Written by Audrey
Freelance makeup artist Audrey of Makeup by Audrey pulls back the curtain on a magical world of makeup in today’s guest post.
Have you ever been curious about what goes on behind the scenes at a fashion shoot? Well you’re about to find out! I recently had the honor to be the makeup artist for the winter issue of Scene Magazine, a women’s style magazine based in northern California, and I’m going to take you behind the closed doors to get a peek on all the fun that was had!
The day started at 9AM where the hair and makeup team immediately got started on beautifying our two lovely models, Brooke and Gina, from Ford Models. Meanwhile, our talented photographer got to work on setting up the lights in the studio while the stylists were in a separate room getting all the looks together.
Before I went to work, I made sure to discuss the desired makeup look, a bold smoky eye, with the editor-in-chief, Katharine Fong, and the contributing fashion and beauty editor, Donna Kato. I also ran over to the styling room to see what ensembles the models would be wearing so I could have a complete vision of the entire look. Once I had that, I was ready to go! I did Gina’s makeup while the two hairstylists, Karie and Shayne from Aveda at Santana Row, styled Brooke’s hair and then we switched models. It probably took about an hour and a half to get them ready.
Then the models headed over to the styling room to get dressed in their first looks. I loved hanging out in this room! Donna and her team did an amazing job of pulling the wardrobe for this shoot. There were racks and racks of gorgeous, luxurious clothes and tables of drool-worthy shoes, handbags, jewelry, and other accessories.
Because this shoot would support two fashion spreads (Timeless Chic and The LBD Primer), we had a lot of looks (over ten!) to shoot so everyone had to be on their toes to keep everything moving in order to be done by 5PM.
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Oblong: The length from temple to temple and across your nose are nearly exactly the same, as well as across your chin and your forehead. Your chin rounds out nicely, and is relatively pronounced. You have a rather high hairline that sweeps more backwards than towards your ears, and your forehead may seem to dominate much of your face. Your jaw is more prominent than many other face shapes. Your goal should be to round out your forehead around the edges, and make your jawline more fluid rather than sloping.
Oval: The traditionally ideal face shape. The widest part of your face should be the line across your nose, but just barely. The distance across your temples and across your mouth are relatively the same. The distance across your chin is just barely shorter than that of your forehead. Your bone structure is often pronounced, especially your cheekbones. Your hairline sweeps towards the tops of your ears. Feel free to experiment with contouring and highlighting; there’s not much to try and “correct” here. Play up your cheekbones, chisel out your jawline, slim your nose… Completely up to you, you lucky thing.
Round: Now, don’t you just wanna pinch those cheeks? No. Step away. Anywho… Think of an oval face, as described above. Now, shorten it. All the length-comparisons are about the same, but this type of face is much shorter. The forehead is rather more rounded at the edges (complemented by a hairline that curves rather than sweeps), and the chin is less pronounced. Although the distance across the nose is still the widest, it is now by more than simply a tiny bit. From here, your face curves up to your forehead and down to your chin, rather than sloping. Focus on lengthening your face by shading around the ears and the temples.
Rectangular: Every distance is relatively equal, except across your chin, which is slightly shorter than the rest. Your face is relatively long, with a pronounced forehead and a squared off jaw. Your cheekbones are often stunning. You may be described as looking statuesque. Your hairline cuts straight across your forehead and then straight down towards your ears. Focus on rounding out your forehead by shading near and above the temples.
Square: You probably look best with a short hairstyle. Your jaw is the most pronounced area of your face, and may be described as severe (this is a good thing). Otherwise, the square face is to the rectangular as the round is to the oval. It is mostly just a “shortened” version. Your forehead is a bit smaller, and your chin is blunt rather than rounded, enhancing that amazing jawline you’ve got. Focus on rounding out your forehead, but leave that jaw alone. No need to mess with what you’ve got going there.
If you have a rounder face (ain’t you a cutie?), apply a darker contour shade from the horizontal gridline halfway up to the vertical line, and about a third of the way from the lower end of the vertical line to a third of the way to the horizontal, keeping along the border of your face. 
If your face could be described as triangular (a description I hate, but, alas, the makeup world has yet to come up with a better term for it), do the same as you would for a rounder face, except swap in a highlight shade for the area below the horizontal gridline, or forego this step altogether.
For those with a square or rectangular face (which just means your forehead may be a bit wider and your jaw is a bit more pronounced than someone with an oval face), buff a contour shade midway between the endpoints of the two lines (or the four corners of your face), rounding the edges.
And if you have an oval face…well, lay down those brushes. An oval shape is generally considered the easiest to apply makeup to, which is why the steps above aim to shape the other types more towards this goal. 
