Fact: 2016 has been the year of contouring with all kinds of unconventional objects (shoes, knives, spoons) — and the beauty vlogger world couldn't let 2017 squeak in without one more for the record books. But unlike some of the more outlandish contouring tutorials, the latest hack offers a pretty practical take on the trend. It involves a fork. And as Laiba Zaid, a Toronto-based instagrammer (and face of Tarte Cosmetics' new Athleisure range) shows, one can get a lot of mileage out of its tines.
In the video, Zaid lays the fork flat against her brow, using its edge to fill in the hairs to straight-lined perfection. Next, she uses the fork’s tine as a guide for creating a precise cat eye. She finalizes the look with a little nose contouring; by holding the utensil flat against her nose, its outermost tines serve as guideposts for where to shade. After she buffs the lines out with her finger, the result is subtly slimming.
Because a fork’s tines are but a few inches long, the end result is far more natural than what you see in videos that use bigger objects — like the aforementioned high heels and knives — to guide makeup application. Will we be adding a salad fork to our beauty bag must haves list? Probably not. But Zaid’s tricks will make for great beauty-survival skills (or NYE dinner party tricks) when doing makeup in a pinch.