Face Shapes, Facial Features, and Corrective Techniques
Face Shapes, Facial Features, and Corrective Techniques tests proportion, balance, and the use of light and shadow. Expect contour and highlight placement, feature correction, and respectful handling of asymmetry.
Core rules
- Common face shapes include oval, round, square, heart, diamond, oblong, and triangle. No shape is a defect; the goal is balance, not a single ideal.
- Highlight advances an area; contour recedes it. Place contour where you want shadow, usually temples, jawline, under cheekbones, or sides of the nose, and blend until no line is visible.
- Corrective work should follow the client's bone structure and be visible in person, not just on camera. Use small amounts and build.
- For round faces, contour temples and jaw corners and place blush diagonally; avoid a wide horizontal band across the cheeks. For long faces, shade the forehead top and chin and place blush horizontally. For heart shapes, soften the forehead and add subtle width at the lower jaw.
- For feature correction, use matte shadow to minimize and shimmer to bring forward, but keep shimmer off textured areas.
Worked example
A round-faced client wants more definition for evening. Reasoning: heavy contour all around will look painted. Contour the temples and jaw corners, highlight the forehead center and cheekbone tops, and apply blush starting at the cheek apple and sweeping up. Leave the center of the cheeks light.
Traps
Applying the same contour map to every face, over-highlighting, harsh nose lines, ignoring natural asymmetry, and using a cool gray contour on warm skin without checking the result.