Bronzer vs Contour

Makeup is all about optical illusions and tricking the eye to see the face in a slightly different way. Whether it’s changing certain features of the face, like making the nose look smaller, or emphasizing your favorite natural features, bronzer and contour powders are the way to do it. While these two products may seem very similar and may sometimes get mistaken for one another, they are also very different and originated with different purposes.
Let’s start with contour. Contour powders are meant for...contouring the face. It’s typically used in areas such as the creases of the eyes, in the hollows of the cheeks, the sides of the nose, under the center of the lower lip. Putting contour powder in those areas changes the way the eyes see the face. For example, shading under the lower lip will create more of a full pout appearance.

Traditional contour powders tend to have more of a cool tone to create more of a shadowed look on the face. The powder shown below is the NYX HD Blush in the shade Taupe. It has the tiniest amount of a gray undertone rather than a brown or orange, which are more common in bronzers.
Unlike contour powders, bronzers are typically used to help create a more warm, bronze appearance to the face. This adds a little more life back to the skin after creating a flat canvas with foundation. Bronzer isn’t usually applied in such precise areas as contour is. It’s more commonly used to lightly dust over larger areas such as the forehead, cheeks, and perimeter of the face.

As previously mentioned, bronzers have a more warm brown or orange undertone compared to the grays in contour powders. The powder shown below is the Pretty Vulgar Bronzed B Bronzer in the shade Bronze Mannikin. The warm tones tend to look more natural, as if you were to have just spent some time in the sun.
Then there’s products like the two shown below. These are the Makeup Geek Contour Powders in the shades Love Triangle and Bad Habit. Although they’re labeled as contour powders, these are what I use for bronzer almost every time I do my makeup. Makeup Geek offers both cool and warm undertone options for their contour powders, so they’re able to double as bronzers. It all varies by person and really just comes down to choosing a product that will look the most natural on your specific skin tone.
Bronzers and contour powders are some of the most magical makeup products because of the way they can completely transform certain facial features. The color tones of these powders may look intimidating at first, but they’re actually not as scary as they may seem. As long as you choose a color that will compliment your skin tone, there’s nothing to worry about. Just be sure to blend!!

If you found this post helpful, please feel free to share it using one of the buttons below. If you have any questions, leave them for me in the comments. Do you use bronzer and contour powders? Are there any other beauty products you would like explained?

XO ♥ Christina ♥

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