3 Tricks To Make Your Nose Look Smaller Instantly

In the right hands, makeup has the incredible ability to completely transform your face – it’s one of the reasons I love it. So if you have a feature you want to tweak or areas you want to accentuate, by using the right techniques, anything is possible. When it comes to making your nose look smaller, it’s all about tricking the eye into seeing something else. You could have a big nose and nobody would even know, but you need to know the method of using light to distort reality and understand the way a person looks at your face. Using shade and light to your advantage, you can create the perfect balance by drawing attention to different areas of your nose or your face. Besides using the usual nose contouring techniques (scroll down for my video) here are three tips to alter common nose shapes, and some do’s and don’ts of flattering your nose.

TIP 1: Making a wide nose look slimmer

To make your nose look narrower, bring your brows in closer to your nose; it’s crazy how instantly and effectively this will make your nose look slimmer. In the image below, we’ve digitally shaved off the inner part of my brows to show you the difference.

TIP 2: Slimming a rounder nose

If you find that the end of your nose is slightly larger or rounder, skip the highlighter all the way down your nose and the trend of applying highlighter to the very end of your nose. Instead use a light shimmering bronzer, like the golden tan shade, Tahiti, from our Golden Sands 3D Highlighter palette, and apply it just above the center of the nose. This will draw the attention to the most slender area of your nose. We’ve digitally enhanced my nose in the images below to look slightly wider at the bottom, so you can see how a little highlight in the right place goes a long way.

TIP 3: Hiding a small bump

After contouring, add a little matte bronzer on the bump – even though there will be a slight shadow there, it will instantly give the illusion that the nose is much straighter. Then add a little highlight on the very tip of your nose to distract attention away from the bump. Check out my technique for nose contouring in my video below, and more tricks for shaping your nose.

Do’s and Don’ts to make your nose look more petite:

Do add highlights to your hair: Highlights draw attention away from your face and nose
Don’t do bangs: It will immediately draw the attention to the nose, as it narrows down the area of focus.
Do draw attention to your eyes: Make your eyes look bigger with liner, statement eyeshadow or a great pair of lashes.
Do wear your hair in a side parting: This draws attention away from the center of the face – try it and you’ll see what we mean!