How to Contour Your Jawline

The holidays always bring excitement and cheer, but we can’t deny that this year’s extra special. For most of us, it’s the first time since 2019 that we can celebrate with all the ones we love, in-person!

And while this is certainly enough to send us over the moon, it’s also left us rethinking our beauty routines.

After well over a year of mask-wearing, most of us skipped the lips, blush, and contour altogether. After all, why waste time on makeup that won’t be seen, that’s just going to be dragged around under our masks, anyway?

But now that we’re due to see family and friends IRL this year, some of us are scrambling to relearn makeup suited for the occasion. This begs the question: at this point, do we even remember how to contour?

Never fear, because we’re about to revisit it all!

We’ve definitely talked about contouring a few times here on the blog. Remember when we showed how to perfect a nose contour, and shared our contour do’s and don’ts? We love talking about this technique and showing that it doesn’t take an expert to master the look.

Want to know what area of the face we’re mastering next? It’s all about the base of the face: how to contour the jawline. This part of the face can be a total disaster zone when done wrong. It needs to be blended into another body part (the neck), making it a little trickier than our standard cheek or nose contour.

Below we’ll share 5 unique ways to contour the chin with stunning precision!

The contour techniques that we apply for the jawline have a few specific requirements.

• First, they must blend into the neck. Any pro MUA would agree that this is a non-negotiable – and is the main factor that makes jawline contour look natural.

• Contour around the chin also needs to be applied with a smaller brush, that’s either tapered or angled. Anything too large and fluffy will apply the product too close to the mouth and create a “bearded” effect that should be avoided at all costs.

• In terms of color, choose a product that is 1-1.5 shades darker than your natural complexion. This shade should mimic the natural shadows of your face.

• The jaw contour should be the last contour we apply. So if you contour other areas of the face such as the forehead, cheeks, or nose, finish with your jaw area. Using the leftover product on your brushes will provide a stunning, seamless effect that doesn’t go overboard.

Oh, the double chin: it pops up in photos, selfies, and other unwelcome places. No matter what kind of double chin you might be dealing with, contour is an excellent way to add shape and definition to the jawline.

1. Start by completing your base: moisturizer, primer, foundation, and concealer. If you’re one of the many individuals who experience dry skin, especially during the colder months, we recommend our Fruit Pigmented® Cream Foundation and Fruit Pigmented® 2nd Skin Concealer. Just be careful not to transfer it onto your turtleneck!

2. Then we decide whether to use cream or powder contour. Since the jawline tends to be a high traffic area – frequently touched by our face masks, hands, and clothing – we like to opt for a powder product. It’s longer lasting, easier to apply, and harder to mess up.

3. Stand straight forward in a place with good lighting and look in a mirror. Starting below the hard point of your chin, what part of the double chin catches the most light? Instead of allowing light to bounce off of that area, we want to create a shadow by applying contour in a bowed shape all the way across from the square of our jaw/under the ear on the left to the jaw square on the right.

4. Before applying a contour product, we want to make sure the color we choose is 1-1.5 shades darker than our neck – not our face. The shade of our neck can be slightly different from our face, often a little darker and sometimes warmer or cooler in hue.

   To achieve the most natural look, our secret is to contour the jawline with powder foundation instead of contour powders, which can be dusty and too cool toned for the neck. Antioxidant-rich fruits in our Fruit Pigmented® Powder Foundation makes it easy to find a shade that matches seamlessly.

5. Focus on a soft blend by sweeping back and forth with an angled or tapered brush. You’ll also want to draw the product from below the ear on either side, down the neck. It may be necessary to work out any harsh lines by blending with a fluffy brush and translucent setting powder.

   Work upward under the chin and downward toward the collarbone making sure to match the natural tone of the neck. When you’re finished, you shouldn’t be able to identify any lines or shapes, but instead you’ll notice a cleaner, sharper chin.

If you just want a sharper angle to your jaw, that’s one of the easiest looks to accomplish through makeup. You’ll contour the jawline by carving it out, almost like outlining a drawing before coloring it in.

1. Start in natural light, looking straight into a mirror. Using a tapered brush with a bit of contour product, trace just around the jawline. Starting below the ear on one side, move around the square of our jaw working down to the chin. Repeat on the other side of your face.

2. You should now have a somewhat harsh line along your jawline; now we’ll soften it by blending away from the face. It is super important to preserve that definition, while still achieving a seamless look. We want a soft, lightweight translucent powder to blend out the contour. Opt for one like the Bamboo Blur; this mattifying powder blurs out harsh lines and keeps the contour as soft as a real shadow.

We love a sharp jawline, but there’s nothing wrong with softening up this feature depending on your preference. This trick is almost the opposite of our last segment, which worked to create definition.

1. Instead of tracing below the jaw with our tapered brush, trace along the jaw and blend both upward toward the face and downward under the chin.

2. We want to ensure the contour blends very well into our foundation. Our secret to getting it right is to lightly tap over the contour with our Latex-Free Makeup Blender and a bit of leftover foundation. It helps to mingle our face shade with the subtle shadow along our jawline, creating a narrower jaw that is faintly less defined.

A long, willowy neck (no matter our actual height) makes everyone look a touch more modelesque. To help achieve that runway-worthy look, we play with light and shadows using not just contour but concealer, too.

1. First reach for whatever shade of 2nd Skin Concealer is a single shade above the color of your neck. We love the way this liquid concealer dries down to a satin finish that truly mimics real skin. It is weightless and undetectable, but buildable with medium to full coverage.

2. Look straight into a mirror and using your chin as the center point, draw a vertical line down from your jaw to your collarbone.

3. Before blending, go in with the contour. We want to create a more defined look to the neck, so we’ll sweep products downward from below our ear all the way to our collarbone. To finish this off, we want to tap out the concealer with a sponge and blend the contour inward toward the concealer.

4. After everything is well blended, sharpen the contour along the upper part of the collarbone and on the underside of the chin. Brush over everything with translucent powder until it is smooth and set.

Our last jawline contouring trick is to create a sharper chin. Compared to all the other techniques, this one is relatively simple.

1. First enhance the chin with a dot of concealer right on the center, blending it out with a sponge. Next we want to powder contour by sweeping two lines down from the corner of the mouth to the jawline, blending backwards.

2. This technique puts the focus on the chin for a more prominent look, to balance a triangle or heart shaped face. You can draw the contour downwards below the chin for an even sharper look, or buff everything out with our Bamboo Blur powder for a soft-focus finish.

We’ve already shared our secrets on how to contour a round face, a square face, and so many more contour how-to’s. Brush up on these quick guides and you’ll be a pro in no time!