13 things you should be doing to get a v-shaped face without the blade

A v-shaped visage is coveted by many, especially in Asia. Just take a cue from the fan-favourite Korean star Park Shin Hye.

The v-shaped face imparts a youthful appearance and accentuates your God-given facial features.

In fact, this face shape is so popular in Asia, many actually go under the knife to achieve it.

If you’re not ready to get a nip and a tuck, try these 13 natural methods to attain this much sought after look.

1. The power of contour

Once again, it’s makeup to the rescue. But this time, we’ll be using concealer to frame our faces instead of covering up blemishes.

All you’ll need is a contour palette and your favourite concealer.

Start with applying the contour onto your jawline in an upward motion to give the illusion of a slimmer, v-shaped face.

After blending the contour out, use a small brush to apply the concealer about half an inch above your jawline to accentuate your face.

Finish with setting spray and you’re good to go.

2. Tone up

We’ve all been there – the morning after an evening of indulgence, we wake up to a puffy face. In order to work with that, we need to spend a few minutes in the morning to improve circulation and tighten pores.

One way to do so is to dunk your clean face in a bowl of refrigerated toner in the morning. The cold temperatures shrink capillaries and stimulate drainage while the toner helps to reduce inflammation and puffiness.

This beauty hack requires the most perfunctory prep the night before. Grab a bowl of water straight from the tap and mix in the tiniest bit of a toner of your choice – approximately five (parts water) to one (part toner), proportions wise.

Give everything a good stir and pop that into the fridge.

When you wake up in the morning, dunk your face into a bowl the refrigerated toner water concoction, then gently massage the contours of your face for about 15 seconds or so.

You’ll notice a depuffing effect, alongside a reduction in ruddiness and pore size.

3. Lighten up

If you have a rounded face, your stylist may opt to lighten your hair at the top and ends to create depth and darken the hair on the sides of your face.

Just like when you contour your face, this hairstyling technique will create a shadowing effect near the midpoint of your face to create the illusion of a slimmer visage.

4. Shed light on

Experimenting with light can help to bring the centre of your face forward and downplay the width of your face for a slimmer mien.

You’d want to dust some powder highlighter on the centre of your face, between your brows, on the bridge of your nose, on the cupid’s bow and in the centre of your chin.

5. Mask the puff

Infused with active ingredients to lift saggy skin and redefine your jaw line, v-masks helps to tighten the face and break down fat cells without surgery.

The application process itself where you wrap the silicone mask around your head also helps to stimulate blood flow and tone your facial contours.

6. Sharpen your posture

Looking down at your phone on a daily basis can not only cause permanent creases around your chin and neck, it could also lead sagging skin and drooping jowls.

While wrinkles in the jowl area was previously more common only in women over 50, with the omnipresence of smartphones, women in their 30s are starting to experience sagging cheeks.

Once this sets in, it is difficult to reverse and aesthetic treatments like fillers and lasers are required.

As the old adage goes, prevention is better than cure, make it a point to hold up your phone instead of looking down.

7. Cream of the crop

For those who are raring to get an instant Insta-ready face minus any face slimming filters, warm up a dime-sized bit of your go-to firming and toning cream in your palms before patting the product into the skin.

With the tip of your fingers, massage the product into your skin using circular motions, exercising a firm pressure upwards and light pressure outwards.

Doing so will help to drain lymph nodes and reduce water retention in your face.

8. Don’t sweat it

If you’re not too keen on going under the knife for a slimmer face, facial exercises have been hailed as a non-invasive alternative to Botox and surgery.

The best part about these workouts? You’ll see results without breaking a sweat.

For healthy, glowing and tighter-looking skin, do the exercise six times a week, for about 20 minutes each time can work all three layers of the skin (hypodermis, dermis and epidermis).

If you want to slim and firm round chipmunk cheeks, try this exercise set.

1. Create an “O” shape with your mouth and hide your teeth with your lips
2. Without exposing your teeth, smile widely. Repeat this six times.
3. Suck in your cheeks and your lips to make a “fish face”. Holding that same position, try to smile as wide as you can. Hold this pose for a good five seconds and repeat until you feel the burn!

9. Work your angles

Over-tweezed and sparse brows do nothing for a round-looking face.

To elongate and slim down your mien, add contour and a point of interest by accentuating the arch of your eyebrows with a brow pencil or shadow a shade lighter than your natural brow colour.

10. Razor-sharp

Just like a trusty little black dress that hugs you in all the right places, the right hairstyle can do wonders for round-shaped face.

The easiest way fake a Korean drama ready v-shaped face is to pump up the volume in your crown.

With a fine-tooth comb, spritz some hairspray lightly tease the hair around the crown area and keep the rest of your hair smooth and past your shoulders for a clean and sleek look.

11. Wing it

Draw attention to your peepers to help your face appear slimmer.

With dark coloured eyeliner, go over your lash line before extending the line slightly outwards, towards where the brow ends to create a wing.

When you elongate the natural shape of your eyes, you highlight the outer corners of the eyes and distract from the side of the face where it is the widest.

Top it all off with a coat or two of volumising mascara.

12. Slim shady

To downplay the roundness on the face, rather than applying your blush in a circular motion, pop your blush on the highest point of your cheek, towards the temple.

Besides blush, matte bronzers (about one to two shades darker than your skin tone) are a round face girl’s best friend.

Apply bronzer to the area below your cheekbones, starting from your ears and bring it down to your jawline to elongate your face.

13. Clean slate

As cliché as it sounds, you are what you eat and what you eat can (and will) show up on your face. One of the main culprits behind the swelling in the face is water retention.

For starters, try to eliminate processed food, salt and sugar from your diet.

You could also consider drinking beverages like green tea and lemon water that will rid your body of toxins and release the water weight.

This article was first published in Her World Online.