If there’s one makeup trend that has completely divided us beauty-obsessed people it’s the trend for drawing brown stripes on our faces and then rubbing them in as though we’re trying to remove stubborn patches of dirt. AKA “contouring”. One of the problems with this contouring business, I think, is that lots of demonstrations and tutorials happen in front of studio lights and/or are quite graphic and hard. And unless you’re the type of person who never leaves the house during daylight hours and is only ever seen with full-on evening makeup, it’s all just a little too harsh.

I asked makeup artist supremo Caroline Barnes (you will remember her from last week’s video) to create a contour for people who don’t like to contour. Soft, realistic but still dramatic enough to sculpt and shape the face. (If you want really, really soft and natural then it’s not really contouring – you could use a slightly darker face powder or very pale bronzer to create a shadow but we’re probably moving out of the realms of the “contour” then. Which is fine. I have to say I think I’m happiest with the softly-softly touch-of-sculpt!)

Caroline uses the brilliant gel sculpt from Illamasqua (here) and also MAC’s Cream Base in Pearl (here) but I’ve listed all of the products below the video screen for easy reference. I particularly love the way that Caroline uses concealer to lighten the middle part of my face – and also the eye-socket/nose-sculpting trick looks amazing! Here you go – enjoy:

Illamasqua Gel Sculpt in Silhouette: http://tidd.ly/c3237632

MAC Cream Base in Pearl: http://tidd.ly/ecfbafa6

Max Factor Cream Blush in Soft Copper: http://amzn.to/1WApaR6

Amazing Concealer in Fair: http://goo.gl/j2gzCT