It’s no secret that makeup artists and beauty enthusiasts who surround themselves with beauty products are constantly looking for loopholes to make their life easier. Whether they’re professional makeup artists who need to get the job done quicker and more efficiently, or they’re just beauty-obsessed gals who had a bright idea, there are some seriously sneaky little tricks out there in the makeup world.
One trend that we’ve seen seriously making its mark on the realm of beauty is contouring, of course. While we thank Kim Kardashian for bringing the trend to the forefront for us peasant beauty enthusiasts, we’re still perfecting the technique months later. While Kim has a professional makeup artist to follow her around, we’re still trying to master the art of using the right brushes and blending the right way to get those perfectly chiseled cheekbones.
After scouring the web trying to find a way to make this somewhat complicated beauty trend a lot more doable (and affordable, like I said, we don’t all have professional makeup artists to beautify us on the daily), we came across one incredible contouring trick (via The Beauty Department) that you can do at home for literally under $1.
(Related: How Do You Really Feel About Contouring?)
Of course, the brush you’re using has everything to do with getting the perfect contour, and that’s what this trick is all about. As soon as contouring started to hit the market, tons of brands released brand new brushes (that most of the time cost an arm and a leg), and to be honest; they’re really not necessary. At least, not after you’ve seen this.
It all starts with a normal powder brush. It’s one of the most basic makeup brushes, and there’s a 90% chance that it was included with any brush set you’ve probably ever purchased.
You’ll want to grab that powder brush and pinch it into a fan shape.
When I was sorting through all my fluffy brushes, trying to find the perfect one, I tried them all out, and what I found to be the most challenging was to find a brush that wasn’t too dense towards the middle of the brush. You want to find one that is more dense towards the ends of the bristles if anything. I used this CALA Powder brush that I found at TJ Maxx years ago, but the Sigma F30 or this Smith 118 should also work well!
Grab two bobby pins and hold the pinch towards the middle of the brush height.
Flip it over and do the same.
Voila! Now you have a brush that will perfectly fit into the hollows of your cheeks to chisel those cheekbones.
Pictured next to our DIY contouring fan brush is one that I purchased online a while back. After using them both and checking out the differences between them, there wasn’t much difference, honestly. One thing I did find was that with the DIY contouring brush, you need to be a little more gentle so that the bobby pins don’t move, but honestly, for saving me at least $20 by making one at home, I’ll take it!