by From determining your “season” (the nature-inspired color palette that best suits your skin’s undertones) to understanding your “visual weight” (how the size of your features relate to the shape of your face), TikTok is flooded with ways new, prescriptive. to order the details of your make-up routine. It is the most common diagnostic tool of late? A useful filter to help understand the depth of color difference between the tone of your skin, hair and eyes, better known as “finding your contrast”.
The creator of the filter, and the trend, is the make-up artist Aliénor. “I had low self-confidence and when I did my make-up, I tried to follow tutorials or recreate the makeup of celebrities or influencers – and most of the time it didn’t look good on me,” Aliénor bazaar says. “When I learned how to do make-up on clients, I learned to observe more and that’s when I noticed contrast differences.”
After discovering this technique, and finding that she was more beautiful, Aliénor began to change the intensity of the make-up she was applying to her clients. “I then started explaining the concept on TikTok so that other women could learn about why they sometimes feel like their make-up is working against them. I received a lot of questions about how to find your own contrast , and that’s why I created a filter.”
So whether you’re struggling to decide between low and medium contrast, or just need some examples to inspire your newfound level of makeup, here we break down the details of TikTok’s latest beauty trend.
What is “finding a contrast”?
“Contrast is a spectrum – it can go from very low to very high, but for educational purposes, I choose to distinguish low, medium and high contrast,” Aliénor explains.
Finding your contrast is all about understanding the distribution of color depth on your face. It refers to the amount of intensity difference between your skin and your features. If you have low contrast, you have very little difference between the intensities of your features; for example, you have a medium skin tone, fair hair and light eyes. If you have high contrast, the color difference is very strong and visible – so you might have very dark hair and eyebrows, set against a light skin tone. If you have a medium contrast, you are in between.
The easiest way is to try the specially designed TikTok filter of the makeup artist, which shows your face along with samples of different levels at different skin tones. If you’re still not sure, try taking a photo of yourself without make-up in natural light, and then apply a simple black and white filter. This will emphasize the different depths of color.
What kind of makeup look will look best at each level of contrast?
Low-contrast make up
If you have low-contrast features, the difference in color depth between your skin tone and the rest of your features (for example, your hair, eyes and eyebrows) is not very high. Using the picture method above, you can see that your face appears to be in a similar gray scale; the effect is soft, and balanced.
“In low contrast, you see all your features at once; the eye is not focused on a specific part of the face, you see the person as a whole,” she explains. “If you have low contrast, the goal is to keep the contrast low by using make-up that is the same intensity as your skin and other features. It doesn’t mean you have to wear unexpected make-up. up’ ( in fact you can spend a lot of it), but the intensity should be similar to your natural features.
High contrast make up
If you have a high-contrast face, there is a large difference in color depth between your features.
“When there is a lot of contrast in your face, it can sometimes make you feel a bit dull, because it makes your face look lighter. If you add intensity to parts of your face, the contrast will be balanced and it can help to keep a more harmonious effect,” she explains. bronzer, intensity around your eyes and on your lips, to balance the face.”
If you’re not a fan of heavy makeup application, she recommends using a lip and cheek tint or lipstick that’s darker than your natural tone.
medium contrast make-up
If you have medium contrast, your intensity will be somewhere between high and low, where the difference between your skin tone, hair color and eyes will be obvious but not overwhelming. To complete your face, you can add some color to your cheeks, or use a slightly more intense lipstick, but you don’t have to go in with a heavy hand or bold colors.
What is mitigating or intensifying your contrast?
“Toning down your contrast is to balance your face so that you can see the face before your make-up. It’s a good way to look natural, because the eye will see your whole face at once; you see the beauty of the person before you see the makeup.
On the polar opposite side, boosting contrast is about adding drama to the face. If you have low contrast, it will draw attention to them by adding intensity to your eye. If you have high contrast, exaggerating that difference between your skin tone and features will add drama. “Creating character is more than embracing and adapting your natural features,” she explains.
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