The Art of Contouring: NYX Highlight & Contour Pro Palette

I've talked about my recent Boots trip where I picked my newest favourite matte lippies and on the same day I noticed the counters were rearranged; I found myself standing in front of a huge NYX counter and needless to say I was like a kid on a playground. Desperately trying to contain myself, I settled on one of their lip creams, a metallic eyeshadow (because those are trendy!) and their gorgeous contour palette. I am far from being an expert when it comes to contouring (despite spending hours on Youtube trying to master the art behind it), but I love how a bit of bronzer and highlighter completely change my look. I have and always had chubby cheeks, so a little more definition is something I go for almost every day. I am always hitting pan on contour kits so a bigger and more professional palette (even though I'm not one myself) was definitely a needed buy.

The NYX Highlight & Contour Pro Palette retails for £18 and gives you 0.72oz of product. It contains 4 highlight powders in the first row and 4 contour powders in the bottom row. Shades within the palette can be bought individually making so the palette refillable (although I have not found them on the Boots website) and you can rearrange the shades as you wish or remove them. Unfortunately the palette cannot be purchased empty and I personally would have preferred it that way so I could buy only shades that suited my skin tone. There are 4 more shades available (2 highlighters and 2 contour shades) but again, I am not 100% sure these are yet available in the UK; if they are let me know below as I have not been able to track them down.

Onto the pans, 2 of the highlighters are matte and the other 2 are a little shimmery, making the palette versatile and giving something for everyone. On the other hand, all contours have a semi-matte to satin finish, so none were totally matte but they did look extremely natural on the skin without yielding too much sheen. I found all shades to be soft and smooth, but the highlights were powdery and the contours very pigmented, so a light hand is definitely needed when applying them. All highlighting shades lasted around 7 hours on my skin, whilst the contours stay put for 8/9 hours and I believe that’s down to their insane pigmentation.

From left to right, we have the following shades:

Highlighters

Ice Queen: a "pearly pale white"that is so light it works well on my pale skin tone but won't be for everybody. It has cool undertones and a frosted finish. It blends well but can emphasize pores if applied on the bridge of my nose for example.

Soft Light: a "matte nude"that is very light as well but has neutral undertones to it. The finish is matte and despite being soft and smooth, this is one of the powdery ones I mentioned before. This doesn't show up on my skin tone well and can look quite chalky so not a shade I would choose to highlight with personally. 

Cream: a "matte soft yellow"that has warm undertones and a matte finish. I like using this one under my eyes as the yellow undertones help correct my purple dark circles. It is well pigmented and easy to blend despite being quite powdery on the pan too. 

Nectar: a "pearly soft peach"with warm undertones and a frosted shimmer. This is my favourite of the highlighters as it is soft, blendable and not too over the top. 

Contours

Tan: a "matte soft brown"with slight red undertones. This has a satin finish and is well pigmented. It also blends well and I like using it as a transition shade on my crease rather than a contour itself.

Toffee: a "matte neutral brown"with yellow undertones and a satin finish as well. This is the most shimmery of the contour shades (so not actually matte as the description by Nyx) and is a little too dark for my skin tone, but again I can totally use it as eyeshadow too.

Sculpt: a "matte taupe"with grey overtones and orange undertones, making it browner and warmer. This is the shade I love contouring with; it yields a beautifully sculpted look and despite having a little shimmer to it too, it is the most matte of them all (if that makes any sense). I apply this at 6am in the morning and I come home at the end of the day to it still going strong.

Hollow: a "matte deep brown"with red/orange undertones and a satin finish. This is the scariest shade being so dark I only use it along my lash line for a defined eye look. On the skin, it blends well but again, very pigmented and dark for my complexion.

To Recap…

Pros: 

✓ Smooth and soft shades.

✓ Refillable palette and individually sold pans.

✓ Affordable compared to higher end brands.

✓ Good pigmentation and easy to blend.

✓ Good variety of highlighters finish.
✓ Long lasting.

✓ Shades dupe as eyeshadows. 

Cons: 

✖ Contours are non-matte, so their descriptions are misleading.

✖ Matte highlighters are powdery.

✖ Shades are mostly warm. 

All in all, I confess I hadn't heard much about this palette, but it looked like the ABH one which I've had my eyes on forever but never could justify the price tag. The sales assistant assured me it was one of their best sellers and constantly out of stock, so on a whim I picked it up and I haven’t looked back since. It works so well for me and despite not getting much use of some shades, this is a brilliant buy for the amount of product you get for that price tag.

What do you guys think of this palette? Have you tried NYX contouring products? 

Let me know below!

Thanks for reading beauties and wishing us all a nice week ahead!

xoxo