Makeup Tips for Long and Oval Face Shapes

Due to many questions and requests about makeup and face shapes, I decided to do a series of posts about makeup tips, cuts and hairstyles for different types of face.

If you still don’t know your face shape, there’s a great resource to find out here. If you still can not say which one is yours, read about the characteristics of each format in the following posts.

As I divided this series into parts, I focused only on contour and illuminator makeup tips for each face shape. You’ll find in some instances specific tips for eye makeup, but it will be covered only briefly. But, do not worry that I’ll detail the tips for all face shapes and put everything on the new “Makeup Guide” section, which will be made available here soon.

Oval or Long Face

Features: Its main characteristic is the fact that it is longer than wide. The forehead, jaw, and cheekbones are about the same width. The difference between the oval face shape and the long one is width length. Long-shaped faces have about twice as much height as they do width.

Makeup Tips

The objective is to create the illusion of an oval face. Making it look shorter and wider, decreasing the width by darkening the top and bottom of the face.

Oval Faces

Your Makeup Tips:

– Starting at the temples area, apply your favourite bronzer using a good precision powder brush and work your way towards the centre of your face;
– Perfect the effect by involving an airbrush finish by applying a blush starting again in the temples and working your way down to the cheekbone area. You can use the same powder brush from the last step.
– Use highlighter for the higher areas of your face such as brow bone, temples, nose’s bridge area, chin and cupid’s bow.

For Oblong Faces

Your makeup tips:

– Add an illusion of added width to your face by applying blush on the apple cheeks, blend towards the back and then out.
– Add an illusion of added width to your face by applying blush on the apple cheeks, blend towards the back and then out.
– The hairline and top of your forehead should have bronzer applied as well as to the bottom of your cheekbones working your way towards the temple area with a good powder brush.Same thing for the area under the chin and along the jawline. The bridge of the nose should see an application of bronzer too.
– Areas to apply highlighter on should be the brow bone, the tip of the nose and the higher part of the cheekbone.
It’s not necessary to use a highlighter to forehead and chin because it will add the appearance of height.
Both techniques help reduce face length.

Applying Blush

When choosing a blush, it is important to take into consideration the natural or neutral colours. It is necessary to go around the cheekbones, but without exaggerating or letting appear artificial. In doing so, the emphasis is placed on the jaw, which hinders the aim of making a face look wider and shorter.

The blush should be applied more horizontally than vertically, as if you were sunburned, working your way up at the very end (make a curvy at the end – as in the first image).

Start from the extremities of the face towards the nose, stopping more or less toward the tip of the eyeball, which equals about two fingers of the nose. That way, you will not get too close to the nose, making a face look thinner than proportional.

Emilie Hagstörm
 

My name is Emilie Hagstörm. Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden to a Swedish Father and an English Mother. With a background as a Pharmacist, I use a scientific approach to research what REALLY works. When you read one of my beauty reviews you’ll know that it is honest and unbiased because I don’t work for a make-up retailer or manufacturer, and I’m completely independent.

Click Here to Leave a Comment Below 0 comments