Contour, highlight, bronzer, and blush means totally different things based on colour theory.
Bronzer = sun glow or a sun tanned look.
Blush = flushed look, due to blood rushing to the face from an elevated emotional response like from embarrassment or arousal.
Highlighter = higher light (reflection). As opposed to a lower light (receading, non-reflecting).
Contour = to shape by creating depth.
I see the mistake of women using blush and bronzers as contour and highlighters on the street all the time. Typically it's the under 25 crowd... Of course there are exceptions. <snip>
Yes, that's a great deal for a bronzer. But you would never use a bronzer as a contour.
Thank you so much for this! There are a couple of points I'd like to make in agreement. First, for anyone who uses a bronzer to contour; look at your bare face in a mirror in natural light. Turn your head from side to side, and look at the shadows that are created in the contours of your face. What color are those natural shadows? They aren't brown. They are a greyish taupe. THAT is why no bronzer will ever look natural when used as a contour product.
Just as an FYI, NYX makes a powder blush in "Taupe" (
http://www.nyxcosmetics.com/p-24-powder-blush.aspx) that can work well on many skintones as a contour, if.....
...you apply it correctly and don't use too much! (If you can see the product on your skin, your face will look dirty - then you have applied too much product).
One of the most enlightening videos I've seen was one posted by Lisa Eldridge. It was quite a long time ago, so I don't recall specifically which video it was (I don't think the topic of the video was contouring and highlighting, though).
In that video, I saw Lisa gently swirl her brush in the powder contour (which was a taupe shade), then holding the brush perpendicular to the back of her hand, she tapped the tip of the bristles on the back of her hand several times to remove the excess product. She then applied the powder to the areas she wished to define of one side of the model's face. She did not dip the brush again into the contour product compact - to get a bit more product on her brush when she needed it, she gently tapped it again on the back of her hand to pick up the "loose" powder that had been deposited there when she tapped off the excess product before beginning application.
With the model's face turned to the side to which the product had been applied, you could NOT see the product on the skin at all. But, when the model turned to face the camera, it definitely appeared the side of her face to which the product had been applied had more defined contours than the side of the face to which the contour powder had not yet been applied.
All of us need to learn not all products have to be noticeable after application to have the desired effect. In terms of highlight and contour, less is absolutely more.
/emoticons/
