Contouring is perhaps the biggest makeup trend of the past few years, but now it seems it isn’t if you do it but rather how you do it that matters.

The process, which involves highlighting certain areas of face and shading others to ‘sculpt’ your features, has become an art form in itself, with different fun approaches to the technique being shared on social media.

The latest is ‘Henna contouring’, which sees make-up painted delicately onto the cheekbones, browbone and chin in an intricate pattern before being buffed into oblivion and smoothed over, leaving a perfectly contoured surface in its wake. The technique is being pioneered by Zimbabwe-based self-taught makeup artist Shahina Aslam, whose video detailing the approach sees her painstakingly contour her face using a fine brush to dab henna-style motifs onto her skin.

Aslam uploaded the video as part of the makeup brand Anastasia Beverly Hills’ contouring competition, which is offering a $10,000 prize to the participant with the best one-minute sculpting film. The group is famous for its contouring kit, which is a favorite with makeup queen Kim Kardashian.

Henna contouring isn’t the first creative interpretation of the classic contouring method. Recently beauty blogger BellaDeLune made waves when she invented “clown contouring,” posting a video to YouTube showing how an extreme-looking theatrical clown base of makeup could be blended into a subtly contoured look. The process requires setting out triangular panels with ‘teardrops’ under the eyes before adding a bold circle of bright pink blush and crudely over-exaggerating the lip area.

An additional variation on the trend that took off this year is strobing, which involves applying highlighter where the light naturally hits your face.

Watch how it's done: