beauty entrepreneur. Charlotte established Charlotte Tilbury Beauty in 2013, which is now a record-breaking beauty brand that has won over 400 awards.
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