Flawless Contouring Palette-The Art Made Simple

6 Reviews

1. 

   kindSausage5

   Reply

   I was so excited to buy this after reading wonderful reviews but was left SO disappointed!
   Firstly – the shades are all (even the lightest) very dark. Whilst I like that the shades are ashy/brown toned rather than orangey, they still look quite muddy on. I tried all of them and didn’t find any of them particularly wearable on top of Mac NC37.
   Secondly, not a big deal, but the packaging is quite cheap (just a cardboard case rather than plastic) for quite an expensive product. I prefer plastic cases for palettes as they can be wiped down easily if they get messy.
   The shades are all creamy and heavily pigmented which I really liked but unfortunately I just didn’t get the lovely blending experience that everyone else seems to have had – it was blotchy and moved my foundation around my face no matter how I applied it. I tried using a beauty blender, a range of brushes and my fingers, all left it blotchy, sticky and muddy.
   After a few days of trying to give it the benefit of the doubt I decided to return it to Laura Mercier so that I could replace it with a palette from somewhere else.

2. 

   cheerfulMagpie5

   Reply

   I have to say that I love this palette! It is a wonderful contour palette, especially since it’s a cream and not a powder product. I find this glides on effortlessly, is highly pigmented, and looks very natural. I find sometimes that powder contour products can look a bit patchy or muddy on my face, but this doesn’t.

   It’s a great palette for beginners, because of its blendability and ease of use. I would say the only thing about the palette that doesn’t strike my fancy is the highlighter, simply because it’s too light to show up on my face.

   I don’t wear this every day, because of the price, however this is what I wear for those extra special nights out. I have fairly flat features and this defines my cheeks and jaw so beautifully! There are several different shades to use, and each is as good as the last.

   I will definitely buy this palette again as soon as I run out. No more powder contours for me! I’m in love with this one.

   Oh, and I forgot to mention, that this lasts all day once it’s set with powder.

3. 

   guiltyMacaw6

   Reply

   very goog

4. 

   soreOcelot8

   Reply

   This is the palette that turned me into a contour addict. I dabbled in the effect a couple times, but always felt “too done” or orange. The shades compiled here mimic real shadows, with neutral undertone.

   But of course, the first ingredient is isocetyl stearate. I can’t trust that on my acne-prone skin. I do notice new clogs when I wear this, so I’m returning it. HOWEVER, it *still* earns 5 stars for the brilliant color range because now I know what works. From here, I picked out dupes for these shades in a cream formula that my skin loves (Kryolan Ultra). Ah, the curse of sensitive skin.

   The price tag makes sense when you consider the rest of the market. It’s more elegant than the competitors, especially the sturdy packaging.

5. 

   sadGelding9

   Reply

   I was in the market for a cream contour kit and heard a few good things about this one. I was pretty disappointed that Sephora didn’t carry the Anastasia cream contour kit, as I have the power one and am a big fan. Nevertheless i decided to purchase this one. It’s a little pricey I think I paid 42$ for it. I had an employee of the store put it on me and she did a good job so i went home hoping that I would be able to also! One night I decided to play around with it and got a little nervous because the colors are so pigmented and creamy I wasn’t sure i would be able to apply it without an employees help as I am good to the whole contour game. I eventually got the hook and decided to blend it with a damp beauty blender and what a difference it makes! You only need a little bit because the colors are so rich. The highlighters in the kit are pretty good, but the contours are much better. They are very dark so I don’t know how they would work on someone with fair skin. I set them with my Anastasia powder kit and it really looks great. I still want to try the Anastasia kit because I love her products, but this will work great for now.

6. 

   humorousOatmeal2

   Reply

   I ordered this through Sephora.com and received it yesterday. I’ll be honest and say that I’ve yet to use this during my usual makeup routine but I did play with it last night and I really love it! I had my reservations because it was kind of expensive, but overall, I find it to be a really great product.

   It’s super emollient and unbelievably blendable. One of the concerns I had was how I would apply it without going overboard, but it’s honestly almost foolproof because of how easy it is to blend. It’s very obvious just by putting your brush/finger in it that you need such a small amount, that it will last you a long time which makes it easier for me to justify spending the money on it. It’s very buildable and doesn’t sit on the skin or feel heavy at all because of how little you need to apply, which I’m really happy about as most of the time I use liquid or cream foundations and I didn’t want to add anything that would make my skin look/feel heavy or cakey. Another HUGE plus for me is that there are many contouring products that end up disturbing your base once you start blending them out–this product is not one of them; the slightest touch of your brush or blending sponge, will start working this product beautiful into your skin. I also love that because it’s so blendable, you have quite a bit of working time with it so you don’t have to rush to blend everything right away out of fear of having it set. My skin is light-medium for much of the year, with yellow undertones and the biggest contour color (#1) works perfectly for my skin. Once I am a bit darker, the #2 I’m sure will work excellently too. I like to add very small amount of the#2 right in the center of my under cheek-bone contour for a bit more depth and it works excellently without looking overdone. The contouring shades are PERFECT for the ranges they’re supposed to work on. They’re more cool-toned and I’m extremely pleased by this. I really love that both the medium and deep contour colors are not too cool-toned which I always find to make contouring look more natural on those with those types of skin tones, as it warms up the skin and looks very natural without looking orange or like a blatant matte bronzer is being used.

   The highlighting shades are probably the most underwhelming thing about the palette for me. The lighter highlight is a shimmery gold and it does look nice if you tap it onto the top of your cheekbones and build it up a little bit, but it’s not necessarily something I could see myself using to highlight my entire face; just that part and maybe down the bridge of my nose if I wanted to achieve a subtle golden glow. Because it’s shimmery and not too in your face, I would use it more as an accent highlight and not necessarily something that would bring light onto the center of my face, which I’m fine with, as I would rather use a matte concealer for that sort of brightening effect. The darker highlight, is kind of a mystery to me. It goes on nearly as dark as it looks in the pan, so I would describe it (for my skin tone) as a shimmery bronzer in cream form more-so than an actual highlight. How I applied this was, after doing my contour, I used the darker highlight color like a cream blush working it onto the backs of my cheeks, bringing it forward, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that if you work it into your skin like that, it’ll give you a very sun-kissed glow.

   The palette itself is made out of that really heavy cardboard, which I’m kind of disappointed about because while I do feel it’s protected enough to travel with, I would expect it would be made out of a more sturdy material given the overall price. It does come with step by step application cards, which are placed in tabbed sections on the top of the palette behind the mirror. You can pull on the tabs and they will slide out while still being attached to the palette which I think is GENIUS and adorable. I love this detail as so many other palettes that come with little note-cards rarely ever have a place to store them in. The fact that these pull out but do not unattach from the palette itself is such a good idea to me. It almost makes up for the cheap packaging. Almost.

   Overall, I think that this palette is worth the money. Do I wish it had better packaging, highights, and bigger pans? Sure. But for the price I don’t think you’re missing out on anything, and as I mentioned before, just a small amount really goes a long, long way so I think it’ll take a really long time to use this up. I’m planning on doing a full-face of makeup today to see how long wearing it is and how well it works with my overall makeup look. Although I do not forsee myself having any issues with any of this, I will definitely come back and update accordingly.