How to Make Your Nose Look Smaller

Feeling that your nose is large can be a huge setback in confidence. The most common 'big nose' complaints are: tip is bulbous, bump on the bridge, too long, or nose just looks 'too wide' for someone's personal tastes. Whatever the issue, there are many ways to drastically minimize the problem area without resorting to drastic measures (like surgery). Here are some tips for how to minimize the size of your nose:

1) Bangs. Always opt for soft, fluffy styles. If your face is small, try side-swept bangs. If your face has a wider/larger structure, go for either straight-down bangs that hit right above or at your eyebrows, or side-swept.

2) Earrings. If you wear your hair in some sort of up do/have short hair, wear earrings. Go for studs instead of dangly ones since long earrings can accentuate a longer nose. Earrings are a subtle way to make your nose look smaller from the side, as they subconsciously attract attention toward them and away from the nose.

3) Playing up your eyes- this is a surefire way to lure any gaze away from your nose.

4) Contouring your nose! This is really the goldmine for making your nose look small. See below for ideas based on your particular needs. What you will need are :

a. A highlighter (or a foundation one shade lighter than your normal 'overall' foundation, which generally should match your skin tone).

b. A bronzer (or a foundation one to two shades darker than your normal foundation, depending on how extreme of a change you desire).

c. A contouring brush or small eye shadow brush.

d. Optional: One makeup sponge

e. Blush (if you suffer a long nose)

Bulbous Tip

With your makeup brush, apply highlighter down the bridge of your nose, and stop before reaching the tip/bulbous area. Now apply the bronzer on the tip/ bulbous area. Be sure to blend well so that it doesn't look unnatural!

Bump

Apply bronzer down the bridge of your nose stopping where the tip begins to protrude.

Wide Nose

Apply highlighter down the bridge of your nose continuing down the entire length, including the tip. Make sure that this highlighted strip is no wider than you wish your nose to appear. Now take your bronzer and sweep it on both sides of the highlighter, and do not let the strips of bronzer extend past your tear ducts on either side. Finally, take the makeup sponge and blend the makeup outward to make everything look more natural. It is sort of difficult to explain this procedure, but it works like a charm. A really great video of how to do it that is similar to the method I described can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZIaQrO8_Z0

Long Nose

To make a long nose appear shorter, extend your blush application to just below the apples of your cheeks. This will make your cheek area appear to end lower down on your face, which will in turn make a long nose seem proportionate. Don't get too crazy with it by extending your blush to your mouth or anything- you don't want to look like a clown! As a guideline, try not to place the blush past the end of your nose. This would make your nose look even shorter- however, you'd look like you had droopy chipmunk cheeks!