Makeup for a diamond face

The approach

A diamond face is widest at the cheekbones and narrow at the forehead and chin. Makeup rebalances it with light where the face is narrow, at the centre of the forehead and the chin, and restraint where it is wide. The cheekbones stay soft rather than sharpened. Brows widen the top.

Contour placement for a diamond face

• Cheekbones: keep it light. A soft, low sweep from the ear toward the mid-cheek adds shape without sharpening the widest line on the face. Skip it entirely on a day you want the cheekbones quieter.
• Under the cheekbone tip: never deepen the hollow directly below the most prominent point, which is the standard contour and the one that makes a diamond face more diamond.
• Chin: leave the sides of the chin alone. Contouring a pointed chin makes it sharper. A touch under the tip, on the underside, gives definition without narrowing.
• Forehead and temples: skip. The forehead is already narrow, and contour at the temples narrows it further.

Use a matte contour a couple of shades deeper than the skin, applied with a light hand and blended well.

Highlight

Highlight on the centre of the forehead and on the chin brings both narrow ends forward. A little on the bridge of the nose and the cupid's bow keeps the centre of the face bright. Skip the tops of the cheekbones: a bright cheekbone reads as a wider cheekbone.

Blush

Place blush on the apples of the cheeks, on the front of the face, and blend it outward only a little. Keep it off the cheekbone itself and away from the temples; blush swept along the cheekbone and up to the temple widens the middle of the face, which a diamond face does not need.

A rounder, more forward placement adds colour to the front of the face and softens the angular outline.

Colour by undertone, which the face shape test reports: peach and coral for warm undertones, rose and pink for cool, either for neutral.

Brow shape for a diamond face

The brows sit on the narrow forehead of a diamond face, so their job is to add a little width there. A soft arch with the two brows spread slightly wider apart than usual widens the top of the face; start each brow a touch outside the inner corner of the eye.

Keep the arch moderate and the tail long enough to reach the temple. A very rounded, short brow narrows the forehead further; a sharp high arch adds an angle to an outline that has enough.

Eyes and lips

The eyes sit between the narrow forehead and the wide cheekbones, so a little emphasis helps: shadow blended outward toward the temples and lashes longest at the outer corners widen the upper face.

The lips are the balancing tool for the chin: a fuller, well-defined lip with a soft rounded shape and a touch of gloss at the centre of the lower lip adds presence to the lower third and softens the point.

A simple routine

1. Base as usual.
2. Light, low contour under the cheekbones, or none.
3. Blush on the apples, blended only a little outward.
4. Highlight the centre of the forehead, the chin, the nose bridge and the cupid's bow.
5. Brows soft, spread slightly wider, tails to the temple.
6. Eyes blended outward; lips full and rounded.

The diamond face overview explains the ratios this routine is balancing.