What Happened When I Semipermanently Contoured My Face

My name is Mi-Anne Chan, and I'm addicted to contouring. Okay, that's a bit dramatic, but I'm pretty obsessed — so much so that I have a dedicated drawer full of creams, powders, liquids, and sticks that sculpt my face. So when I discovered tantouring last summer, I knew I had to try it.

If you're unfamiliar with the colloquialism, let me give you a crash course: Tantouring is a contouring technique that involves using self-tanner to semipermanently bring dimension to the face. To put it simply, you would strategically apply self-tanner that is darker than your skin tone to the areas where you would normally contour the face: under the cheekbones, on the top of the forehead, down the sides of the nose, and under the jawline.

Once this is done, you let the self-tanner sit for two to three hours before gently washing it off. The ideal result is a very natural-looking sculpt that mimics the effects of bronzer or contouring powder. Oh, and did I mention it lasts a couple of days?

But tantouring is no easy feat, so when it came to doing this on myself, I called upon Marissa Carter, professional makeup artist and founder of self-tanning line Cocoa Brown, to walk me through the steps. Curious to see how it all panned out? Check out the following slides for a how-to on the process and my thoughts on the look.