WHEN it comes right down to it, body fat is pretty easy to hide. While muumuus won’t make you look thinner, they can easily camouflage any unsightly rolls of blubber you may harbor.
Unfortunately, sack dresses end at the neck. The harsh reality is that you just can’t get away with a big fat naked face. What are you going to do? Put on a mask? Start wearing a burqa?
A more practical (and less factional) option can be found in the cosmetics aisle at your local drugstore. Using different shades of foundation, blush, eye shadow and bronzer, you can make your double chin, chubby cheeks and puffy eyes disappear.
You don’t even need to splash out on expensive department store makeup to get expert advice on how to slim your facial features.
I enlisted the help of Melissa Silver, a celebrity makeup artist whose clients include Renee Zellweger, Heidi Klum and Cindy Crawford, to show us effective, natural-looking facial contouring techniques using only products by Maybelline New York.
Her best tips? Pick mocha-brown colors that have a slight pearly sheen – duller gray browns can end up looking like dirt and super-frosty colors, which are harder to blend, might also leave you looking like a big sick baby (shiny and bloated).
It’s also important to practice at home before debuting your skinny face in public. Experiment in natural light by applying a little bit of color at a time. Step back from the mirror every so often to check the results. Remember, with makeup, it’s easier to add than to subtract.
Read on for more of Melissa’s tips on how to slenderize and structure five key features on your face.
TIPS:EYES: Too much shimmer can make your eyelids look fat and puffy. Instead of frosted shadows, look for iridescent pearl colors. Pre-coordinated color packs – like the Maybelline chocolate mousse trio – make blending a no-brainer.
NOSE: Give yourself an instant nose job. Run a medium makeup brush dipped in a mocha-tone powder blush or eyeshadow down the sides of your nose. Make sure to blend the color well – you don’t want to walk around with dark vertical stripes on your face.
Dab a bit of the color on the inner corners of your eyes to narrow the bridge of your nose.
FOREHEAD: Counter a well-endowed, slightly bulbous forehead by brushing contouring powder on your temples and along your hairline. Remember to blend – you don’t want to look like you just didn’t wash your hair. NB: Those with smaller foreheads should avoid this technique entirely.
CHEEKS: Slim your face and give yourself instant cheekbones. Using a medium-to-large brush, apply a warm brown blush – like Mocha Velvet or Sierra Sand – in a sweeping motion (think of the Nike swoop) around the apples of your cheeks. Apply a warm coral or pink hue on the apples of your cheeks before blending out and upward.
Quick fix: If you’ve put on too much and don’t have to start all over again, dust a little pressed powder over the color to soften the look.
JAWLINE: To hide that double chin and neck flab, choose a color that is about two shades darker than your natural skin tone.
Brush on the contouring powder all along your jawline – in downward strokes – begin just under your earlobe and end near where the corner of your mouth begins.
Blend with a large brush and pressed powder.