How To Contour With Just One Pencil (And Your Fingers)

When Nudestix's 20-year-old girl boss Taylor Frankel was in town recently, we asked her how to conquer contouring, that make-up trend that gives you cheekbones and definition, brings out your eyes and makes your face more V-shaped. She told us that while contouring can be daunting to the non make-up expert, and when overdone, can look a little scary (especially in broad daylight), it doesn't have to be complicated. Using just the Nudestix Sculpting Pencil ($24 from Sephora), Taylor gave us a quickie tutorial on how to achieve a natural and totally wearable contoured look.

First, you need this: Nudestix Sculpting Pencil, $24 (comes in light/medium and medium/deep)

First, imagine there is a line from your temple to the corner of your lips and draw a line with the "contour" end of the sculpting pencil about halfway down.

Then, take your finger and blend upwards until you can’t see the line anymore. You can even blend it a little into your hairline. If you pout, you can follow your cheekbone and blend along the bone. Keep blending upwards — you don’t wanna blend downwards as it can look 'muddy'.

Blend till you're happy with how pigmented or sheer you want the colour to be. Says Taylor, "I like it to look super natural so I usually keep blending." Voila! congrats on your contoured cheeks.

Next, the eyes. Take the "highlight" side and draw a "V" from the inner corner of your eye to the outer corner. That’s the area you want to highlight, to open up the eye area.

Colour it in a little. Says Taylor, "What’s great about this formula is that it’s really creamy and so it’s easy to blend."

Then, use your finger and pat the colour into your skin without pulling or tugging. You just want to blend it gently into your skin.

Continue to blend upwards into the top of the cheekbone. The eye highlight and the cheek contour meet here and creates a contrast. When you highlight, it brightens the area, and when you contour, it recedes the area. So now you have a bright and opened-up eye area.

Next up, the forehead. Draw a few short lines using the "contour" end of the pencil from the middle of your forehead down to your temple.

Blend these upwards into the hairline.

This will give the illusion of a smaller forehead, and will pull the forehead and cheek contour together. Congrats! You have just learned how to contour your cheeks, eyes and forehead using one single pencil. Now, selfie time!

(Photos: Kelvin Chia)