Everything you need to know about draping

Draping goes way beyond contouring and highlighting. Rather than muddy sculpting shades or blindingly bright strobing highlighters, draping uses subtle washes of color to bring out your cheekbones.

It was legendary makeup artist Way Bandy who first used color as a way of shaping the face in the ’70s. Bandy, whose work regularly appeared in the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Rolling Stone, loved the technique so much that he used it on the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross and Cher. For years, the effect (which the Alabama-born makeup artist called ‘color glow’) took a backseat to contouring and, most recently, strobing, but it is now enjoying a welcome revival.

“Draping is creating an all-over glow with strategic placement of color,” explains Global Makeup Artist for Marc Jacobs Beauty, Gilbert Soliz. Put simply, it’s a wash of a single hue – blush is your best bet – blended over the contours of your face. The result is less ’70s than it sounds, leading brands such as Chanel to use the technique on the SS17 runways.

Soliz uses Marc Jacobs Beauty Air Blush Soft Glow Duo to achieve the look. The key, he says, is to choose a warm, flattering shade for your skin tone (pinks and apricots work on pale complexions, red-based shades complement darker skin). “Smile and, using a brush, swirl blush onto the apples of your cheeks, then work the color up to your temples and over your brow bones,” says Soliz. Essentially, you’re aiming for a large C shape: “After you’ve put color around your eyes, blend it along your jaw and down the sides of your neck.”

Draping succeeds where other techniques fail: while contouring can look harsh and strobing can appear waxy, draping is subtle, adding nothing but a healthy, youthful flush. Try it yourself with the below cheek colors.