You won't believe what people are doing with fake tan!

images: cocoa brown, wikimedia

By BR Amelia

 Just when we thought the contouring trend couldn’t get any crazier…

We love fake tan. Adore it. A good percentage of us at BRHQ love having a little colour on our skin, and since we’re well aware of the dangers of doing it the old fashioned way we turn to fake tan. Of course, the one thing we never expected to be told we could do with it (other than slather it on our limbs) was to use it to contour our face. You see it turns out that contouring your face with your fake tan is a thing, and all trails of research lead to Marissa Carter, founder of Coco Brown self tan, as being the person who took the trend and made it accessible to us mere mortals.

We recall contouring with fake tan as being a thing last winter during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer, but we saw it and kind of ignored it, as well, life was all about strobing back then, and with winter upon us we were thinking more about covering up then fake tanning. But the trend has popped up again this year, and well, we couldn’t ignore it any longer. So what is the name for this form of contour application? … Tantouring… or tontouring… depending on where you look and who’s talking about it.

So what does tantouring involve? Basically you take a fake tan, either an instant tan or a buildable one, and apply it with a makeup brush to the areas you’d usually contour, and blend it out. So just under cheekbones, on the forehead, along your jawline, down the sides of your nose… you get the picture.

You then let the tan do its thing, wash it off, and next thing you know you’ve carved yourself out some semi-permanent cheekbones, slimmed your nose, your forehead, given yourself a sleek jaw – and it’ll last until the tan wears off. So if you’re adept at contouring, and looking for ways to save time in your makeup routine, this could be for you.

Of course, sometimes seeing is understanding, and who better to show you how to tantour/tontour than our beloved, Wayne Goss, who gave it a go, but, well, perhaps a little blending may have been in order... You’ll see… Oh and even if you don’t want to try this out, this video’s actually a rather wonderful watch*.

So are you brave enough to give tan-touring a go? Is it something you’ve already tried? If so, how did you find it? Or are you happy to leave this look out of your makeup trick kit? Chat away… 

*Completely unrelated footnote: Head Pixie and me are just a lil obsessed with our main man Wayne.  I'm dying to interview him, if you follow him, tell him to answer my email!  - First Lady.