Trend Alert: 6 Things You Need to Know About Tape Contouring
Huda Kattan aka Huda Beauty took the world by storm when she introduced the latest craze in contouring: tape contouring. Yep, you read that right. Contouring by covering your face in tape. We’ve seen a lot of crazy trends in makeup, but this is definitely up there as one of the strangest. But what exactly is tape contouring, and how does it measure up to other contour strategies? Check out everything you need to know about tape contouring here:
Pros:
- It’s simple to achieve. One of our favorite things about tape contouring is how simple the actual concept is. Ridiculous-looking, yes, but simple. You just place pieces of tape over cheeks, jaw, nose, and forehead to create a bronzer template. Then you apply the contour and highlight based on those lines. The end. Nothing to crazy right? The last thing we want to worry about is overcomplicating our routines. Tape contouring provides no extra crazy steps to waste our time.
- It doesn’t require anything special. If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t have tape lying around your house, how have you made it this far? All you need for tape contouring is a bronzer, highlighter, and, obviously, tape. These are the things any makeup-lover, from amateur to expert, has lying around. No crazy shades like you see in clown contouring. Tape contouring is about as basic as it gets equipment-wise. So, don’t worry about trying to find any red, purple, or green makeup for your complexion. Sometimes, it’s not so bad to be basic.
- It helps prevent fallout and mistakes.Anyone who has ever taped her eyes to get a perfect wing knows exactly what we’re talking about. When you have your face all taped up, any fallout you may get from bronzer or highlighter is caught by the tape. At the same time, when your face is all taped up, you come away with very precise lines once the tape is removed. This means fewer mistakes during the blending process, which results in a clean look. And if we’re going to go through the trouble of putting tape all over our faces like a mishandled mummy, we definitely want to come out looking flawless.
Cons:
- You may waste a lot of product.If you’ve watched the original video of tape contouring, you’ll notice when Huda takes the tape off after applying bronzer, a lot of product ended up on the tape. A painful amount. As women who don’t have a lot of extra money to be spending on cosmetics, the last thing we want to do is waste our precious makeup. If you’re into the natural beauty world as much as we are, then we especially can’t afford to be wasteful. Tape contouring, at least until you get it down, is guaranteed to have some wasted makeup. It’s not the biggest flaw in the world, but it pains us nonetheless.
- You’re definitely going to waste a lot of tape. If you never have a need for your tape, you might be safe on this front. If you actual use your tape to tape things, however, we might have a bit of an issue. Based on Huda’s example, you’re going to be using about 10 pieces of tape per contouring session. If you choose to do this as your go-to contour routine, you’re going to be going through a lot of tape. We have a monthly budget to stick to, and tape is not a category we thought we were going to need to be concerned about. Not to mention, it’s not exactly eco-friendly to be going through all that tape.
- In the end, is there really a difference? For the most part, a contour’s a contour. If done correctly, all these different contour methods should look relatively similar at the end: you’ll have defined bone structure and a slimmer face. When you could accomplish this without needing to run to Staples once a week, is tape contouring really worth the hassle? As long as your contour’s on point, might as well stick to the old fashioned way.
So, what’s the consensus?
Tape contouring, if nothing else, is one of the more fascinating ways we’ve seen to create a flawless bone structure. We still prefer our way, though: using airbrush makeup to create the perfect contour. Airbrush bronzer instantly blends with the airbrush makeup and skin, creating a seamless finish without any extra work. Getting the contour you deserve is easier with airbrush. Just apply the bronzer under your cheekbones lightly. Yep. That’s it. No tape-face needed.