7 tricks to follow when contouring your nose to make it look smaller

The amazing thing about makeup is its ability to temporarily alter features without long-term effects. Oh sure, you can always go the cosmetic surgery route, but that's an expensive investment with serious downtime.
If you're not exactly thrilled with your nose, contouring can work wonders. You can make it look straighter, smaller, and even more perky...all with a few carefully placed shadows. Take a look!
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1. Match your formulas
Contouring can be done either before or after you set your base. If you've already used powder to finish that step, it's best to use a powder contour shade to avoid disrupting your finish.
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2. Use a narrow fluffy brush
To get the best results, use a narrow brush that isn't too firm. You want to sweep on the color in a straight line, but you don't want to press it into your foundation just yet.
3. Narrow the top
If you feel like your nose is too flat at the top, you can create a shadow from the inner brow corner on each side, stopping at the tear duct or slightly below like @hudabeauty does in her video below.

A post shared by Huda Kattan (@hudabeauty) on

4. Straighten the sides (h/t NikkieTutorials)
To either make your nose look more narrow or slightly straighter, apply your contour in a straight line down each side of your nose. Tip: As NikkieTutorials points out, the closer the lines are together, the narrower your nose will look.
5. Shorten a long nose
By applying your contour across the tip of your nose, you can make it look shorter. Be careful here, though. The contour should still follow the curve of the tip, or you'll end up looking like you flattened it out.
6. Create an upturned tip (h/t Tina Yong)
In her tutorial, Tina Yong uses a contour shade in a horizontal line a finger's width above the tip. This darkened area will make the tip more prominent, so it looks a bit more perky.
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7. Apply your highlight
With the darker shade in place, sweep your lighter shade down your nose, but don't go all the way to the tip. No one wants a bright luminous dot of color grabbing all the attention.