Update, September 27, 11:00 a.m. ET: While booty contouring is happening more and more on photo shoots, it turns out that Ariel Winter's makeup artist and hairstylist in the picture, Kip Zachary wasn't contouring her butt, as suggested. "There is a craze of contouring various body parts happening right now, however I was only applying sheen to the cheeks via a makeup brush," he clarified.
This story was originally published on Sept 26, 2016.
Marc Jacobs has responded again on Instagram. "I have read all your comments...," the image reads. "…[And] I thank you for expressing your feelings," he continues in the caption. "I apologize for the lack of sensitivity unintentionally expressed by my brevity. I wholeheartedly believe in freedom of speech and freedom to express oneself [through] art, clothes, words, hair, music...EVERYTHING.
What do you do if you’re a young celeb who has caught major flak for posting booty-exposing pics online? If you’re Ariel Winter, you smack down the body shamers like a boss, then double down in the weeks to come. The Modern Family star did just that on Friday by posting a pants-less shot with a puzzling plot twist: There was also a makeup artist, brush in hand, kneeling behind her.
“BUTT really, don't miss a spot,” she wrote, along with an important hashtag: #embraceyourcurves. The body positivity and confidence is something we can get behind. But — record scratch — butt contouring? What is that, anyway?
We asked makeup artist Andre Sarmiento, who works with celebrities like Brittany Snow and Zoey Deutch, to give us the 411. “Like all contouring, booty contouring lets you play with shadow and light to bring out or push back features. So, it's basically a way to shape your assets with makeup to give a lifted, more slender, or more pronounced appearance,” he says. “The most traditional technique is to draw a “C” shape around the sides with a dark shade and highlight kind of high and central on your actual bum. That gives you the appearance of lift and fullness.”
Sarmiento says that booty contouring is something that’s often reserved for photo or film shoots, “where there is controlled light or harsh lights that really work with the contouring.” He notes that the HD-friendly technique may not be such an asset IRL. “Booty contouring has to be on the more obvious side to be effective, so I haven't quite found a way to use makeup for body contouring in real life that works with actually living your life,” he says.
But not all is lost for those of us who want to play up our derriere — or any other body part — when on the move: Sarmiento suggests trying a sculpted spray tan or a non-transferring glow lotion like Red Carpet Kolour to play up arms, legs, abs, and, yes, butts. “The shimmer lets light travel across the skin, which creates an actual strobe effect; it highlights and shapes the body with light, as opposed to makeup,” he says. “Plus, products like this set and won't rub off and transfer as much as traditional makeup might.”