How to Lift Jowl Lines With Makeup

Use a highlighter and shading to give the look of a structured jawline.

Lift jowl lines by employing basic professional techniques from photographic and stage makeup. Gentle application makes these tricks look natural, and you can use regular beauty makeup products for an everyday solution. Makeup for photographs, or on screen, needs to be a little heavier to give the effect of a smoothed and lifted appearance.

Things You'll Need

• Foundation
• Liquid highlighter designed for use on lines and wrinkles
• Liquid or creamy concealer
• Concealer brush
• Translucent loose powder
• Powder puff or brush
• Matte brown bronzing powder
• Bronzer brush

Instructions

1. Apply your regular foundation over clean, moisturized skin. The type you choose does not affect subsequent makeup application for lifting jowl lines, but you can choose a plumping and hydrating formula to give you a head start in making lines seem less visible.

2. Use a concealer brush to apply a liquid highlighter into the creases or jowl lines. Some highlighters come in a pen applicator with its own brush. This bright and light-reflective product makes jowl lines seem instantly less deep, helping to create a smoother appearance.

3. Apply a lightweight, fluid concealer over the highlighted areas. This takes off the high-shimmer, while allowing a little of the radiance to show thorough, making jowl lines less obvious.

4. Finish applying concealer in other areas, like around the eyes, then set the base with a fine, translucent loose powder. You can use a brush or puff for this, but choose a very smooth, silky loose power formula to give a skin-like finish. Avoid heavy pressed powders because they can highlight texture and make you jowls seem deeper again.

5. Shape cheekbones by dusting a little matte bronzing powder just underneath the bone and blending well. Creating chiseled cheek-bones makes the face look more structured and less fleshy, which helps to minimize the overall look of jowls.

6. Use a soft bronzer brush to dust a little bronzer under the jaw-line. If jowls come down to the jaw with the skin softly shaped over this area, rather than taut, build up bronzer just over the jaw-line to make the line look stronger.

Tips & Warnings

• Restructuring the face with makeup, like lifting jowl lines, is done by using light and shade to create an optical illusion. If you are confused when deciding where to place highlighter and bronzer, remember that light colors have the effect of lifting things forward, but dark makes them recede.

• For a natural everyday look, be very gentle with these application techniques to avoid looking theatrical.

• If unsure about how a technique works, do one side of your face at a time to see how effective using simple highlighting and shading can be.

• A soft, square-shaped bronzer brush gives more control than a rounded one when using makeup to contour.

• Do not use shimmer bronzing powder for shading because this has the reverse effect of highlighting.

• Use brown rather than orangey bronzers for shading to avoid the look of a badly-applied fake tan.

References

• Kryolan Makeup Manual: 2003
• Makeup Artist World: Theater Makeup
• Elle; Makeup Trends; Contouring; Amy Lawrenson

Resources

• "Nars Cosmetics"; Ita Kabuki Brush / No 21
• Makeup Notebook: Best Bronzers Go Matte