Written by Chloe
I’m basically a professional now.
I want to be upfront about something first. Before last Tuesday I had been doing my makeup the same way since approximately 2009. Foundation, mascara, a little something on the lips, done. Was it a look? Sure. Was it MY look? Absolutely. Did anyone ever stop me on the street to ask what I was doing with my cheekbones? No. But nobody stopped me to complain either, so I considered us even.
I went in with zero expectations and very low qualifications.
And then I watched the GRWM (Get Ready With Me) contour tutorial. One tutorial. Fourteen minutes. My favorite influencer, a ring light, and approximately forty small brushes I did not know existed.
By minute three she was drawing lines on her face like a treasure map and I was leaning closer to my phone. By minute seven I had a notepad.
By minute eleven , I had lines all over my face and a need for better bathroom lighting.
By minute fourteen I was a different person with a new sense of purpose and a contour brush on the way from Sephora.
“She made it look easy. It is not easy. I have a map on my face and I drew it myself and I stand by every line.”
What GRWM Actually Stands For
Get Ready With Me. That is what they tell you. What they do not tell you is that “getting ready” in influencer language means a forty-five minute production involving color corrector, setting spray, baking (still not bread, I checked again), highlight, contour, blush placed in three separate locations for three separate reasons, and something called “glass skin” that I have been chasing ever since like it owes me money.
Contouring, for the uninitiated, is the art of drawing shadows on your face where shadows are not actually occurring, to convince people your bone structure is doing something it is not doing. You use a darker shade here, a lighter shade there, you blend, you layer, you step back, you squint. It is basically lying but with brushes. I am very good at it now.
What I actually Learned (From the Tutorial and From What Happened After)
The tutorial taught me about color theory in a way that seventeen years of “confident guessing” did not. Sephora’s beginner makeup guide covers exactly this – the undertones conversation that nobody has with you until it’s too late and you’ve purchased three foundations. Apparently there are undertones. Your undertones and your foundation’s undertones need to have a conversation before you commit. Nobody told me this. I am telling you now.
I also learned about blending, which it turns out is the entire game. Every beauty professional in every tutorial you will ever watch is basically saying the same thing in different ways: blend it. Blend more than you think. No more. Keep blending. It is meditative, once you lean into it. BLEND IT, BABY!
What the tutorial did not teach me: the confidence to make your own rules. That part I had to figure out myself. And it turns out “confident guessing” was never really the wrong approach – it was just the right approach applied without enough information. Now it’s the right approach applied with slightly more information and a contour brush, and the results are, objectively, excellent.
“I have cheekbones now. I have always had cheekbones, technically, but now they are participating. They are showing up. They have entered the chat.”
The contour brush arrived on Thursday. I have since watched fifteen more tutorials. I regret absolutely nothing. I am deeply, thoroughly, completely, professionally sculpted. You are welcome.
P.S. Heres the button to shop for me on all the stuff.
I’m a great gift for all your beauty besties. Or to just to remind you where your cheekbones are!