Kat Von D Shade + Light Creme Contour Palette Review and Contour Routine.

Hej! Today I have a review of the Kat Von D Creme Contour Palette and my contour routine. I know this palette has been out for quite some time but why I just picked it up a few weeks ago and have really been enjoying so I thought I would share my thoughts and how I use it.

So, I was wandering around Marshalls just seeing what discount makeup they had and I found the Kat Von D Creme Contour Palette for half price and I have been on the market for a new creme contour so it all worked out. I also found the brush that goes with it half off as well. I love a good bargain.

Side note about the makeup section at Marshalls. What a shit show. It was disgusting. Broken makeup everywhere and open products. Why bother trying to sale full on trash. It was a makeup nightmare. The palette I found and the brush was in security cases so it was untouched thankfully. This was my first time exploring the Marshalls makeup area and was just grossed out. I almost just went to Sephora and paid full price over shopping in that shit hole. The rest of the store looks nice. WTF? The makeup was just thrown on a couple of racks with no fucks given. I could say that about a lot of things in my city. Everything is half-assed and no one gives a damn about anything. Everything is always trashed. I am always amazed when I go to another city and everything is clean and nice. Okay, this is a rant for another time. I just want to go to a store that looks like the employees give a shit about how it looks.

Anyway, back to the makeup.

The Review

Let’s take a look at the palette. The case is quite nice, made of a hard plastic that snaps closed.

Inside you have a nice mirror and six pans laid out just like the Shade + Light Contour Palette but this one is cream.

While I personally can’t use every shade in the palette it was a good deal finding it at a discounted price. The pans are replaceable and online there are more shade options. I would like to purchase some of the other shades for fair skin and replace the ones I can’t use and just put those in a separate empty palette for when I might need them in my kit. I mostly just use the first two shades.

The Formula

The formula is really nice. It’s not greasy, easy to blend and sets down somewhat so it doesn’t slip and slide. It also offers some coverage. I really like it. I have used a number of cream products and it’s hard to find that one that is just right.

The Shades

As I said, you can find other shades to swap with on KVD’s website or build your own which is pretty cool and it comes in a 6 pan or 2 pans format. The pans by themselves are around $16 and come in 12 shades in the creme formula as well as the powder. You can build your own for the same price as the pre-made palette at $49. Like I said, I got this one for $24 at a discount.

Back to the shades in the pre-made palette.

Parchment – a cool nude highlight. This shade is almost just a hair lighter than my skin tone so it doesn’t really highlight too much but I have found I like using it as a base on my eyes and carve out my brows.

Banana is your staple yellow beige highlight. I sometimes use this one lightly under the eyes in the darkest spots to brighten underneath my foundation and concealer.

Bisque is a warm peach highlight and this shade I have found to be pretty useful as an undereye corrector underneath my foundation and concealer for days when I have some real darkness going on. It’s actually fantastic for that purpose on my skin tone.

Spice is a cool taupe contour. This is my favorite for contouring in the palette. This shade goes anywhere I want to contour and shape like hollows of my cheeks, and around my nose.

Woodland is a neutral soft brown. This shade I like using when I want to have warmth in my skin without overdoing it. I don’t use this one every day, just when I feel like I’m looking a little too pale. I think of this one as a creme bronzer I use under foundation.

Chestnut is a warm deep brown. This shade isn’t super deep, however. I could probably use it with a light hand but I think this is the only shade I don’t use at all however, it is handy to have in my kit for clients.

I do want to reiterate there are many other shades online you can get to suit your skin tone.

Here is a look at the other shades.

Contour Routine/Demo

For this demo, I showing you how I use creme contours for a more natural effect which is applying them underneath foundation. If I want to go more glam I apply it over foundation. Applying underneath foundation not only gives a more natural effect, but it also appears seamless and is fool-proof. So if you are new to creme contouring or just suck at blending it out using cream contours under your foundation will soften the look and blend it effortlessly and hide any mistakes. It’s a nice hack. I would recommend a light to medium coverage foundation with this technique unlike what I did below. I used one a bit more full coverage than I usually do.

Here is my face free of makeup aside from brows and a primed eye. You can see I naturally have a shadow from my cheekbones that give me a natural contour. This is just how my face is made so I just enhance it with contour. I am lucky in the sense my contour areas be it my cheeks, jawline and nose are already pretty defined but the foundation can flatten things out and I like to bring that definition back and emphasize them. I want a snatched face as the kids say. I also like to use contour to lift my cheekbones a bit by blending upward.

So here is after I applied the contour in the shade Spice with the brush that she released with the palette. I think the brush is discontinued but here is what it looked like below. It’s just a dense synthetic brush. Real Techniques makes some good ones you can use for this purpose.

I don’t just swipe the product on. I blend while I apply with the brush in an upward motion under the cheekbones, along the jaw, around my nose, the hairline and around my lips. I blend as I go, not perfectly but just a bit to move the product into where I want it. The finer tuned blending will happen when I apply foundation with a damp sponge after this step.

I have used the peachy shade as a color corrector under the eyes and you can see the differences between the two pictures. Lastly, I hit the high points of my face lightly with the lightest highlight shade called Parchment.

When I contour my nose, I use the Kat Von D Lock-It Edge Concealer Brush #40 for more control. It’s a mini version of the one I used for the face.

I also want to include that I add a liquid highlighter at this stage as well on the highest points. I use Wet N Wild Halo Halo. The shade depends on the look.

And here is just after foundation, concealer, and powder. For a natural makeup look, this would be all the contour I would do. It’s just a suggestion of a contour with looking so full on and everything looks blended and pretty natural contour wise. You can add more creme before powder if it looks like it needs more. I do sometimes if I am going full glam.

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Because I am extra, I go in with the Shade + Light Powder Contour Palette to reinforce that contour a bit. I like a sculpted face and I do this most days when I wear makeup. I like a full beat, man. I just enjoy the process so I do it as often as I can. Anyway. I basically do the exact same thing but with their powder contour parts in the powder version of the palette. I just don’t use the peach powder and I use the middle shade as a bronzer. You can see how much more dimension my face as and warmth. You don’t HAVE to do both or use the creme at all. I just really like the effect it gives. One reason I went in with the powder is that the foundation I used was more full coverage than I intended. This technique is stunning with lighter coverage.

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Here is how everything looks once the eyes, lips, blush, and highlight are on. I don’t think it screams heavy contour, just enhances what I already have which is what you ideally want to do with contour.

Keep in mind the principle of dark recedes and light brings forward so you want to apply the contour in areas you want to create definition and minimize like the hallows of the cheek to give a slimmer more sculpted appearance.

This is my favorite way to do contour. I use other brands and products depending on my mood but I was really impressed with the formula of the Kat Von D Shade + Light Creme Contour Palette and I already have the powder Shade + Light. I thought since I picked this palette up is was a good time to talk about contouring and do a little review.

You can use any brand of products you like as well to get the same effect. NYX has a great collection of contouring products in multiple formats and finishes from the drugstore and Anastasia Beverly Hills have the classic contour palettes in creme and powder.

Coming up Friday, I have a new St.Patrick’s Day Makeup Tutorial so keep an eye out and be sure to follow me on my socials linked below.

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