Check out 7 tips to see if you're contouring your face correctly for daytime and night-time

Learning to contour and highlight your face perfectly can be pretty tricky the first few times you experiment with it, but when done right it's the perfect way to emphasize your facial features. Not all contours are created equal, however — daytime contouring and highlighting techniques should always be lighter than the techniques used for night-time.
Natural daylight will spotlight your contour techniques and make them look harsh and dare we say -- clownish? However, when night falls, you can play up the dramatic contours and highlights of your face easily in dim and romantic lighting. Read on to find out how you should tweak each contour and highlight for the time of day to look your absolute best!
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1. Cheekbones
Adjusting your contouring and highlighting of the cheekbones is a breeze depending on whether you're going for a daytime or night-time look. For daytime, stick with a gentle swipe of contour under your natural cheekbone, and blend the edges of the pigment out with a makeup brush. Focus your highlight in a wide triangle under your eye to mimic where the sunlight would hit your face.
For a more dramatic night-time look, apply contour in a thicker triangle shape from your hairline to under your cheekbone, and your highlight in a half-moon shape under your eye. Blend in seamlessly for model-worthy cheekbones. Adam Burrell for Barry M used a blusher brush to very gently sweep the pigment into his model's cheekbones.
2. Eyes
Eyes are often skipped over in a contour/highlight routine, but properly defining them can enhance your look. For day contour, stick to a subtle matte powder in brown or taupe to shape over your eye crease. This gives your eye depth without drama. Tap a touch of luminizing powder in the inside corners and just under the brow for a wide-awake look. Burberry first added a swipe of nude color to their models eyelid before using a darker brown throughout the socket line and outer corner to give a naturally sculpted look.
To take your eye to night-time, feel free to experiment with bolder eyeshadow applications that define the eye crease and extend out the corner of the eyes. Swipe shimmery or pearly luminizer under the brow and in the corner of the eye to open up your look.
3. Nose
A good nose contour can absolutely change the shape of your face. However, this application will look pretty obvious during the daytime, which is why we only recommend you do a vertical swipe of contour down each side of your nose, ending before the nostril and finish off with a highlight down the center. For any nose contour, day or night, Michael Finch demonstrates that it helps to create flawless base by using foundation, concealer and powder before contour application on the nose.
For a night-time look, you have more freedom to carefully sculpt your nose, and can even downplay size and shape! For a night-time contour, begin to shape your nose from the ridge where your brows connect. Swipe contour there and follow all the way down your nose, making sure to add contour between your nostrils as well. Highlight usually isn't necessary here as it will naturally draw attention, but a small dab at the very end of your nose where light would naturally hit makes it even more realistic.
4. Temples (h/t Mali MakeupMinnie)
Contouring the temples for daytime include two half-moon shaped contour applications coming from the hairline towards the center of the forehead, then blended with highlighter. This can dramatically reduce the size and appearance of the forehead with shading techniques, while still looking natural. For more complex night-time contour and highlighting techniques, the temples should be contoured with a strong swipe of contour at the hairline on either side. Depending on whether you're achieving a simple all over contoured look or you're trying to reduce the size and appearance of your forehead like Mali MakeupMinnie, you can play with the thickness of the lines and even bring them down to meet your cheekbone contour!
5. Forehead
No dramatic applications needed here! The center of the forehead is where your face would catch light, so highlighter is a must. During the day, a more liberal use of highlighter is okay, because your face would be catching more light. When contouring and highlighting for night-time, just a triangle of highlighter that ends between the brows will do the trick.
6. Jaw
Jaw contouring is a must to define the shape of your face and in some cases, slim it out. For a daytime application, swipe contour just under the jawline and blend out to give your face a definite edge. For a night-time app, feel free to frame your jaw all the way up and around to the ear. You can apply contour above the edge as well for a more distinct look! Napoleon Perdis reminds us to blend the contour on your jaw down into your neck for a more natural appearance.
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7. Chin & Lower Lip
The chin and lower lip are both great points to highlight during the day, as this is where light will catch. Apply a dab of highlighter to the chin area, and make sure to brush out under the lower lip in an upside-down curve (think of a sad emoji!) For night-time applications, apply highlighter and then apply a curve of contour at the bottom of your chin to give it a slim appearance.
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