Skill Level: Moderate

Note: This tutorial is designed for more advanced users who grasp and understand the basic concepts of makeup application, blending, and other related techniques. I strongly suggest viewing some of the more detailed articles and tutorials that better describe basic techniques for less advanced users. To view a more detailed tutorial to gain a better understanding of the techniques applied here, please view this previous tutorial.

Eyes: If you’d like to compliment the cheeks, try Apricot Pink pigment (mixed with MAC’s water-based mixing medium as your base), Firespot eyeshadow (warm orange color), Cranberry eyeshadow (raspberry color), Sable Wrap eyeshadow (same as Saturnal eyeshadow, dirty dark olive green), Say Yeah (highlighter with pink undertones), Grain eyeshadow (highlighter with neutral undertones), Graphblack technakohl (black kohl liner), and black mascara.
Face: Afterdusk blush (darker pink-purple) on apples of cheeks, Astral Rays glimmershimmer (creamy white-beige) on top of cheeks and temple, and Harmony blush (brown/gray) to contour cheeks.
Lips: For matching lips, try New York Apple lipstick (deep raspberry) with face lipglass (peachy pink).

To view more pictures of the finished product, please view the original look here.

Skill Level: Beginner

Supplies: Expresso eyeshadow (use the shade that correctly matches your brows!), thick angled brush (like the 266), thin angled brush; moisturizing before with a facial cream is also a good way to help get the powder shadow to stay on longer (wait for the moisturizer to dry for the most part, though!).


Using a thick angled brush, pick up the brow color and begin filling in the thickest part of your brows (or the innermost portion) by starting at the top.

Blend outwards and upwards, make sure to repeat only starting at the bottom instead of the top.

Your results…

Using a thin angled brush, pick up the brow color and place directly under the portion of your brow that may need slight darkening. For me, it is just past the thickest part of my brow.

Move your brush along the underside of your eyebrow upwards and outwards.

Continue along the tail of your brow until you reach the end of your brow.

Repeat the process as before, only along the upperside of the brow following it until the end of the tail part of the brow.

You should get something that looks like this. This is a tad messy, and when you do your eye makeup, your highlight helps bring it altogether in the end It is also a good idea to take a clean mascara wand to help straighten out your brow hairs so they look all clean and proper!

Face Tutorial

Foundation: Apply your foundation using a fluffy brush, whether it be the 182, 187, or a blush/powder brush. This works best with liquid foundations, not powder or pressed ones. You can use either your fingers or the brush itself to pick up the liquid foundation and apply it to your face in a series of “spots” or “streaks” that will later be blended out. I usually apply a bit to each cheek, my chin, and the middle of my forehead. If you use a brush like the 187 that is not as easy to blend in circles as the 182, the best method is to stroke sideways and at an angle. I find that the 187 gives some “streakage” around corner areas like the nose and underneath the eyes, so I end up using my fingers to blend these areas at the end. The 182, however, allows you to blend in a circular motion, as well as to the sides, and it eliminates most of the need to do any last-minute finger-blending at the end.

Contouring: I only contour the hollows of my cheeks because I’m fairly happy with the thick/thinness of my nose. I do this by sucking in my cheeks and making a fish face (attractive, I know). I use an angled fluffy brush and pick up bronzer and apply my contour line a little after the hollow begins by my mouth and brush it along the emphasized hollow to your ears. If you do not plan to put any other color on your cheeks/face, you can easily blend this out using a fluffy powder brush (my favorite is the 182). Otherwise, leave the line as it is, as unblended as it appears.

Highlighting: I usually highlight using some sort of pigment (like Pink Opal), and a good brush to apply this is the 182, but also the 187. The 187 has special bristles that allow for a very light application, so you can get the highlight color to fall just over the apples of your cheeks and by your temples without much trouble. Again, smile really big, and notice the apples of your cheeks. You want to apply the highlight color just above the apples, basically just before they flatten out at the top, but before the space underneath your eye begins.

Skill Level: Beginner-Moderate

You need the following tools for contouring: a contour brush (I use MAC’s 168) and a contour color (I use MAC’s Enriched Refined Bronze). An angled powder brush can usually double as a contouring brush, just like you can make your choice in the color you want to use to contour. In general, I would assume a color that is darker than your normal skintone is ideal. Contouring adds shadows to your face to create more dimension (carving the cheeks or accenting the cheekbones, thinning out the nose, etc.).

Contouring is really pretty easy, so long as you place the contour line in the right position, and it is quite simple to find that right area. You need to make a “fishy” face, which is when you suck in your cheeks as much as you can. You can see/feel the hollow it creates below you cheeks; this is the area!


Using your contour brush, pick up your contour color, and apply in the hollow created by the fish-face. This is why makeup is done in private, usually, because this pose is not at all flattering The brush should fit nicely into the hollow of your cheeks, and you simply guide it upwards alongside the hollow/curve.

I followed my natural curve, which you can see resembles the same angle/line of my jaw.

This is what the finished product looks like, and of course, you need to blend this out if you weren’t going to use blush later on (which I will be doing). You can see that I have followed my jawline almost, only beginning in the hollow of my cheeks. For me, that means the curve ends around the middle of my ear.

You need the following tools for adding blush to your cheeks: a blush/powder brush (I use Philosophy’s blush brush) and a blush color (I’m using MAC’s Margin blush for this tutorial). Any large, fluffy powder brush will prove to be a decent blush applicator. The blush color you choose can be whatever color you want, and I usually match my blush color with the rest of my makeup. There aren’t any restrictions on the blush color just because you have contoured your cheeks previously, though.

As I have done here…

This is what it should look like at this point, and I have deliberately done my best not to blend as I go along so I don’t skip over steps someone might want to see! It is pretty clear that there is a pinkish color and a darker brown color on my cheek, and nobody wants to look like this.

I usually blend my contour color into my blush by picking up more of the blush color with my blush brush and adding some to the gap/harsh line between the two, which is just under where I originally placed the blush.

Again, I move from the inner part of my cheek towards my temple.

It’s getting better, isn’t it? You can see that it isn’t quite blended at the innermost portion, so I’m going to fix that.

I fix this by repeating the process and making sure to start lower and at the point that needs to be blended better.

At this point, it’s not a bad idea to simply make small, light-handed circles on your cheeks to facilitate in blending.

I usually move in small circles beginning at the bottom inside and move my way upwards and outwards.

Make sure you do it to the apples of your cheeks, too!

All the way up to your temple…

And just a little more. All done. You have to realize that even though it took several photos to show the process, in actuality, it takes but several seconds to do it. Mostly the photos are taken to show you the placement of the brush since this isn’t video.

You will need the following to highlight: powder brush (I use MAC’s 182 buffer brush) and a highlight color (I’m using Pink Opal pigment in this tutorial). You can continue to use your blush brush, even an angled brush, but anything that is going to be soft and nice against your skin. A highlight color is usually quite light, and my two basics are Gold Dusk and Pink Opal pigments. I know some have been using Lightscapade mineralize skinfinish lately.


When using pigments as a highlight, a little goes a long way.

Using my 182 buffer brush, I pick up the Pink Opal pigment and dust it on very lightly right below my eye and on my cheek bone (you can use the cheesy smile pose to help find your cheekbones – the cheekbone point is not the prominent part of the apple, but where it dips down to your normal face “plain” at the top; press it, you should feel something hard – bone!).

Pull the highlighter out towards your temple.

Voila. You can always blend the contour color less than I have in order to make it stand out more or give you a darker line of contour. It is important to blend between the contour line and blush line so that the two are seamless, though!