Most women know that if they want to look thinner, they can wear dark clothes to slim wide hips and long tops to appear taller.
Most don’t know how to use their cosmetics to make a full face appear thinner. Makeup is the art of illusion—using different shades of foundation, blush, eye shadow and bronzer to make your double chin, chubby cheeks and puffy eyes disappear.
If you don’t love the shape or size of your nose, you can give yourself the illusion of a nose job by applying a soft mocha toned powder down the sides of your nose. Use a medium soft bristled eye shadow brush. Wipe the excess off on a tissue before you apply. Make sure to blend well. You don’t want it to look too obvious. Dab a little of the same color in the insides of your eyes as well. This will narrow the bridge of your nose. Add a touch of the powder to the tip of your nose to give the appearance of a smaller nose. Follow with a light neutral face powder to soften the mocha powder.
Make your eyes pop—not your eyelids. Too much shimmer can make your eyelids look puffy. Instead of pearl eye shadows, opt for matte shadows. They give the illusion of a flat surface. Pearl shadows bring attention to the eye and accentuate the fullness. Use a very light color on the eyelid. Choose a medium to dark eye shadow (brown, gray, green, navy) to use in the crease. Work from the outer corner in toward your nose. This helps keep your eye clean when working with darker colors. Take a good look in the mirror and study your eyelids. Your goal is to softly cover the puffiness and blend very well.
You don’t want to look as though you have a black eye and you don’t want to overdo the dark shadow and look too heavily made up. You need a balance. Using a blending brush, blend in the same direction. Apply a dark eyeliner on the top lid to give your eye focus. Add two to three coats of mascara. When your eyes are puffy, mascara usually ends up on your eyelid. Hold your eyelid open while applying the mascara. Immediately clean any mascara with a Q-tip, rolling it softly over the spot. You don’t want to have to repair the eye shadow. Hold your eye open until the mascara dries. This method is cleaner and saves you time. When you’re done, do a quick cleanup around your eyes with Q-tips.
Slim your face and give yourself instant cheekbones using a contour brush, which is shaped to contour the bone under your cheeks. Apply a warm brown powder around the bottom of the cheek bone. Use a warm coral or pink blush on the apples of your cheek, overlapping the colors. You don’t want obvious stripes. Blend the colors upwards and outwards with powder to diffuse the edges of the blush and contour. The powder will soften the look.
Counter a well-endowed, slightly large forehead by brushing contour powder on your temples and along your hairline. Remember to blend. Those with smaller foreheads should avoid this technique.
To hide a double chin and fullness at the neck, choose a color that is about two shades darker than your natural skin tone. Apply the darker foundation all along the underside of your jaw line in downward strokes. Begin just under your earlobe and end at the neck. Be very sure the makeup is well blended. You want to create a thinner jaw. Blend, blend, and blend. Finish with a light translucent powder.
Now you know the secrets of the professionals. Practice makes perfect—and thinner.
By Sylvia Hamowy, owner of Reflections Cosmetics. She is a professional makeup artist, beauty editor and former radio show host. She is featured in the International Who’s Who of Entrepreneurs.
