Shade recedes
A tone a couple of shades below your skin reads as shadow once it's blended in, and shadow pushes whatever it sits on visually backward.
Free AI Tool — Placement by Face Shape
Makeup Contour Guide
A makeup contour guide is an AI tool that measures your face shape from facial landmark points, then returns where to place shadow and where to place highlight for that specific shape.
Every contour tutorial you've ever watched was filmed on one face. Upload your own photo and the map that comes back is built around your proportions instead of the presenter's — so the placement can land somewhere a generic video never mentioned.
Placement by
face shape
face shape
Never stored,
always private
always private
2 free scans
daily, no sign-up
daily, no sign-up
1 Upload Your Photo
Reading your face shape…
AI analysis in progress
2 Your Contour Guide
Your face shape and where to contour will appear here.
Share your result
How Contouring Works
What if contouring came down to one fact instead of a dozen competing techniques? It mostly does. Everything below is just that fact applied to whichever areas your own proportions would benefit from moving.
Highlight advances
A tone lighter than your skin catches more light and pulls that same surface forward — which is why the two products get used together rather than alone.
Placement is everything
Hand two people an identical contour kit and swap where they apply it, and you get two different-looking outcomes. The product isn't doing the work. The location is.
Convention, not AI
The camera handles the measuring. The placement rules attached to each shape come from standard makeup artistry, matched automatically to whatever shape your photo measures as.
Contouring reduces to one move repeated in different spots: push some areas back with shadow, pull others forward with light. That part never changes. Only where the two moves land does — and that's decided by 68 points mapped across your jaw, cheekbones, and hairline, the same 68-point landmark map used across the rest of the site.
A rounder face and a longer face can reach for the exact same two products and walk away with opposite results. Shadow run down both sides of a round face narrows it. Shadow banked along the hairline and under the chin of a long face shortens it instead. Same tools, inverted placement.
This tool measures the shape. The placement rules aren't something the model invented — they're makeup convention matched to your geometry, and the same face-shape reading underneath this page also drives the site's eyebrow shaping guide, just aimed at a different feature entirely.
The Full Contour Map, Shape by Shape
A single result only shows you the reasoning behind your own face. Line up a round map next to a long one and a square one, and the shadow-and-light logic stops feeling like an instruction to trust blindly — you can see why each map looks the way it does.
Run through all of them once and the next contour tutorial you watch online gets easier to judge: you'll know whether it's built for a face like yours or just happens to look good on the one it was filmed on.
Getting the
Application Right
Getting a map is the easy half. Applying it without a visible edge is the part that takes practice, and some of that starts before a brush ever touches your skin.
Square to the camera
Turn your head even slightly and the width readings that decide narrow versus wide skew off, along with everything calculated from them.
Hair off your face
Hair covering your jaw or temple hides the points the model needs there — the same problem a hood or a hand near the chin would cause.
Even lighting
A shadow already sitting along your jawline in the photo gets read as part of your bone structure. It's the single most common reason a result comes back looking wrong.
A starting point
Every rule on this page assumes a natural, well-defined look as the target. Want it lighter or heavier than that? Adjust freely — your own taste outranks any convention here.
How It Works
1
Upload Photo
One clear, front-facing photo is all it needs; no studio lighting required.
2
Face Shape Measured
68 landmark points across your jaw, cheekbones, and forehead become the proportions your shape gets read from.
3
Advice Matched
That shape is matched to written placement guidance instead of a one-size tutorial.
4
Take It With You
Your result names three specific zones, ready to describe to a stylist or follow yourself at the mirror.
Why Choose
FaceShapesAI?
Advanced AI technology combined with beauty science to give you the most accurate results.
Advanced AI Technology
Trained on millions of faces for high accuracy.
Privacy Focused
Your photos are never stored. 100% secure & private.
Instant Results
Get your analysis in seconds, not minutes.
Personalized Tips
Receive style, haircut & grooming recommendations.
User Friendly
Simple, easy-to-use interface for everyone.
Works for Everyone
Our AI works for all genders, ages, and ethnicities.
Why the Same Products Do Opposite Jobs
Two people can own the identical contour stick and highlight duo and walk away with opposite results, because their face shapes send the placement in opposite directions. Shadow run down the sides narrows a face. Shadow banked across the top and bottom shortens one instead.
That mismatch is exactly why generic contour tutorials disappoint so often. A video filmed on an oval face demonstrates the correction an oval face needs, and copying that placement onto different proportions just applies a fix that was never yours to begin with.
Blending Beats Placement
Perfect placement blended badly still looks worse than approximate placement blended well. A hard edge is the single most common contour mistake there is, and unlike a lot of makeup errors, it survives daylight even when it looked fine under a dim bathroom mirror.
A shade two shades lighter or darker than your own skin tone is already plenty of contrast to work with. The result should read as structure, not as visible product sitting on top of your face.
About This Tool
The measurement engine behind this page is Ahsan Fayyaz's own build, trained on real faces and benchmarked against other face-analysis tools rather than licensed from a third party. It's the same landmark system running the style and grooming guides across the rest of the site. The placement rules themselves follow standard makeup convention rather than anything the model decided on its own. Results are for informational and entertainment purposes only, not medical, clinical, or professional advice, and shouldn't replace guidance from a makeup artist or dermatologist for skin-specific concerns. Browse the tools directory for the other face-measurement guides this same engine powers.
Our Growing Suite of AI Face & Style Tools
Explore our powerful AI tools designed to enhance your style and confidence.
Face Shape Detector
Discover your face shape with AI accuracy.
68-Point Landmark Map
See every point the AI reads on your face.
Eye Shape Detector
Almond, round, upturned or downturned.
Nose Shape Detector
Base width against bridge length, from the front.
Lip Shape Analyzer
Fullness, bow shape and proportion.
Face Symmetry Test
A region-by-region symmetry breakdown.
Symmetry Mirror & Heatmap
Your face mirrored on both sides.
Golden Ratio Proportions
Three facial ratios measured against phi.
Golden Ratio Phi-Mask
The phi grid drawn over your photo.
Celebrity Look-Alike
Find the celebrity your face matches best.
K-pop Look-Alike
See which K-pop idol you resemble.
Hairstyle Recommender
Cuts matched to your face shape.
Beard Style Finder
Beard shapes that suit your jaw.
Glasses Frame Finder
Frames that flatter your proportions.
Sunglasses Shape Guide
The right sunglasses for your face.
Earring Shape Guide
Earrings that balance your face shape.
Neckline Guide
Necklines that suit your face and frame.
Hat & Cap Guide
Hat shapes that work with your features.
Fringe Suitability
Should you get bangs? Find out first.
Hair Parting Guide
Middle, side or deep side parting.
Makeup Contour Guide
Where to contour for your face shape.
Eyebrow Shaping Guide
The brow shape that fits your features.
Beard Length Advisor
How much length balances your jaw.
Skin Tone Analyzer
Your skin depth across five bands.
Body Shape Calculator
Work out your body shape from measurements.
Body Ratio Calculator
Waist-to-hip and shoulder ratios.
Outfit Silhouette Guide
Silhouettes that flatter your shape.
Dress Style Recommender
Dress cuts matched to your proportions.
Universal Size Helper
Translate your measurements across brands.
Got Questions?
Frequently Asked Questions
It places 68 landmark points across your face, measures the proportions between your jaw, cheekbones, and forehead, and matches that shape to a written placement map for where to shade and where to highlight.
Both. The shape is the intermediate step; the contour and highlight placement is the part you use.
No. It's processed by the in-house model and deleted from the server right after your result comes back. What you see afterward lives only in your browser's cache — refresh the page and it's gone for good, on both ends.
Two, no account required.
It raises your daily scan limit above two. Paid plans remove the daily cap entirely.
Yes, and that's the point of the whole page. The product doesn't change — only where it goes does. A round face and a long face can share a palette and still end up with opposite-looking results because the shadow lands in different places for each.
Because that tutorial was filmed on someone else's proportions. A placement built for an oval face doesn't automatically transfer to a square or a heart shape — this guide swaps in the map built for your own geometry instead.
Use it as a starting point, not a rule. The advice assumes a natural, well-blended look as the target; if you prefer heavier or lighter contrast, your own taste wins over any convention on this page.
Yes — it's one of the bigger factors. A shadow already sitting along your jawline in uneven light can get read as bone structure rather than lighting, which is the most common reason a result feels off.
It can. The model needs a clear view of your jaw and temple points, so hair falling across either area works against the reading the same way a hand near your chin would.
Usually. A filter that slims your jaw or reshapes your cheeks changes the exact measurements the model reads, which can shift the placement map toward a shape that isn't really yours.
The AI's job stops at measuring your face shape. The placement rules attached to each shape — where shadow goes, where highlight goes — come from standard makeup artistry, not something the model generated on its own.
Three named zones come back with each result, specific enough to describe to a stylist or follow on your own.
Yes — your face shape and contour map can be posted straight to social media as a styled image, no screenshot required.
Yes. Both pages start from the same face-shape reading; this one applies it to shadow and highlight placement, while the eyebrow shaping guide applies it to brow arch and thickness instead.
The measurement itself only reads geometry, not skin color, so the placement logic applies the same way regardless. The one number that does depend on your skin is shade contrast — roughly two shades lighter or darker than your own tone is the general target for both products.
It can. A turned head skews the width readings that decide narrow versus wide, so a straight-on, front-facing shot gives the most reliable map.
No — it names placement zones and the shade direction (lighter or darker than your skin), not specific product lines. What you put in those zones is up to you.
Because blending is what sells the illusion. Contour placed a little imperfectly but blended well reads as natural structure; contour placed perfectly but left with a visible line reads as makeup sitting on top of the face, and that line shows up in daylight even when it looked fine under dimmer bathroom lighting.
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Ready to Find Your Contour Map?
Upload a photo and see where your face shape says to shade and where to highlight.