Bronzer vs Contour: What’s the Difference, and Do You Need Both?

Bronzer warms your face and contour shades it. Bronzer is a warm, golden-brown color, one to two shades deeper than your skin, that goes where the sun would hit: the top of the forehead, the cheekbones, the bridge of the nose. Contour is a cool or neutral brown, about two shades deeper than your skin and always matte, that goes where a shadow would fall: under the cheekbone, along the jaw, down the sides of the nose. You don’t need both. If you want to look less washed out, buy a bronzer. If you want more definition in your cheekbones or jaw, buy a contour. A matte bronzer that isn’t orange can do a soft version of both jobs, and for an everyday face that’s enough.

Warmth and shadow are different jobs

Foundation evens out your skin, and in doing so it flattens it. The natural variation goes: the slightly deeper color at the edges of the face, the hollow under the cheekbone, the bit of tan across the nose. Bronzer and contour each put one of those back.

Bronzer puts back color. It imitates a light tan, so it’s warm, and it can be matte or carry a little glow.

Contour puts back depth. It imitates a shadow, and a shadow has no warmth and no shine. That’s the reason contour shades look dull, even a bit gray, in the pan.

Bronzer vs contour, side by side

How the shades differ

Put a bronzer and a contour next to each other and the bronzer looks golden, while the contour looks grayish. They’re built that way on purpose. On depth, bronzer stays one to two shades deeper than your skin, because past that it stops looking like a tan. Contour sits about two shades deeper, since it has to read as shadow after you blend most of it away.

• Fair skin. Almost every bronzer leans orange on you. Pick the lightest shade in a line and a neutral rather than a red-brown one.
• Deep skin. A gray-taupe contour made for light skin turns ashy. Look for a deep neutral brown that’s clearly darker than your skin, and a bronzer with red or golden warmth. This is also where shade ranges run out fastest, so check the deepest shade before you buy.

Where each one goes

Bronzer follows the sun. Sweep it across the top of the forehead near the hairline, over the tops of the cheekbones, lightly across the bridge of the nose and along the jaw.

Contour follows the bone. Place it in the hollow just under the cheekbone, starting near the ear and stopping about level with the outer corner of your eye. The jawline, temples and sides of the nose are optional.

They meet at the cheekbone: bronzer on top of the bone, contour under it. Put both in the same stripe and you get one muddy patch. Our blush, bronzer and contour placement guide maps the zones with blush added in, and how to contour for your face shape adjusts the contour lines for round, square, heart and long faces.

Who needs which

Only bronzer. You look pale or flat after foundation, you want to look healthier and not more sculpted, or you have five minutes. If you’re unsure which group you’re in, it’s this one.

Only contour. Your skin already has plenty of warmth, or bronzer always looks orange on you, and what you want is a sharper cheekbone or jaw.

Both. You wear full-coverage foundation, you’re doing makeup for photos or an event, or you like the process.

Neither. You wear a skin tint or no base at all. Your own color and shadows are still showing.

Can one product do both?

One direction works. A matte bronzer in a neutral brown, used with a small brush under the cheekbone, makes a believable soft contour. That’s the appeal of Benefit’s Hoola, which our Hoola review calls a bronzer you can also shade with.

The other direction doesn’t. A contour shade swept over your forehead and nose makes skin look gray, and a shimmery or very orange bronzer can’t contour at all. A single product for both jobs has to be matte and a quiet brown.

Powder or cream

Powder is easier to control and lasts longer on oily skin. Cream and liquid look more like skin and are kinder to dry or textured skin, but they need blending right away. Creams and liquids go on before any powder. A cream contour dragged over setting powder goes patchy.

If cream is where you’re headed, our cream contour and cream and liquid bronzer guides cover the technique.

How to use them together

1. Finish your base. Foundation and concealer first. The full sequence is in what order to apply makeup in.
2. Cream or liquid contour. Dot it under the cheekbone and blend upward, toward the ear, so the shadow lifts.
3. Cream bronzer, if you’re using one. Tap it on the high points and blend the edges.
4. Set. A light layer of powder where you get shiny.
5. Powder contour, then powder bronzer. Tap the brush off first. Shadow goes down before warmth, and the bronzer softens the contour’s edge.
6. Blush last.

Common mistakes

• Bronzer in the hollows. A warm stripe under the cheekbone looks like a stripe. Bronzer goes on top of the bone.
• Shimmer as contour. Anything that reflects light pulls that area forward.
• Going too dark. More than about two shades deeper than your skin stops blending into it.
• Contour that runs to the mouth. Stop level with the outer corner of the eye, or the face looks dragged down.

Five to start with

Prices move constantly, so we link to live listings instead of printing a number that is wrong by the time you read it. Links go to Amazon, which is where a referral gets credited.

e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Contour Wand is a liquid contour with a cushion-tip applicator, about $9, though the price changes often. The formula has squalane, and e.l.f. describes the finish as naturally sculpted with a glint of radiance, so it isn’t a flat matte. The range is narrow: five shades, from Fair/Light to Deep/Rich.

Physicians Formula Matte Monoi Butter Bronzer is the one to buy if you only want one product. It’s a powder bronzer with a matte finish, made with monoi, murumuru, cupuacu and tucuma butters, and Physicians Formula calls it water-resistant. Matte means you can use it small and low for shading as well as wide for warmth. It comes in four shades, Matte Light through Matte Deep. That’s a narrow range, and it won’t cover very fair or very deep skin well.

Physicians Formula Murumuru Butter Bronzer is the glowy sibling. It’s made with murumuru, cupuacu and tucuma butters and has fine pearl in it, which gives a soft sheen on the high points and rules it out as a contour. There are eight shades, including Light Bronzer, Sunkissed Bronzer and Deep Bronzer, so it’s the wider of the two inexpensive ranges.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Smooth Blur Contour Stick is a cream stick the brand describes as gel-like, with a dewy, second-skin finish and light coverage. It comes in eight shades, the widest contour range here. Eight is still far fewer than a foundation line offers, so compare the deepest and lightest shades to your skin before ordering.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Smooth Blur Bronzer is a gel-powder hybrid that Anastasia Beverly Hills says gives natural matte color with a blurred finish. It comes in seven shades. Because it’s matte, it can do the soft-contour job too. At about $38 it costs roughly three times the Physicians Formula.

If I Were You

If you’re new to both, buy a matte bronzer first. It forgives mistakes, and contour doesn’t.

If your face looks flat in photos, add a cream contour under the cheekbone and keep the bronzer you already have.

If bronzer always turns orange on you, you’re probably fair or cool-toned. Go one shade lighter and more neutral, or skip bronzer and use a little contour.

If your skin is dry or textured, choose cream or liquid for both and set only where you get shiny.

Bottom line

Bronzer is warm and goes on the high points. Contour is cool or neutral, matte, and goes in the hollows. Start with a matte bronzer, since it handles warmth and a little shading, and add a real contour only if you want more structure than it gives you. More face makeup guides are in our makeup section.