Blame this one on Kim Kardashian perhaps. It all started when she Instagrammed a selfie of her contouring process — a silver tree stretched from the bridge of her nose with branches extending on her forehead while the rest of her face looked like she was spray-painted silver to look like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz . However, in the after-picture that she posted later, Kim glowed golden-pink. Naturally, makeup junkies went crazy and complex contouring was suddenly in.
So is contouring for everyone? Well, if you can spare four to five hours every morning painstakingly yet artistically painting your face with products some of us haven’t even heard of, to achieve a more natural look than your own skin, this is definitely for you. Okay I’ll admit contouring isn’t just random application of makeup: for instance, did you know it all starts with highlighting or that bronzer is absolutely not good for contouring? I didn’t either; there’s always a place to start learning.
If a five-minute contouring process somehow does not appeal to you, don’t worry. The good people of the Internet, as always, have taken over the responsibility of taking it to another level. There’s baking (no, not the culinary activity; I got prematurely excited too) where you set the foundation into the skin so that it lasts longer — you let it ‘cook’ so to speak — that quickly escalated to strobing (the opposite of contouring, apparently). This gave way to clown contouring, henna contouring, tontouring, vontouring — the last one, surprisingly enough, does not involve makeup but is a non-invasive, non-surgical alternative to a labiaplasty. Because, ladies, a wrinkle in time, is truly a crime.
Clown contouring was started by makeup artist Bella DeLune who wanted to stand up against “makeup haters”. She describes the technique as “extreme colour correction, highlight, and contour.” She possibly missed “extreme madness” in her description. The thing about contouring is that while some are happy with the results, the technique has come under fire because it suggests that a smaller, defined nose (and other face qualities) is more attractive. It aims for complete transformation — you no longer look like yourself, but just an air-brushed, photoshopped version without the technology; it’s like a security blanket. A one-size-fits-all security blanket that looks great in selfies. This brings to mind the ‘stereotypical woman’ as outlined by Germaine Greer in the 1970s: “To her belongs all that is beautiful, even the very word beauty itself… She is a doll… I’m sick of the masquerade.” Dolls, if you remember, don’t age. They’re mass-produced and far from the idea of a regular woman. Just look at the Barbie, for example.
My point is this: for the women of Hollywood, contouring is the most effective way to a massive transformation — there are no needles, invasive surgeries, injecting your own blood for a facial… But for people who are looking at day-to-day Instagrams, you can still look at Kim Kardashian for inspiration. It’s not for nothing that she released her book on selfies.
