One of the most overlooked components of putting on makeup for the complexion is highlighting and contouring. Most people avoid doing this for two main reasons: they think it takes too long and they are intimidated or afraid of it. However, when done properly, you can completely transform the appearance and shape of your face, whether it be to thin it out or for dramatic effect. You can achieve these looks by using something as simple as bronzer, or by using highlighting and contouring sets that are offered by various cosmetic brands.

Lise Watier offers the best tool for contouring and perfecting the skin's complexion. Portfolio is a wheel consisting of five concealers that can be used for various highlighting, contouring and skin-perfecting techniques. The skin-perfecting concealers are green, yellow beige and ivory. Green is used for counteracting redness (blemishes, rosacea, eczema, etc.), yellow beige is used to hide blue veins and the ivory is used as a universal corrector (under the eye, blemishes, etc). The last two colours, brown and lilac, are used for highlighting and contouring. To contour your face, you need to take a concealer brush and apply a small amount of the brown to the hollows of the cheeks (starting from about where the ear is and going down diagonally towards the lips). This helps to create that "puckered" look. Then taking the same brush, apply the brown down the sides of the nose and along the jaw line. This helps thin out the face (blend downward). You can also apply some of the brown right underneath the lips to make them appear more voluminous.

To highlight, take a clean concealer brush and apply the lilac up the bridge of your nose, onto your forehead. Take the same colour and apply it to your brow and cheekbone, as well your Cupid's bow (right above the lip). These are all the spots where you want the light to hit so your best features are accentuated.

There are a few things to keep in mind when highlighting and contouring: if you apply the concealers underneath your foundation, you will achieve a more subtle look compared to applying it above your foundation, which will give you a much more pronounced complexion. The key to doing this is to make sure you blend! If you do not blend the concealers with your foundation, it will look like you have random colours and lines on your face.

If you are still feeling uneasy about contouring your face, Smashbox offers a powder contour and highlighting set that outlines exactly what to do (white powder where the lilac colours would go and a dark powder where the brown concealer would go). This set even includes a contour brush and a bronzer to add a glow to your complexion.

Be daring this weekend and try adding some depth to your complexion. Play around with the Lise Watier Portfolio, because we all know that practice really does make perfect. You can make some drastic changes to the structure of your face without using needles and cosmetic surgery, just a few coloured concealers.