Review: NYX Highlight and Contour Pro Palette


There have been a lot of contour palettes in the market recently, all thanks to the hype around the Anastasia Contour Kit. Since I can't bring myself to buy those high-end ones just yet, I decided to go with NYX's super exciting new release... and let me just say that I absolutely freaking love it! Read more for everything you need to know!

Overview

"Define your features like a pro with NYX Cosmetics refillable Highlight & Contour Pro Palette! Each set includes four customizable highlighting and contouring shades perfect for emphasizing your favorite features."

• What it is: Professional palette with eight highlighting and contouring colors. 
• What it does: Easily allows you to enhance features like cheekbones, nose and jawline. 
• Why we love it: The removable and refillable pans are perfect for building your own customized pro palette. 
• How to use: After putting on foundation, apply the deeper, contouring powders to any areas you would like to shade and define. Next apply one of the lighter highlighting colors to any areas you would like to emphasize.

Price
This product initially retailed for $30, but NYX and Ulta shortly reduced the price to $25 which is still way up there for a drugstore brand in my opinion. I bought mine at ulta.com because my local store never has any of the new releases in stock, but luckily, I happened to find a 20% off coupon code online, which dropped the price to only $20! (plus a $5.95 shipping cost, unfortunately)
 
Anyway, if you ever come across this palette, don't even think twice about buying it because it's honestly worth the splurge! You guys know that I swore by my Benefit Hoola bronzer, but I finally hit pan and I knew it was time to either repurchase it or try something new. I went with trying something new because as much as I love Hoola (and it did last me almost a year), I really feel like I get way more bang for my buck with this contour palette because 1) it has 4 highlight and contour shades, 2) they're refillable, so I don't have to keep repurchasing the whole palette, and 3) there are a variety of contour shades from warm to cool tones, one of which looks almost exactly like Hoola. So, instead of continually purchasing a $28 bronzer like Benefit's, I could just replace the pans that I've used up which will probably only cost a few bucks!

Packaging



The pans come in a standard plastic palette which is quite bulky, so I don't know how pleasant it will be to travel with. One big flaw about the packaging is probably the lack of names for each shade because it's going to difficult to differentiate among them when it comes to refilling. Other than that, there's not much to say or complain about. The pans pop right off if you want to take any out of the palette, so you don't have to worry about breaking the product or anything.

Shades & Swatches
Now for the most fun part about makeup reviews: the swatches! As I said earlier, there are four highlight shades (pearly pale white, matte nude, matte soft yellow, and pearly soft peach) and four contour shades (matte soft brown with slight red undertone, matte neutral brown, matte taupe, matte deep brown), so it's definitely a super versatile palette. I honestly think there's something in this kit for every skin tone because the pigmentation is insane (more on that later). As opposed to the Anastasia Contour Kit which tends to be on the warmer side, this one has more muted, grayish shades that are absolutely perfect for contouring. Here are the swatches from left to right:
My personal favorites are the matte soft yellow, which is incredible for highlighting the undereyes, and the matte taupe, which is literally the most perfect contour shade you can ever find especially for light to medium skin tones! The matte soft brown is the closest shade to Hoola, except it's a bit more orange. 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 complexions.
Another thing that's great about this palette is that it can easily double up as an eyeshadow kit because of the great pigmentation. I can already tell that the first contour shade will be one of my new favorite transition/blending eyeshadows because it's such a gorgeous warm color that's perfect for the crease. I also used the first highlight shade on my brow bone, the matte yellow on my undereyes, the pearly soft peach on my cheekbones, the matte taupe on the contours of my face, and the darkest shade on the very edge of the hollows of my cheeks to intensify the contour.

Pigmentation
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.

Finish and Consistency
All of the shades are said to be matte other than the two outer highlights, but the second contour shade has a tiny bit of sheen that's only visible on the pan, so it's not something to worry about when you're sculpting your face. The consistency is incredibly soft and smooth, which is probably why it's so easy to pick up the product, and since it's so finely milled, there can be quite a bit of fallout, so the messy application might be the only setback about it.

Verdict
I obviously have nothing but great things to say about this palette. It's surely going to be a holy grail product for a long time, so don't count on me to review any more bronzers/contour products for a while. All I can say is that this palette is the only thing you need to get those supermodel cheekbones and perfect, glowing skin. I highly, highly recommend it! I mean, it's like you're paying only $3 for each incredible shade, so I'd say that it's completely worth it.

Hope this helped and thanks for stopping by!
xoxo,
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CONVERSATION

7 comments:

  1. It looks so nice, would definitely looks like something to try in the near future- such a helpful post :)
    Feel free to check out our latest post x
    http://looklovewear.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/london-fashion-week-aw15-ootd-and.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. @look.love.wear thanks! you should totally give it a try!! i hope you'll love it as much as i do! :)

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  3. the palette looks very sleek! I haven't mastered the contouring technique, but I think this can be an affordable palette to start practicing!

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  4. @Natalia definitely! you can easily play around with different shades if you're not sure what's best for you :)

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  5. Hey! Thanks for the review. Just wanted to let you know, it looks like someone copied and pasted parts of your review on their own site. Idk if you already know, but I thought I should point it out: http://makeupandbeauty.com/nyx-highlight-and-contour-pro-palette-review/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for letting me know! Just saw it. Some people really have no originality 😒 I left a comment on her post but i doubt she'll do anything about it

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