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I’m a huge fan of Kevyn AUcoin’s Sculpting Powder! Soft, blendable, pigmented enough to work for different types of needs/preferences. I also like MAC’s Sculpting Powder range.
— Christine
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Being super-pale, it’s incredibly hard to find a good cool toned, light contour for myself. But I’ve been using Inglot’s Sculpting Powder in 505 for a long time and I LOVE it! I just have to use it with a light hand as it’s very opaque. It’s really underrated (Inglot as a brand) and I’ve never seen anyone using this. I really recommend it! I also find myself branching into eyeshadow shades to find a good contour color, such as Barcelona Beach from MUG, but I’m pretty new to eyeshadow-contouring so I don’t have an opinion yet.
I’m a contour noob, so I’m clueless.
Push over on the noob bench and make room for me too. I find that contour either looks like nothing on me or else it looks like I’ve got a dirty face. Having said that, I have a LE bronzer from Clarins that is very much like the Guerlain Quatre Saisons bronzers andworks well and I also have that “grey” contour powder from Sephora that isn’t bad.
I felt like that for months, in despite of all the excellent youtube tutorials I have found (allyart, she’s the best), until I did a ‘shape-lesson’ in a Mac store. Now I know where to put it, how to do it and I just have to keep practicing!
yes, i am joining you. contour looks somewhat dirty and useless on me. my jawbones are pointy, my cheeks are “hollow” so what should i contour?
i tried kevin aucoin, but it vanishes in my face.
i like color that freshes me up.
I agree on the KA Sculpting Powder! I have the original (now Medium) shade as part of his Contour Book II. Even for someone as fair as me, the powder is so incredibly blendable (yet buildable) that I can use it with a light hand. The formula is just stellar, it’s actually the only contour powder I really use, despite owning a few. I’m hoping to get the new Light shade at some point too so I don’t have to be so careful.
NARS Melina Contour Blush
My personal favorite is, was, and will likely remain: Nyx Taupe Blush! Even though I am nowhere near fair skinned at presently NC37, yet it works just fine on me for buildable, well blended definition.
MAC Blunt in my Techno Cumbia palette was working beautifully, too, until the pan hardened up! ?
I got a sculpting powder from Inglot in October and I haven’t used anything else ever since. I used Bahama Mama from TheBalm before I got this one but it was way too warm for me, though the consistency was very nice so I sometimes use it as a bronzer now (which I guess it was made for…) I also really like the powder from the Sleek cheeck trio’s, but the color was too warm again. I am afraid that the Inglot one will turn out to be a bit too dark though, because I bought it at the point that I was the most tan I’ve ever been in my entire life.
hey Linde, Which shade did you get from Inglot, and what is your usual skin tone?
I think I got number 9, but I’m not 100% sure. My foundations are MAC Face and Body in N1 (which is a little to dark if I use too many layers) and MUFE Ultra HD in Y215 (which is so close to perfection but sometimes a tiny bit too light but I can make it work.) So I’m quite pale but not like a ghost or anything. I rarely tan because we don’t get that much sun around here but I bought the powder after spending about 9 days in Rome without sunscreen.
Thanks! I will have to look into those Inglot powders… I am darker then you are I think. From swatches from the MUFE Ultra HD, I would say I am rather Y255 or Y345. Not sure what shade in the Mac Face & Body Foundation, I think N4.
But I am interested in trying Inglot out, I just have to make myself going to a retailer that sells it to see the shades in person!
I don’t do contouring on a regular basis, but when I have the time, the NYX Highlight & Contour Pro Palette works just fine for my fair skin.
Surratt Grisaille for sure. I wish the pan was a bit larger (although the Surratt sculpting brush fits it perfectly) but all in all, it’s pretty perfect. The buttery smooth is incredible, the colour is cool enough for me to use as a contour, and it’s so effortless to blend into my skin.
So far, for my fair skin, Sephora Tranquil. It’s light and gray-toned, and blends easily. The down side is that it isn’t cruelty free. I also really like Notoriously Morbid Necromancy; however, it’s crazy pigmented, so I have to be careful not to use too much.
I just looked that contour powder up and it reminds me a lot of skeletina by glamour doll eyes! https://glamourdolleyes.com/products/skeletina
NYX taupe! always reliable.
TheBalm Bahama Mama bronzer. I might like it even more than my Kevyn Aucoin sculpting powder in medium. It is not a bronzer at all – I don’t know many people who can pull it off as such – it is very pigmented, easy to blend, not orange, not ashy, easy to pick up a lot or a little, betteer staying power than my other bronzers, and a little goes a long way. Plus it’s cheap. Just as a reference, I am around NC20 in MAC’s sense (cooler than NC but definitely not NW), but I use neutral foundation shades whenever there’s an option for that (YSL and Nars, etc).
Which MAC sculpting powder suits you the best, Christine? 🙂
Hi! I love that one, too. I can get away using it as a bronzer and as a contour 😀 (I’m smth darker than NC15 but lighter than NC20)
I bought my first Bahama Mama in 2011 and finished it in 2015. Now I’m on my second one and still use it every time I do my make up! That’s crazy since I barely finish those kind of products – Especially considering how pigmented Bahama Mama is that can only mean thatI really really love that contour/bronzer 😀
I agree about MAC and KA. In addition, I loved It Cosmetics original My Sculpted Face palette (not fond of the new palette).
Definitely the Kevyn Aucoin the Sculpting Powder medium!
Being so pale it’s almost impossible. I need a grey purple taupe that’s not too opaque or cool/warm. Feel free to make suggestions.
Try Sephora Contour Powder in Tranquil –it’s a cool grayish taupe, very hard to find, as most contour powders are warm and brown or orange. It didn’t review well on Temptalia, but I think there are QC batch issues, as mine was fine, and I got a backup too
Glad it work well on you. Mine is go on so patchy and really hard to blend.
I love MUFE Pro Sculpting Face Palette. I like KA, but Sephora salesperson turned me onto this one. It has a cream blush, contour, and two cream highlights (which I don’t use as much) I like that you can really use your fingers to sculpt and navigate your cheek bones, and then “swirl” in the cream blush with a beauty blender. I also like KA Sculpting or Benefit Hoola on top with a light hand, and then Love Lust blush if I am feeling skilled 🙂
I also love the liquid hoolla for kinda a wash of color, light, but I read reviews where people say it pulls orange. I’m NC-15/20 with neutral to warm undertones.
I’m a NYX Taupe girl, all the way! I’ve repurchased it four or five times now. I haven’t tried many other contouring powders, but I haven’t really felt the need to.
Kevyn’s as well, it has that lovely grey undertone so it looks like a shadow, beautifully natural and blends like a dream. It’s also idiot proof, I’m not a contour queen like the girls on You Tube so it’s pretty forgiving if you blend and highlight carefully!
Oh definitely Kevyn Aucoin’s The Sculpting Powder for me as well! I’ve never needed another contour product as it’s just so perfect.
Believe it or not, Hourglass Mood Light. Marc Jacobs Flesh and Fantasy is a winner as well. Im tired of the contour thing and rather embrace the multi functioning drapping. Tres tres chic.
Old Nyx taupe…the little square pan that they d/c’d. I guess the Sephora tranquil comes close. When feeling adventurous, mufe…is it called ash purple? I figure if we can highlight with color, we can contour with color, but not many shades lend themselves that way. Ashy Purples and slates work ok, but the rest, not so much. I’ve tried. That said, don’t contour as a regular thing.
My absolute favorite is the Illamasqua Powder Foundation in 230. It has the right amount of depth and ashiness to perfectly create a believable shadow with ease of blending.
There’s a contour and highlight duo by Wet and Wild that is perfect. The contour is appropriately cool toned and blendable. It’s dirt cheap, but out performs some of my higher-end powders.
Kevyn Aucoin is the best!
Christine, I love the Kevyn Aucoin sculpting powders, too! When I use the Light one, I don’t even have to be ultra-careful about placement and blending (as I do with Medium — which is fine for me if blended well, but a bit dark if not). My second choice are Make Up For Ever Artist shadows in the appropriate shades (M540 Gray Beige, M548 Pink Gray, M558 Dark Taupe, M620 Gray Brown, M626 Neutral Brown are all ideas, depending on your skin tone — I’ve used both M540 and M548 successfully on my own fair/light cool complexion) — they work really well! I’ve been known to use Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Radiant Light in the same places you’d use a contour powder, even though it’s too warm and shimmery to be an actual contour powder, and the effect is flattering on me, when I want a warmer look.
When I first became Rouge I had the makeover done at Sephora and was surprised that the MUA used HG Radiant for my contour. I was very pleased with how it looked.
Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Powder! My second favorite is to use the appropriate shades of the Make Up For Ever Artist eyeshadows as contours.
MAC STRADA…Know it’S DC’ed but it is my HG & I really wish they would repromit it!
I made my own contour palette because I couldn’t really find the right mix of shades in the premade ones. I have Sephora Tranquil for sculpting cheek bones with a cool grey toned shadow, Stila Puppy for nose contouring because it’s more neutral and grey toned contour doesn’t work well near the eyes, Ben Nye Contour #1 for darker shadows under the chin/jaw, and Too Faced Milk Chocolate Soleil (the lightest one) for warming up the perimeter of the face without getting too orangey.
I use both cream and powder contour products. I have to agree with the KA Sculpting Powder (in medium) and my latest love, Anastasia Beverly Hills cream stick in fawn. This replaced the MUFE Cream Contour palette in 01, which I do still like but it is a bit harder to blend than the ABH.
The KVD Shade and Light palette is my holy grail. The shade Sombre is my go-to.
I try a lot. lol
KA one is great. but for me, the best shade is Mac omega but it’s not best for application because of size of the pot and formula. (it’s pick up well on the brush) I also love Make Up Store in Masai but a tad bit too cool for nose contouring. I just brought MUFE M540 Gray Beige but still play around with it.
PS. I really love mac next to skin blush. also PERFECT shade for me and really hard to find any dupe. I hope MAC bring it back onec again because I almost out of it 🙁
I mean *It’s not pick up well*