High Cheekbones Vs. Low Cheekbones: Makeup Tips To Enhance Both

Cheekbones are an essential part of your face that play a significant role in your structure and framing your features. There are two main types of cheekbones: high and low. While those with high cheekbones have the highest part sit right underneath the eye, those with lower cheekbones have them sit near the lower part of their nose (via Healthline).

High cheekbones may be the standard of beauty in our current day Western society, but there are plenty of extremely attractive people out there with youthful low cheekbones as well (think Taylor Swift and Maggie Gyllenhaal, via Her Beauty), so cheek implants and dermal fillers are not needed.

Also, with the right makeup tips, you don't need to be born with sculpted, Angelina Jolie-esque cheekbones to make them look prominent and fabulous. However, if you were blessed with high cheekbones, there are ways you can enhance them with makeup as well with trusty bronzers, contours, blushes, and highlighters. Here are makeup tips to enhance both high and low cheekbones.

While there are many tutorials out there to create the illusion of high cheekbones for those who wish to have them, what about the people who already have high cheekbones but want to reduce their prominence and draw attention away from them? Per Elizabeth Mott and Byrdie, people with high, prominent cheekbones are more likely to have stronger face shapes such as diamond or heart. And for the high cheekbones havers, many may want to soften their look for a younger, ingenue-esque appearance. 

For this look, Where To Get recommended using a contour product such as a foundation two to three shades darker than your natural color, placing the pigment over the bottom edges over your jaw in a crescent moon shape, and then buffing upwards towards the temples with a sculpting brush until it is perfectly blended. To make your face look rounder, use a foundation one shade lighter and create a triangle shape between your brows, and blend it down towards your nose. And finally, when applying blush, make sure to keep the shape towards the apples of your cheeks instead of near your temples to create a softer, rounder look (via The Beauty Department).

Now for those with lower cheekbones who want to amp them up and make them look more chiseled, there are plenty of makeup options and techniques for you. L'Oréal Paris recommended using a highlighter on the highest point of your cheeks, then following with a contour stick one shade darker at the hollows of your cheeks (this can also be done with bronzer).

Elle also recommended using a foundation that's one shade lighter on the apples of your cheek, and a color that's two shades lighter underneath. When it comes to blush, makeup artist Alexandra Anele suggested starting at the temple and stopping right before the middle of the cheeks, as opposed to simply placing the blush in the center, fleshy part (via YouTube). This creates the appearance of a higher, razor sharp look.

For another neat trick, Healthline recommended that you use highlighter right underneath the eyes to draw attention to your newly created cheekbone placement (move over, Benedict Cumberbatch).