Girls in the Beauty Department

Why Bobbi Brown Thinks You Shouldn't Contour Your Face

One of the biggest trends in makeup right now is actually an anti-trend, as the campaign to take contouring down continues. Yesterday, a major name in the beauty world had a few things to say about the makeup craze popularized by Kim Kardashian. Bobbi Brown—the makeup artist who founded the eponymous cosmetics brand—told the New York Post that there's more than one reason she's not into contouring, where lighter/darker makeup shades are strategically blended onto the skin in order to enhance or downplay different facial features and/or slim the entire face. For starters, she doesn't think the technique usually ends up looking good when done by non-professionals. "When I see contouring on people's faces, it looks like dirt," she said. More important, though, she disagrees with the intentions at the heart of contouring. "As a beauty expert, I believe in individual beauty, and it's just not my aesthetic. We don't need to be contouring like the Kardashians," Brown said. She continued: "The contouring trend is so wrong because it tells women there's something wrong with their face. There's beauty in a full face, so I don't like to paint in a cheekbone that doesn't exist." Instead, she prefers to

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One of the biggest trends in makeup right now is actually an anti-trend, as the campaign to take contouring down continues. Yesterday, a major name in the beauty world had a few things to say about the makeup craze popularized by Kim Kardashian.

Bobbi Brown—the makeup artist who founded the eponymous cosmetics brand—told the New York Post that there's more than one reason she's not into contouring, where lighter/darker makeup shades are strategically blended onto the skin in order to enhance or downplay different facial features and/or slim the entire face. For starters, she doesn't think the technique usually ends up looking good when done by non-professionals. "When I see contouring on people's faces, it looks like dirt," she said. More important, though, she disagrees with the intentions at the heart of contouring. "As a beauty expert, I believe in individual beauty, and it's just not my aesthetic. We don't need to be contouring like the Kardashians," Brown said. She continued: "The contouring trend is so wrong because it tells women there's something wrong with their face. There's beauty in a full face, so I don't like to paint in a cheekbone that doesn't exist." Instead, she prefers to spotlight cheekbones with a pop of blush and utilize glowy skin care (check out all our tips on that here).

It's not the first time Brown has spoken out against contouring, and she's in good company, with well-known celebrity makeup artists like Pati Dubroff (who spoke to Lipstick about her dislike of contouring back in April) and Nick Barose declaring they're so over faux cheekbones. Even our current cover girl and Woman of the Year, Reese Witherspoon, poked fun at contouring a few weeks ago via a funny Instagram done with her makeup artist, Molly Stern.

Meanwhile, it sounds like Brown's not a big fan of Kylie Jenner's look either. "Lip plumping and fillers never work," Brown said. "We're not all born with Angelina Jolie lips...and who ever said small lips aren't beautiful?" This comment takes us back to Amy Schumer's recent amazing red lipstick moment. We're so with you on this one, Bobbi!

We leave you with this video depicting the makeup technique all this fuss is about:

Watch this video on The Scene.

Want to know what's trending in beauty now? Check the Lipstick Index: