CONTOURING & HIGHLIGHTING

I want to start this post by saying that I had wanted to get the Anastasia Beverley Hills contour kit so much, but as I live in Perth the only way is online (or fly to Sydney to visit Sephora) and I just never got around to getting it online. I ended up flying to Sydney around the middle of this year on a business trip (that's for another post) and whilst there, I went into Sephora to make the purchase almost exclusively, and sadly they had no stock :( it just wasn't meant to be!! I did load up on heaps of other products though, obviously!

Anyway, I pushed that out of my mind and when I got back to Perth I headed into our local Priceline (drugstore) for some other things and got my hands on this palette - the AC On Tour Contouring & Highlighting Kit by Australis which is a much more affordable option than ABH and to be honest, I am glad I did. 

As always with makeup, new lines of the same product are always being released and as soon as I had bought this palette, they released three different palettes: light, medium and dark. The website says clearly that this palette offers a healthy, natural glow for any skin tone, but I still don’t know if I entirely agree.  If I could go back and wait, I would definitely purchase the light palette, as I am quite fair skinned and feel this option would have suited my skin tone better. I am heading across to Melbourne at the end of the year and I was told there will be a Sephora opening there beforehand (fingers crossed it’s open!), so I will be visiting that store and getting my hands on the cream contour kit in light by ABH as its high up on my wish list and I LOVE cream products, especially for summer (I’ll do a post on my favourite cream products soon!). 

Sorry, I digressed there, back to the Australis palette…

Firstly, the kit is very, very, very pigmented. I cannot even stress that enough. Before you lather your brush in product STOP! Lightly press the brush in the product and TAP ANY EXCESS OFF YOUR BRUSH BEFORE APPLYING! Please! I am only thinking of your face! Either way you only make that mistake once so go for gold!

There are three ‘highlight’ shades and three contour shades. On the top row from left to right, there is a light (almost translucent) powder, a yellow ‘banana’ powder and a shimmery, peachy highlight powder. I love each of these shades the same (it’s a lot of love) the first powder is a setting powder for your face and I find it does a great job at setting my t-zone. The yellow powder is great for setting concealer under the eyes whilst highlighting that area – I have heard it has flash-back but I haven’t experienced that so can’t comment on that (sorry!). The highlight shade is so natural and adds just the right kind of peachy highlight to my cheekbones; it is shimmery (I can’t think of another word) but not overwhelmingly so and catches the sunlight perfectly leaving your skin with such a natural glow. 

On the bottom row from left to right, there are three contour shades. The first is a combination warm/cool toned colour, the middle is an ashy colour and the third is a warm colour, slightly bronzer than the first two. This is where you can have a problem with MUD. The first time I used the contour colours I lathered my brush up with the product, tapped a little bit off and applied it to just under my cheekbones – DISASTER! I had muddy looking cheeks and I had a little freak out because I was already late to work– I was NOT expecting that much pigment!! 
Anyway, the product is really easy to blend out and I managed to blend it out enough to wear during the day, instead of washing my face and starting again (can you imagine! I’d have been so much later for work! I really shouldn’t try new products when I’m late but what can you do!). I like to use the first and third colour on my cheeks, forehead,  nose, jaw-line and just under my chin as a general “bronzer” and then I use the middle colour to lightly contour under my cheekbones to add some more definition and a bit more of a 'contour' rather than bronze.

Anyway, on mornings when I have decided to go all the way and have highlighted and contoured (or evenings) I step away from the mirror and feel nicely shaped and I feel great about my face, especially with my nose, which I have a love-hate relationship with. I'm a little camera shy, so won't upload a close up of my face, but hopefully I get more confident and will be happy to do that! Also, now that summer is almost here, it will look a lot more appropriate (I don’t often wear fake tan so I’m pale as the moon and my face is usually super bronze and glowy and it just doesn’t really go with the rest of me!). I love this product, I reckon I will continue to love this product and hope you all give it a go if you haven’t already, I’ve only heard good things!

Let me know what contour and highlight palette (or even just individual products) are your favourites in the comments below, I love trying new things and would love to know what you use! Also, let me know if you’d like a post about my favourite bronzers/highlighters too and I’ll give it a go!

V x