Review on the NYX Contour and Highlight Palette

There have been a lot of contour palettes in the market recently, all thanks to the hype around the Anastasia Contour Kit!

NYX Palette is a set of four highlight powders and four contour powders. All of the shades included in the palette can be purchased individually, and the palette is refillable, so shades can be removed or rearranged. The only downside is that they don’t sell the palette empty, and there are two additional highlight powder shades (Bone, Soft Peach) and two additional contour powder shades (Sienna, Saddle).

I liked that two of the four highlighters had some shimmer to them, so for those who like a little sheen to their highlight, you’ll have those options, and you can always tamp down the satiny sheen by dusting one of the more matte highlight powders on top to stretch out the others if you like less shimmer. The contours all had a semi-matte to satin finish, so none were totally matte, and they looked natural on the skin without looking too shimmery or too flat. I had some trouble blending out the contour shades at times, and I had the best luck by applying with a more feathery brush to lay down the general outline of the contour, and then going back to darken as needed. The highlight shades are soft and smooth but powdery.

Highlight Powders

Ice Queen is described as a “pearly pale white.” It’s a very light, cool-toned white with a frosted finish. It had semi-opaque coverage that was buildable to fully opaque colour if desired, though it’s likely a shade worn more diffused for most, so luckily, it blends out quite easily.

Soft Light is described as a “matte nude.” It’s a very light, white-beige that is fairly neutral in undertone paired with a matte finish.

Cream is described as a “matte soft yellow.” It’s a soft, buttery yellow with warm undertones and a mostly matte finish. It had good pigmentation with a really soft, smooth consistency that was easy to blend and apply to the skin.

Nectar is described as a “pearly soft peach.” It’s a light-medium, yellowed peach with warm undertones and a soft, frosted shimmer. It was less frosted compared to Ice Queen. The texture was soft, blendable, and slightly powdery/dry but didn’t appear dry on the skin.

Contour Powders

Tan is described as a “matte soft brown with slight red undertones.” It’s a medium-dark brown with warm, reddish undertones and a satin finish.

Toffee is described as a “matte neutral brown.” It’s a muted, medium brown with warm, yellow undertones and a satin sheen. This was one of the more shimmery contour shades (it’s not matte at all!). The color payoff was fully opaque.

Sculpt is described as a “matte taupe.” It’s a muted, medium-dark brown with a hint of gray overtones but the stronger, more orange undertones made it look warmer and browner. It had a very slight satin sheen, but it was the more matte of the four contour shades in the palette. It had good color payoff with a soft, silky texture that was a smidgen powdery.

Hollow is described as a “matte deep brown.” It’s a medium-dark brown with warm, reddish-orange undertones and a satin finish.

How I use these shades

To Set (under eyes)– I use a combination of the banana powder (Cream) and the matte nude powder (Soft Light) as it does a wonderful job at setting and brightening my under eyes. I also feel like the finely milled powder gives a slight blurring effect to my pores, which I always appreciate.

For Contouring- I love using the matte taupe powder. I feel like it is the perfect shade to carve out the natural contour of my face and it’s extremely comparable to my favourite contour shade, NYX Taupe blush (it probably is the same now that I think of it). It is extremely pigmented, so I love that a little goes a long way. It is also extremely blend-able, so if I overdo it, I can easily blend it out so it doesn’t look as harsh (which definitely happened the first few times I used it, since I didn’t expect it to be that pigmented). I have also used the darkest brown powder (Hollow), when I wanted an extremely defined contour for a dramatic look. It, just like the taupe powder, was highly pigmented, but blended beautifully.

For Highlighting- I enjoy the peach highlight powder (Nectar) for adding a little glow to the high points of my face (cheekbones and down the bridge of my nose). The pearl highlight powder (Ice Queen) is beautiful as well and is a great for a highlighting shadow to brighten up my inner eye, but peach is best for highlighting with skin tone, so I gravitate towards that one more. They are not in any way glittery, but more of a finely milled sheen and they look very natural.

For Bronzing- Tan and Toffee are ideal for bronzing up the face or adding some colour to your complexion if you feel pale.. I usually use the neutral brown shade, as red undertones can leave my complexion muddy looking.

As I said, one of this palette’s best features is the crazy amount of pigmentation. With just an extremely light and tiny tap of your brush, you’ll be able to pick up more than enough product. With that said, it’s super easy to go overboard, so just make sure to use a very light hand especially with the darker contours.

My personal favourites are the matte soft yellow, which is incredible for highlighting the under eyes, and the matte taupe, which is literally the perfect contour shade you can ever find especially for light to medium skin tones! The last shade is definitely something that darker-skinned women will love, so it was very thoughtful of NYX to make a shade for all skin tones since many palettes typically tend to cater to lighter complexion.

I obviously have nothing but great things to say about this palette. It’s surely going to be a holy grail product for a longtime. I highly, highly recommend it!

Hope you lovelies enjoyed and let me know how you like the NYX Contour Palette!!

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