Review (and rant): Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Palette

I am not ashamed to admit that I buy many products based on the recommendations of other bloggers and YouTube reviews. Some are good, some are OK, and some just don’t work for me. Today, I want to talk about one of those.

This is my Anastasia BH Contour Palette in the shade Light to medium.

The instructions in the back suggest that we can use the 6 powders to highlight and contour, »expertly emphasize our eyes, cheekbones, nose and jawline«. The product is cruelty free.

As you can see, I’ve used it quite a lot. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it any nicer for the photos, because the palette itself is made of a cardboard and similar to some other palettes, you’ll find that the matte outside will get pretty dirty, and so will the inside. The palette uses a magnetic closing, which is quite nice and practical. I also like the fact that the individual pans can be replaced if needed.

The top row has 3 powder highlighting shades: Vanilla, Banana, and Sand. Only Sand is shimmer while others are matte. The bottom row has 3 powder contouring shades: Java, Fawn, and Havana. Basically, just looking at this, it’s a great palette with a nice variety of shades. Each of the pans holds 3 grams of product. View Post

Makeup Revolution Ultra Sculpt & Contour Kit

 

If you follow me on Instagram (@low_maintenance_beauty), you probably noticed that I received a few packages from Licila.si and Makeuprevolution.si through the month of May. Well, one of the packages got me all excited and today, I’d like to do a quick review of the product.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years, you know that it’s not all about the bass (no treble, lalala), but rather, it’s all about contouring. When looking at photos, I feel like I could cut bread with some of the cheebones of various models and actresses. And with this new trend came a myraid of new products, intended specifically for the purpose, creating a whole new category of beauty product – the contour kits.

Anyway, I was sent the Makeup Revolution Ultra Sculpt & Contour Kit in light-medium.

The palette brings three different products – a matte bronzer, a highlighter and a shimmer blush.

The packaging itself is nothing special, but that can be expected for the price range (with the exception of the MUR Iconic Pro lipsticks I wrote about here – how about that for spectacular packaging). It’s a plastic palette with a mirror. I like that it closes up really well – I wouldn’t be worried to travel with it.


The bronzer has a milk chocolate color and is all matte. For my fair skin, it’s stuck somewhere in the middle – a bit to warm to be a contour color and a bit too dark to use as a bronzer all over my face. I did however try to use it over NYX Taupe blush that I sometimes use for contouring and it really emphasized what I was going for. That, for me atleast, is now the perfect contour combo.

Highlighter is really, really nice – I don’t have anything like this in pressed powder version yet. The color ranges somewhere between peach and champagne and is spectacular on the high points of the face. I would say that a light touch is needed, though, since it really does contain quite a lot of shimmer.

The same applies for the blush. The color looks quite dark and really brown in the palette, but once applied it turns into a lovely copper blush with orange undertones and a lotof shimmer. Again, it will be the perfect summer blush for those sunkissed cheeks, but for now, I’m keeping it in the closet, since I’m still rocking the tan of a Google computer programmer.

I need to say that I had plenty kick-out with the Real Techniques brushes and absolutely none with any of my other brushes. I can’t really put my finger on what makes the difference, but I think that it’s a nice little reminder for any of you.

Here are the swatches – bronzer, highlight and blush from left to right. I tried to seek out some dupes but quickly realized that these colors are completely unique to my collection.

The quality and pigmentation reminds me very much of the Sleek contour palette, but while the Sleek palettes cost about 14 € on Licila.si, this one will be about a third of the price. So far, it’s not yet available in this particular shade (Ultra Fair), but you can already get your hands on the Ultra Light palette (click). I think that it’s absolutely worth the money and give it my seal of approval.

What is your favorite contour palette? Let me know below – I only have four different ones and really feel that I could do with a couple more 😉

Stay beautiful!

Sephora (and MAC) haul

I know that some of you take offense when I’m writing about things that are not easy/next to impossible to get in Slovenia (or, to be honest, in Europe), but still I got some positive feedback from others, saying that you like such posts, since they make you either have them shipped/buy them on your travels/order them from friends that are traveling etc.

Well, I do realize that writing about products that you cannot just go out and buy isn’t exactly productive, but just keep in mind this one thing – if you dream it, you dreams can come true. And please, don’t only apply it to make-up shopping 🙂

Anyway, my Sephora basket wasn’t as extensive as it was about a year ago, but my wishes have gotten much, much more specific.

First of all, I was on the hunt for a full coverage foundation. This Kat Von D Lock it tattoo foundation does seem dark for me in the bottle (shade 54 – medium), but for some reason it’s the perfect shade – if I were to buy it over the internet, I would go much lighter and completely miss the target.

I literally just need one tiny pump of this foundation to cover my entire face, and boy oh boy, does it cover every single thing. I wouldn’t say this is an everyday foundation for me, but it’s great for when I will need my complexion to look fabulous. I would not wear this every day since it does feel quite heavy and I have a feeling that it does crawl deep into my skin and settles there. It cost 35 $ at Sephora.

 Next is an absolute must and a palette that has probably been review by every beauty blogger (and their mother) on this planet, but as always, I’m late for the party. It’s the Anastasia Contour palette (mine is in light to medium). View Post