Best Contour Brush for a Flawless Face

A really good contour brush is hard to find, especially one for a full makeup application. Do you find there’s always a makeup stroke that doesn't quite turn out as you want? For sure you’ve done a lovely job with one of your eyebrows and you want the other one to look just like it, but you just can't replicate it. The same goes for that fabled perfectly symmetrical eyeliner. 

Well, the problem might not be your shaky hand but the fact that you’re using the wrong brush. As we said above, finding the right one is hard, especially if you consider every best makeup brush out there. 

Surely, you can find many with perfectly-cut bristles and a straight edge or fanned bristles that promise even application. Some are even specially designed to apply powders or liquids. That’s too much information so, where do you even start? Don’t worry, check out every face brush below, you should be able to find the one you need or at least get an idea of what you need.

Best Contour Brush for a Flawless Face: Our Top Favorites

DUcare Duo and Three-Piece Contour Kit 

This manufacturer specializes in flawless face brush design, supply chain, and manufacturing and has been around for more than 30 years. All brushes are hand-crafted and they use a novel method of arranging a brush head to achieve good quality brushes for mass production.

Every designer in their team has their own unique sense of fashion and some focus on creating elegant brushes while others prefer cute or athletic or sexy or trendy, so there are many different styles. As you can see, the brushes have been designed and handcrafted by industry experts and are cruelty-free and hypoallergenic. The soft, dense bristles buff and blend for a seamless finish.

In addition, DUcarebeauty has strict quality control over every brush they produce. It takes about 20 steps to assemble the bristles to keep them from disintegrating, and over 15 steps to process the ergonomic, FSC certified wood handles. This includes painting them and applying the logo. The products are ISO9001-2008, TUV, BV certified, and REACH Compliant.

Their first product here is a kit of two dual-end foundation powder buffer and contour synthetic brushes. These makeup tools are double-ended and so there are four brushes in total to apply foundation, powder, and for buffering and contouring. The handle features bling glitter with gold powder and feels great in your hand, it’s inspired by royal wands.

The flat side of the rounded kabuki-style brush in this duo is for powder and can easily follow the curves of your face. It’s perfect for liquid and powder foundations. In turn, the soft bristles of the pointed end are great for dispersing product and creating an airbrushed finish. Furthermore, the pointed tip is for the precision needed from a blush brush, bronzer brush, or powder brush.

In turn, the soft hair of both the duo angled contour brush and the large powder brush is helpful for creating a professional contoured look. It’s an easy-to-use complement to the contouring brush that seamlessly buffs with the denser, domed side of the double-ended face makeup brush. All materials are eco-friendly and intended to provide a unique, luxurious feeling. The company guarantees great support service and full return. 

The second product contains a set of white painted wood and recycled aluminum contouring brushes suitable for concealing and applying blush.

The three synthetic brush pack also contains an angled flat foundation brush suitable for applying a variety of cosmetics such as liquid foundation, BB cream, powder, concealer, self-tanner, body highlighter, and shimmer. They instantly deliver a streak-free natural-looking coverage.

This kit also contains a concealer brush assembled with soft synthetic hair and is designed to camouflage under-eye darkness and conceal discoloration, spots, and blemishes for a flawless and natural-looking makeup finish. The third brush in the pack is for applying blush but you can use it for setting powder, bronzer, highlighter, and mineral makeup. 

Matto Powder Contour Makeup Brush 

This tapered brush is great for applying mineral foundation to highlight your blush and to blend, contour, and buff your makeup to define your cheekbones, forehead, and jawline. The product is made of nylon, wood, and metal by Matto, and comes in white and black. It’s suitable for all skin types, including the sensitive.

The plush hand-cut synthetic bristles of this brush are ultra-soft and allow for even and precise application. They’re made in a cruelty-free environment and won’t eat up your makeup products, so it’s easy to clean and maintain. Furthermore, the dull-polished handle is anti-slip and thus, allows better control for a smooth makeup application.

Kabuki Makeup Brush Set

This is a set of 10 foundation powder, blush, and concealer contour brushes with a wooden pink handle and a copper sleeve that contains synthetic bristles. The set can handle liquid, cream, and mineral products. Furthermore, this kind of ultimate blending brush is great for concealing, setting powder, and applying blush and foundation for contouring and highlighting.

This set contains a flat brush, a round brush, an angled brush, and a  tapered brush as well as combination tips. You can store them in the beautifully designed cardboard holder they're packaged with.

Made by Lamora, these tools are great to attain a flawless look and are ideal for stippling, buffing, blending, contouring, highlighting, and shading. Thus, you can use them to hide imperfections and attain an airbrushed finish.

All the brushes in this set are made in a cruelty-free environment and are soft, dense, and silky. They won’t eat up your cosmetic products and are easy to clean and maintain. They’re suitable for everyday use and their long-lasting performance will exceed your expectations. Furthermore, you can use them on all types of skin, even if you’re prone to redness, uneven skin tone, large pores, acne, and dermatitis. In fact, they’re great for covering minor blemishes and brown spots.

As if that wasn’t enough, the set comes with the book Quick And Easy Instruction Tips That Fit Around A Busy Lifestyle. They also offer a 30-day "better than money back" guarantee and will refund your money if you’re not satisfied with their product for any reason.  

Lamora Pro Face Contour Brush 5-Piece Set 

This is a set of five brushes with synthetic bristles for contouring, sculpting, and highlighting. You can use them to apply liquid or powder blush and contain round, small, angled, fanned, and tapered points for the precision you need for contouring.

The set contains the five most popular contour brushes for sharp sculpted features. Whether you're looking for a chiseled, runway look or just want to add a bit more definition to highlight your natural beauty, the included tips will make any makeup look you choose possible.

The bristles are soft and the product is made in a cruelty-free environment as they use high-quality, synthetic soft bristles that can adjust to your facial structure. You can attain impeccable highlights and shadows with easy transitions between contouring around your cheekbones and jawline.

As you know, contouring isn’t only about shaping, but about sculpting and accentuating the wonderful shape of your face with a perfect mix of highlights and shadows. 

Duorime 7-Piece Makeup Brush Set 

This seven-piece brush set is suitable for concealing, setting powder, contouring, and applying foundation.

The set includes specialized oval brushes for every need such as applying primer, foundation, concealer, powder, bb cream, eyeliner, eye shadow, lipstick, blush, and bronzer, and for contouring, highlighting, setting, and basically carrying out the rest of your favorite makeup techniques.

These brushes are made with hand-selected revolutionary synthetic soft fibers specifically made for applying makeup products. They’re high quality and thus, silky soft, and fine density so they’re great for picking up and distributing liquids, creams, and powders on your face.

The products have been tested by make-up artists and the product designers constantly take note of their requests to improve the brushes. They're universal and can cover all application needs so it's a truly revolutionary design. Compare them with traditional makeup brushes.

What Exactly Is Contouring in Terms of Makeup? 

Contouring is a makeup technique to sculpt and add dimension to your face. It consists of using lighter or darker makeup colors around your it to define, accentuate or hide your facial features. Contouring is different from applying regular makeup in that it’s about creating shadows and highlighting certain areas of your face.

People don’t really need to contour their faces but some think it fun to change their facial features to look like someone else. The best part is you don’t need overly specialized tools to do so. You can attain any look with two shades of concealer or foundation, or a bronzer or a highlighter. Heck, you can even use eyeshadow or brow powder for this purpose.

Whatever makeup you choose, be consistent with their texture for better results. For instance, mixing powder and liquid or creams will make you look like a frosted cake. Of course, you’ll need appropriate brushes for the job.

Contouring Steps

The purpose of this makeup technique is to enhance your natural beauty so what you do depends on what you want as well as on the bone structure of your face. There are some things that apply to all and we’re about to describe them, so continue reading.

The first step before applying anything to your face is to wash it and apply moisturizer. This is to keep your makeup from clumping up around any dry skin you might have. Then, apply primer if you want a more produced makeup look. This is a substance that stays between your skin and makeup products to make the latter stay longer.

Then, even out your skin with a dab of foundation and/or concealer. The color should match your natural skin tones and cover any blemishes and discoloration you might have. It’s now time to add some shadows.

This is the easiest and best-known way to contour your face. All you have to do is create a shadow underneath your cheekbones by using a darker color than your skin along their hollows. You can find these by sucking in your cheeks. Be sure to follow the natural shape of your jawline and temples. 

You can also place this darker color along the sides of your nose and all the way towards your hairline, under your cheekbone and jawline, or in an upside-down triangle shape that frames your cheeks. Play around and add lines to sculpt your face with shadows until you find the ones that create the effect you desire.

Now, apply a lighter color, a highlighter, to those areas of your face that naturally reflect light. This usually happens in your forehead, bridge and tip of your nose, cheekbones, cupid’s bow, and around the brow bone. As we said at the beginning of this paragraph, you’ll want to use a concealer that’s slightly lighter than your skin tone but you could also opt for a shimmery highlighter or eyeshadow.

This is the time to apply blush. You don’t want to use it on your cheeks if you seek a contoured look. Instead, you want it to look natural so let it be the bridge between your shadows and highlights. Blending is important as you’re working with colors that are slightly lighter and darker than your natural skin color. 

The best tool for the job is a big, fluffy blending brush but you can also use a makeup sponge. You want to blend the shadows and highlights into the foundation layer so that the lines you’ve created look natural. Finally, apply setting powder or spray for a flawless finish and to make it last longer.

Contouring and Body Dysmorphia

Contouring used to be a technique mainly used by makeup artists but has gone mainstream. Some people do it to highlight or hide features and this is great as it can bring out the best in them. Unfortunately, others just don’t understand how truly beautiful they are and think beauty is about looking like the celebrities they see on TV. 

This is a sort of facial dysmorphia, a mental health condition in which a person with very low self-esteem has a warped perception of their face. It usually includes distorted perceptions of how their nose, skin, and teeth look. These people almost always have a negative, self-perception that can lead them to obsess over their physical appearance. 

Their desire to change may lead them to try to hide their features with something as simple as contouring but the most extreme cases often end up undergoing all kinds of surgical procedures that make them look like a sort of Frankenstein, a mixture of mismatched facial features, and it severely impacts their lives.

It may be hard to believe, but a fixation on perceived flaws is a source of anxiety for those with facial dysmorphia. Some may never leave their house so as to hide their “ugly” appearance while others might even mutilate themselves or undergo cosmetic surgery if they can afford it. (Some who can't afford it often get in financial trouble as they resort to credit.) In the end, about 24 to 28 percent of those with body dysmorphia commit suicide.

Medical practitioners estimate that about two percent of the population has some form of facial or body dysmorphic disorder and that it's equally common in both genders. The causes are poorly understood, but the condition is more likely to afflict those who've been physically and/or emotionally abused. Some experts also believe dysmorphia might have a genetic component.

An explanation for how some people fail to correctly perceive their own facial features is the brain is hard-wired to filter out familiar stimuli. What this means is you can spend a long time looking at your face in the mirror and certain parts will become distorted. It's a sort of optical illusion.

As you can imagine, a small concern about an aspect of your appearance will become huge, and the more you agonize over it in the mirror, the more likely you are to develop a distorted view of how you actually look. Not only that, you’ll actually start spending more time in front of the mirror and so your self-perception will be even more distorted.

This condition is hard to diagnose but the professionals that most get to see it are cosmetic workers and plastic surgeons. This is because it’s more common for people with facial dysmorphia to undergo cosmetic surgeries like skin peels, face fillers, tooth whitening, and even contouring. 

Note that these procedures rarely solve the problem as people with this condition are rarely satisfied with the outcomes and will continue to try new cosmetic treatments. 

The Actual Purpose of Contouring

Most people think contouring is about drawing brown lines around your face but really, the goal is to add dimension to your face. Have you noticed how your face sort of flattens when you apply foundation? This happens because the foundation removes your shadows and highlights. So, contouring is the best way to put it back and give it a definition.

The thing is you need to know how to do it properly so as not to look like a zombie. There are all kinds of techniques to do it so it looks natural. Contouring is a nice way to cheat nature to bring out the best in you — even though most people love you just the way you are. Love yourself as much as they do at least!