Here’s the thing: contouring isn’t particularly practical unless you’re Kim Kardashian being tailed by camera crews and paparazzi. The only time it’s okay to walk around with three layers of creamy product on your face is when you’re getting ready for your own wedding or a full blown fashion shoot, not a casual summer lunch or an evening soiree. Apart from making you look vaguely reminiscent of a seedy bakery cake, it requires a technical expertise to pull off well and contouring regularly is bound to leave you with skin damage (hello breakouts!). But just because you can’t play with shadows to sculpt doesn’t mean there isn’t another way to highlight your favourite features.

Meet your new best friend: strobing. Strobing is the art of only highlighting facial features that naturally catch light, for a defined look that doesn’t require excessive layering of product. Instead of using light and dark shades like in contouring, strobing relies only on strategically placed highlights that accentuate features. You place your highlights exactly where you would when you’re contouring; centre of the forehead, bridge of the nose, brow bone, cheek bones, cupid’s bow and center of your chin, and blend until you achieve an even, lit-from-within-glow that catches light.

Think of strobing as contouring’s easy going, low maintenance cousin because while contouring requires a special kit and brushes or a sponge atleast, all you need for strobing is a highlighter/luminizer or light-reflecting moisturizer. Prep your skin as per routine; wear your hydrating cream/tinted moisturizer/BB cream and give it a couple of minutes to settle in. Pick a highlighter of your choice (we recommend Body Shop’s Vitamin E Illuminating Cream) and dot along areas that catch light, paying close attention to your cheekbones, forehead and nose as the main features you want to sculpt. Blend the product until it merges seamlessly with your skin. Voila!

There are a few rules to keep in mind, though, even as you’re digging out all your highlighters. One, strobing requires a good base to begin with so invest in a skincare regimen and stick to it. Secondly, in order to avoid looking like a shimmery disco-ball in this heat, particularly if you have oily skin, keep all your other products matte. Also avoid highlighting areas of your face that have broken skin or zits, unless you want to draw attention to them too! Third, choose a highlighter that matches your skin tone: champagne tones for fair skin (we love Benefit’s Watt’s Up), pink champagne hues for light to medium skin (think High Beam by Benefit), golden tones for olive skin (Buxom’s Divine Goddess Luminizer is our go-to product) and terracotta for dark complexions (Nars Multiple in South Beach).

Not only is strobing time and cost effective, it’s all much gentler on your skin because it only requires one product. It also makes you look younger and fresher without layers of product weighing you down. In fact if you’re brave enough, we recommend pairing strobing with nothing more than moisturizer, concealer and a colour reviving lip-balm as the perfect summer makeup.