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When I heard the word “strobing” used to describe a popular, new makeup look I feared it would entail a rave atmosphere of a loud, dark club with flashing lights. Thankfully, my projections were wrong except for the part about lighting. Strobing is a makeup technique that mimics the look of being under the bright sun or strong professional lights through the use of careful highlighting. We can consider strobing like a cousin of facial contouring but instead of adding shadows and lowlights we’re going to focus on pumping up the volume with highlights and shine.
What You’ll Need
- A Highlighting Palette
- Foundation
- A Multi-purpose Brush
- Blush
- Primer
- OR a highlighting bundle like the Define Your Light Kit by BECCA
How To Apply
1. To start off apply a primer to the whole face. This will help the staying power of the other products we apply and give our foundation a matte finish.
2. Stipple foundation onto the face for an airbrushed effect. Stippling is a style of application that dots tiny amounts of foundation that is slowly blended. This is where a multipurpose brush comes in handy. The One Perfect Brush by BECCA is a diverse brush that can be used for stippling, blending, powdering, contouring and more.
3. Apply subtle blush to the apples of the cheeks. A cream or liquid blush will give the face more of that fresh, dewy look that we want to create with strobing. A warm shades like this Watermelon Tint will work really well with the highlights we’ll apply next.
4. The most important part of strobing is strategic highlighting. Apply highlighter to the points of the face where light naturally hits like the cheekbones, bridge of the nose, Cupid’s bow, chin, and center of the forehead. Customize the amount of highlighting to your tastes.
What do you think of strobing versus contouring?