How To Contour Your Nose: Step By Step Tutorial
No two noses are exactly alike, which means no two noses can be contoured in exactly the same way, either. Nailing your nose takes patience, a discerning eye, and most important of all, good products! (Luckily, we have those in spades.)
Here’s a step-by-step tutorial for contouring your nose, no matter what size or shape it comes in.
Contour vs Contouring?
“Contouring” is a makeup technique that creates shadows and high points on your face to alter your face shape, and “contour” is one of the many products you can use to accomplish this feat of makeup magic. Other helpful products include bronzer, highlighter, concealer, and blush.
We say “makeup magic” because this technique truly is one of the most transformative skills in a MUA’s back pocket. With the right products and brush kit, contour can level up your look from everyday glam to red carpet-ready.
How To Contour Your Nose
Let’s start by clarifying that you can use contour to sculpt any aspect of your face. Noses just tend to be a primary target, given the fact that they take up prime real estate in the middle of your face.
Noses also tend to be a bit trickier to nail, especially since what constitutes “good” nose contour is constantly changing.
That said, let’s stick to the basics of contouring before worrying about what’s trendy.
Step One: Determine Your Nose Shape
The best contour for your nose all depends on its shape, so go take a good, long look in the mirror. Is your nose thin, wide, narrow, or pointy? Maybe your nose is already symmetrical, and you simply want to emphasize your regularity in features. Either way, figuring out your nose shape is the first step to planning your contour strategy.
Study yourself and decide which category your nose fits into:
- Thin
- Pointed
- Wide at the nostrils
- Crooked
- Flat (the bridge of your nose is very undefined)
- Symmetrical
Got it sorted? Okay, remember that. Now, we’ll walk you through each step based on the shape you’ve identified.
Step Two: Adding Shadows
Now it’s time for the fun part: Using products! Grab a thin, angled brush (we like the one in our Glam 101 Face Essentials Brush Set) and a contour that’s about two to three shades deeper than your skin tone.
There are a ton of contour products out there, so if you’re new to the makeup world and are feeling overwhelmed by options, try our Multi-Glam Face Pen – it’s a 4-in-1 beauty tool that makes contour easier than ever.
For this step, you’ll want to use the deeper tone. Find your nose shape and follow our instructions below!
Thin
The purpose of contour is to emphasize the shadows on your face, so if you have a thin nose, you can choose to skip this step.
Pointed
To balance out a very pointed nose, apply contour to just the tip of the nose. This creates the illusion of shadows and will make your nose appear more symmetrical.
Using the Face Pen, dot some contour onto the tip of your nose. Don’t blend it out just yet.
Wide
Take a look in the mirror and mentally divide your nose into thirds. Now, using a very fine contour pen (the Fine Line 2-in-1 Nose Contour & Highlighter is perfect for this), draw a U-shape on the bottom third of your nose.
The bottom of the U should include the very tip of your nose, and the sides of the U should reach just up to where the bridge of your nose begins.
Crooked
If your nose slants slightly to the right or left, contour is your new best friend. Dot your Multi-Glam Face Pen onto the back of your hand until you have a slight buildup of product, then use an angled brush to transfer that product to your nose (just like painting).
Apply the contour onto your nose in two parallel lines on the sides of your nose. However, rather than following the actual slant of your nose, draw the lines as if your nose were straight.
Depending on how crooked your nose is, this might be a bit tricky, so don’t be afraid to pull out the ol’ ruler or straightedge if necessary.
Flat
If your nose is very flat, you can use contour to create the illusion of a more defined bone structure. Using a fine contour pen, draw two parallel lines alongside the bridge of your nose. Connect them at the tip of your nose so that it forms a long U-shape.
Symmetrical
If your nose is fairly symmetrical to begin with, your job is easy – you just want to emphasize your pre-existing bone structure.
Dot the Face Pen onto the back of your hand until you have a decent amount of product, then use your brush to transfer that product from your hand to the sides of your nose, parallel to your bridge.
Step Three: Adding High Points
Next, we’ll use concealer to emphasize the high points of the nose.
Thin
Most of the time, we add contour to the sides of the nose bridge to create more shadows. But since your nose is already narrow, we’re going to add concealer instead to widen your nose and create a bit more balance.
Dot concealer in two lines running parallel to the bridge of your nose, then use your finger or a small brush to gently blend it out. Your concealer should ideally be one or two shades lighter than your natural skin tone. We recommend our Perfect Skin High Coverage concealer because it’s both long-lasting and super moisturizing (thanks, squalane extract).
Pointed
To balance out your bottom-heavy nose, you’ll want to dot a generous amount of high-quality concealer into the triangular space between your eyes, eyebrows, and the bridge of your nose.
You know how dotting sparkly eyeshadow into the inner corners of your eyes makes your eyes look bigger? This is the same concept, except instead of the inner corner of your eye, we’re doing the inner corner of your entire eye socket. Instead of emphasizing your eyes, this will de-emphasize your nose.
Bulbous
Because your nose is fairly wide at the bottom, we’re going to apply concealer right smack in the middle of the bridge of your nose (right above where your nostrils end) to create more balance.
To do this, apply a few dots of concealer directly onto your nose and buff out with the wide bottom of a beauty blender. No need for precision here – this technique is all about creating width.
Crooked
This step is easy for you – grab a concealer pen and simply dot concealer in a straight line directly between the contour lines you drew on in step two. Follow the bridge of your nose until your nose gets crooked – then, follow the line of where your bridge would be if your nose were straight.
Flat
Using your favorite concealer, dot product in a straight line right down the bridge of your nose. This line should sit right between the two lines we’ve already drawn on using contour.
Symmetrical
If your nose is fairly symmetrical already, dot a bit of concealer down the middle of your nose, right between the lines of contour. This will serve to emphasize your bone structure and highlight the high point of your nose.
Step Four: Blend It All Out
If you followed our steps, your nose should be looking pretty crazy right about now. Time to grab your most adorable beauty blender, spritz it with some water, and blend, baby, blend! The goal is to blend each product into your skin rather than into each other, so use quick dabbing motions, sort of like you’re trying to get a stain out of your clothing without making it worse.
Continue doing this until your skin no longer looks like a crazy patchwork and simply looks like skin again.
Dream Nose Unlocked
And, voila – you’ve created the nose of your dreams. Just remember that the whole purpose of contouring is to feel like the best, most confident version of yourself, and to have fun with your makeup. We’re cheering you on every step of the way!