Contouring using the best contour kit will focus on enhancing the facial structure and shaping a certain area of the face through makeup instead of dramatically changing your facial appearance. Contouring gives your face a chiseled look, completely transforming your makeup look. On the other hand, highlighting gives a pop to some facial features by illuminating them, for example, cheekbones, nose, and forehead.

What is a Contour Kit?

A contour kit is a palette that contains a highlighter, contour, and bronzer. A contour kit is a makeup product that is a game-changer for makeup lovers because contouring and highlighting can be done using just one palette. However, choosing the best contour kit can sometimes be a daunting task, especially if you do not know your skin tone and correct foundation shade because a contour is ideally about two shades darker than your foundation shade while the highlighting is two shades lighter than your foundation.

1. NYX Professional Makeup Conceal Correct Contour Palette

NYX Professional Makeup contour kit is the best highlighting and contouring kit t conceal and contour while color matching your skin. It comes with six contouring shades that can help you cover and even out the imperfections or spot problems and also help to accentuate your best features in a flash. In addition, the formula will give buildable coverage that will guarantee flawless skin and add depth to your natural facial contours.

NYX Professional Conceal Correct Contour and beauty kit will include a color correctors' shade, three colors for contouring for light, deep, and medium skin tones. The light shades can be used to cover any spots and blemishes, while the deep shades will be suitable for contouring and can be ideal for beginners.

  • Pros
  • The highlight and contouring product blends well
  • Sweat-resistant formula
  • The light and dark contour kit is long-wearing as it stays for eight to ten hours.
  • It is a cruelty-free beauty product
  • It comes in a sturdy and plastic packaging
  • Cons
  • It may irritate the sensitive skin
  • It can be difficult to remove

2. Black Radiance True Complexion Cream Contour Palette

Black Radiance Cream Contour kit is the best contour kit for anyone with a darker complexion since it's available in light to medium or medium to dark contouring shades. The beauty product is an all-in-one, oil-free, creamy palette that comes with three shades that contour, illuminate and sculpt, providing full coverage for that sculpted and shimmery finish. The cream contour palette is great for dark skin, and medium skin tones will offer the best cream coverage for a perfect contour and a subtle glow.

Black Radiance Cream Contouring Palette is one of the best contouring and highlighting palettes for beginners and professional makeup artists since it's among the most affordable makeup products on the list. The contour and highlighter kit is easy to use, and it comes with easy instructions to guide on the proper use of the product and thanks to the cream highlighters, it's great for dry and normal skin.

  • Pros
  • It comes with an attached application guide
  • Easy to apply and it easily blends
  • The palette has different shades to allow a better application
  • The cream formula has three contour colors for the best natural touch
  • Suitable for dry and normal skin thanks to the cream highlighters
  • Cons
  • It is only suitable for medium to dark complexions.

3. Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit

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The Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour palette is the best contour kit if you prefer a powder palette and chase the shimmer and matte finish. The contour products come in six shades with three shades of powder contour and three powder highlight shades, and the makeup products give both matte and shimmer finishes. The contouring and highlighting shades offer a great selection, making it more versatile for different skin tones. In addition, it includes cool and warm contour shades to give you the illusion of a softer jawline, higher cheekbones, sculpted slimmer nose, and a small forehead.

Anastasia Beverly Hills contour kit is mostly used with professionals. Still, it can also be used with beginners since the powder shades are easy to blend and difficult to build up. The contouring palettes are also refillable and removable and will flatter all the skin tones, and they also come in travel-friendly packaging.

  • Pros
  • Great shade selection making it inclusive and available for different skin shades and skin tones.
  • Suitable for both professionals and the less experienced beauty lovers since they are easy to blend
  • Vegan and cruelty-free
  • It has a smooth texture
  • Travel-friendly packaging that will be mess-free
  • The palette uses a lightweight formula that won't feel heavy on your skin
  • Cons
  • The contouring palette does not have a mirror

4. Lorac Pro Contour Palette

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Lorac Pro Contour Palette is a great contour palette that is premium in every shape and form, and it comes with a great quality contour brush making it the best kit if you are looking to step up your contouring game. In addition, the contour palette comes with three matte contour shades, two matte highlighters, and one shimmer highlighter, allowing users to create versatile looks using one palette. The powder shades include light, medium, and deep while the two highlighters are matte beige, pale shimmer, and matte yellow, and these contour colors will help you create perfectly sculpted features for the shape you are looking for.

The Lorac Pro Contour Palette powders are easy to blend on top of the other, scent-free, creamy, and highly pigmented; hence a little goes a long way for a flawless application. The contour palette is great because it can be used by beginners and professional makeup artists but remember that it's one of the most expensive powders because of the premium and high-quality construction.

  • Pros
  • Highly pigmented hence last long
  • Free high-quality contour brush
  • No skill level required
  • Cruelty-free construction
  • A little product is enough, meaning your brush will not get heavy-handed
  • Cons
  • Pricey but worth the money

5. Aesthetica Cosmetics Contouring and Highlighting Makeup Kit

Aesthetica Cosmetics contour kit is one of the top contour kits in the market today, thanks to the vegan construction and high-quality performance. The contour products enhance your natural beauty and bone structure using the six powders. The three powders are matte contouring shades, and the other three are illuminating powders to give you a picture-perfect highlight and glow. The highlighter and contour kit comes with instructions that help any beginner, and the mapping guide is easy to understand and helps you use the palette kit in the right way.

Aesthetica Cosmetics highlighting and contour kit comes with an affordable price tag for high-quality construction, and it will define your cheekbones perfectly and give you slim and sculpt features. Additionally, when you run out of your powder, the beauty kit can be refilled with replacement pans which minimize any waste during the process.

  • Pros
  • Suitable for fair to medium skin tones
  • The instructions ensure you have an easy application
  • The replacement pans are refillable and replaceable when you run out
  • The contouring and highlighter kit should not irritate your skin as its 100% cruelty-free
  • Cons
  • The three powders can be a bit on the chalky side.

How to Use the Best Contour Kit

1. Apply a foundation on your face that matches your skin tone

2. Suck in your cheeks to make visible the natural contour of your face

3. Use the desired contour shade with an angled brush and buff the outlines in softback and forth motions

4. Brush up around your hairline if you want to achieve the illusion of a small forehead

5. Blend your powder or cream across your nose's bridge if you want the nose to seem smaller

6. Slim your neck down and sharpen the jawline and brush the contour along your jaw's length across your chin and on both sides. Blend the contour in swift motions to achieve a seamlessly, perfectly natural shadow.

7. For the contour beauty kits that have a highlighter, put some of the powder or cream on a fan brush and apply it on top of your cheekbones, cupid's bow, and nose tip to give a shiny glow or subtle glow if that's what you want.


Factors to Consider Before Purchasing the Best Contour Kits

1. Shade Range

Like all beauty products such as foundation have various shades for different skin tones, it is important to consider the contour palette shade range for your skin tone. For example, darker skin tones will require darker shades, while medium tones will require slightly lighter shades.

2. Cream or Powder

A contour palette comes in powder and cream form. Knowing your skin type will be beneficial in choosing contour products that are right for your skin type. For example, a cream contour is best for dry skin, while a powder contour is better for oily skin. In addition, cream contour kits are usually more pigmented than a powder palette.

3. Skin Type

Since your skin type helps you pick the perfect shade of the best contour kit, it is important to consider when shopping. They include:

a). Normal Skin

If you have normal skin and medium-sized pores with a little bit of oil production during the day, both the cream contour and contour powder will work for you. Choose your contour products based on whether you prefer a heavy or a more natural makeup look and which technique you find easy to work with.

b). Dry Skin

For the dryer skin type with small pores and little oil production, you might prefer a dewy look t your skin to avoid looking flakey and dry. Since it's harder to blend contour shades when applied over a wet foundation, you should try sticking to a creamish formula, but a powder contour will work well so long as it has a buttery texture and not the chalky one.

c). Oily Skin

If your skin has larger pores and produces a lot of oil during the day, it might be better to avoid layering creamy products on your oily skin as they add on the shine. If you prefer a creamy contour for your beauty palette, then ensure you use thin layers but keep in mind that choosing a powder contour will make your work easier while keeping the oils in check.

4. Skin Tone

It can be simple to look at a mirror and tell if you have dark or light skin, but finding the right shade for your contouring makeup for a daily look will rely more upon than just your skin color. Therefore, when choosing the best contour kit, you should opt for a color that is two shades darker than your skin tone because your contour should look more like a shadow and should be very neutral on your skin in a way a shadow will be.

When choosing your contour color, it's important to figure out your skin's undertone and choose what your skin's undertone is and opt for a contour shade with a similar undertone where our skin's undertones are neutral, cool, and warm.


Frequently Asked Questions on the Best Contour Palette

1. What is the difference between a bronzer and a contour?

A bronzer is a makeup product that warms up your face by adding color to places the sun would naturally hit, whereas contouring shapes and defines your face structure. Apart from the definition difference, the contouring and bronzing also differ in their finish and color. Bronzers tend to have a more orange color with a shimmery finish, while contours have a more neutral color and give a matte finish. However, they have often been applied to similar areas on the face, such as the cheekbone.

2. Are Contour Kits necessary?

Contouring is necessary if you want your cheekbone to have a more sucked-in and chiseled look, and the best contour kits will enhance your cheekbones, covering any flaws for a while. When contouring is done correctly, it makes shadows on the face, and the shadows will be used in giving an appearance of more prominent cheekbones, a slimmer face, a strong jawline, and fuller lips.

3. What type of brush should you use for contouring?

There is a specific brush meant for the contouring job, and it's called the contour brush and is slanted. This brush is very versatile as it makes it easier for you to contour your face shape while cleanly blending your contour powder, especially beneath your jawline, forehead, and cheekbones. 

About the Author Tom Brewer

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