Contourella
Ahhhhh now where do I start with this one, for those who know me personally will already know that contouring is like my ultimate jam!! There is nothing more that I love in my make up regime then a good strong chiseled contour, carve them cheek bones out and buff away that little round marble ‘that is supposed to be the tip of my nose’, and oh shorten my face as god decided to bless me with a rather long one. I am sure that many of you can relate to me and probably share the same passion as me when it comes to the magic of contouring, how ever there is such a growing variety of products made especially to contour. With the gift of contouring all our undesirable parts, the possibilities are endless and simple. Now if you were to take a sneak peak into my treasure chest that is my make up trolley, a large variety of contour products will be found, from dry contour products to cream. I have taken out a few of my favourites to enlighten you with my view upon using them. Taking into consideration that they not drastically over priced for all my lovely readers, who would like to purchase them on a non professional level, looking after our pennies is a wise move. So lets delve into the non surgical version of plastic surgery (as I like to call it )
Artist of Makeup (AOM) Zukreat contour sticks: I am absolutely positive that everyone is familiar with these products, available as two highlight sticks and two contour sticks in dark and medium. I find the consistency of these products easily glide onto the face, well oiled products and to be fair you also get a lot of wear out of the purchase. It has smooth texture which can sometimes come across a tad bit too shiny, which if you love a dewy look is perfect for but for a matt look it would require powdering. If not applied lightly the contour sticks can come on excessively, which then means a lot more of blending and buffing would be required at the shading side of this technique. Don’t get me wrong this product is one I use a lot but with all things taken into consideration through experience, brilliant sticks to highlight and contour with are worth every penny, so when I want a super harsh carved out look, depending on how chubby faced I am feeling on the day this would be my pick.
Inglot foundation sticks: a black sleek smooth and shiny packed item, if I am honest this product is more foundation then an actual contour product, Inglot as of yet have not made an individual contour stick, these sticks can be multi purpose used stick. The contents of the stick is creamy and easy to blend which is why they are good to use as contour and high light sticks, the only thing you need to keep in mind is to get a darker shade then your actual skin tone for the contour to take effect with a lighter shade then your skin tone for highlighting. This concoction is not super oily or too dry its a good one to pick if you have super oily skin and want to cream contour.
Makeup Revolution One Sculpt Contour Duo: Ok now where do I start with this one, I was super excited when I heard this was being released, I thought its brilliant its drugstore and super affordable for my personal make up goody bag and I would not need to cry when my high end contour stick which cost me more then I would like to admit finished with in space of five weeks. I had a lot of hopes for this beauty duo. The contour stick when purchased i liked, I personally don’t like my contours to be overly dewy or oily and I don`t like matting powders over the blended contour, unless I am using a powder contour to intensify the point of sharpness. This ticked that box off, it not being oily finished I liked the consistency of it, of how it glided onto my skin and I felt I got an amazing product for such a low price. How ever…… I wish I could say such good positive things about the high light stick, I opened the packaging and swatched it on my hand, (jaw dropped in epic disappointment) what was it??? It was more of glazed shiny shimmering very thin barely visable highlight. It was not creamy it was glossy like lip gloss and just did not do itself any justice. I have recently become a fan of the glow life but not that kind of shimmer, not in that form, suffice to say I have not touched that product since then.. any takers?
Makeup Forever Pan sticks: This duo remind me a lot like the AOM sticks in consistency, these pan sticks however are slightly less oily, which makes it really good for combination skin. It has a creamy almost wax based texture and good product pay off. If you have acne prone skin then I would not recommend this product and seeing as its thick based its best to use a wet beauty blender to blend these products to get a flawless finish, as opposed to using a buffing brush.
NYX Wonder Stick: Although this item is not really found locally in the UK its available online, the reason behind this purchase was the fact that it was two product in one, where one end was the contour shade and the other end was the highlight. Now I would only use this product if I wanted a very natural soft and subtle contour and highlight (which lets be honest is never the case). If you like a slight shimmer in your highlight then this is the one for you, personally I like my highlight contour shimmer free but not all of you are me. Available in four shades I still found them very pale in shades and not the exact tone I would like as a contour , I found it did not blend very well and it was too oily for my liking, if you all about the dewy look then this would be perfect for you.
L.A Girl Pro Conceal HD: These babies are like super affordable and easy to get your hands on either online or in city center, also available in various shades. Like the name suggests they are concealers however they make amazing contour and highlight products. It comes with a brush tip for application and it requires slight pressure to release product. I would not say its creamy like creams when it comes to consistency its slightly wet, very easy to blend with great pay off and end product. Its not oily and gives great coverage. For daily wear and in your personal make up bag its ideal, I do love this product for both professional and personal use. This product has to be on my list of most favoured contouring products. If your not so great at the game of contour then its a great purchase to have to start to learn the art of it, or better yet enrol in with a self application course with us.
Dermacolor Camouflage Cream Erase Stick: Now at first glance to me I thought “oh that’s fancy for a lipstick case” upon reading before purchase I realized what it actually was, its highly pigmented and I would say this is for sure ideal for professional use only and not daily. The packaging is quirky, and the product I really really like. It twists up like a lipstick and glides on smoothly, no excess oils and perfect shades to contour and highlight with. There is not a lot of bad things I can say about this item, upon thinking hard I guess the only thing I could is say that I wish there was more product in the item. The amazing thing about this twizzler stick is upon fixing your contour with powder it becomes waterproof, so in my professional career this is my go to contour duo for all our Ashifa brides.
After all my contour jargon with my opinions of just a few of the products affordable for you, my readers, let me know which product you would take to the ball that is your contour game.