If you haven't heard this term before, believe me YOU WILL. What am I talking about you might ask?
Contour and highlighting. It's not just for celebrities and makeup artist anymore. Everyone is doing it! I often get asked, "how do you do your makeup? Do you 'HAC?".
The first time I heard that term I had no clue what they were talking about. First thing that came to my mind was a nasty cough or illegally getting information :-P
Every person has there own way of highlighting and contouring their face, and it works for them so who am I to play makeup police. But there are those who struggle with it a bit more. You just have to play around with different products to see what works for you.
HIGHLIGHTING
What highlighting does is it brings forth or makes stand out certain areas of your face. Examples of areas that may be highlighted are; cheekbones (or the apple of your cheeks), down the bridge of your nose, upper and lower brow area, the area between your upper lip and under the nose (optional).
Most people use concealer, but I use a different product that works better on my skin. It's a souffle by Fashion Fair. It's perfect and it stays put all day. Oh yeah, don't forget that when highlighting make sure that you use a concealer (or whatever product) that is a shade or two lighter than your skin color.
Here is an example of HACing:
CONTOURING
Is just the opposite of highlighting. It distracts or hides certain areas that you don't want to bring attention to. Areas of contour include; hollows of your cheeks (the area right below your cheekbone), to each side of your nose (cheapest nose job ever!), forehead or temples (or both), and chin.
Let's just say that you are self-conscience because you have a double chin. What you would want to do is contour, or take away the appearance of that double chin. Take whatever product you want to use; such as a bronzer, powder, etc and apply it right at your chin area and all underneath. Follow the bone structure of your face (from ear to ear). Oh yeah, don't forget to make sure that your product for contouring is a shade or two darker than your complexion.
I found that the best contouring product for me is Covergirl loose/finishing powder.
I hope that this post helped to shine the light on HACing and make it seem less intimidating. Remember, try out different products until you find one that works for you.