Using Color to Create Symmetry

This is the first dreaded "No Makeup" test shot.
My face is clearly not that of a model, nor of an actress. I do not have amazing bone structure nor do I have perfect symmetry. One eye is slightly smaller and a little droopy, my nose is slightly crooked, and I have Vitiligo (absence of melanin) which affects the left side of my face mostly around my eye, but also my cheek area. When you practice makeup on yourself, you tend to notice these things a lot. Even so, with all my flaws, I like my face and it's a canvass all the same.

I have learned to appreciate the things I do have. I have really clear skin, and I have never had to deal with acne. That is also probably why I fell into makeup late. While everyone else fussed over covering blemishes, I used to pop on a little gloss and and maybe the occasional smokey eye for parties. It was not until a few years ago when I developed Vitiligo that I started looking for ways to cover it. The truth is, no one is perfect. Everyone has hangups about tiny little imperfections that in reality no one notices or cares about at all. That's why I like working on faces, because I am reminded that everyone is imperfect. My job isn't to mask that, rather to smooth out those imperfections so people can focus on your best features.

That being said, the following picture is my own face corrected for symmetry. I went in with a darker foundation color to thin my face a bit and used a bit to contour my face a bit. (Kandee Johnson had a great video on this). I didn't spend too much time on this part, because the real focus was straightening my nose and a bit of work on my left eye. ( I didn't work out all of the symmetry in my eye, my eye brows or my lips).

I used the same principles of contouring on my nose. I added darker foundation along the sides. I used my right side as my standard, and duplicated the shadows I saw on that side onto my left side. I went back in with a really light concealer stick and highlighted down the center of my nose. It is definitely a little straighter and narrower. Could I do this every day? Sure, but luckily, I am not a model so I don't have to. I'm not trying to fool anyone into thinking my face is perfectly symmetrical. I'll keep working on it though for the sake of learning it. Because while I may not need to do this for myself, symmetry on screen and in photographs does matter.