Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette ($40.00 for 0.68 oz.) is a set of highlighting and contouring powders. Two shades are most obviously contouring powders, while the other two lend themselves as more highlighters, but very fair skin tones may find they still have some color. The palette is very, very powdery–the interior is always covered in excess powdery dust and sparkle, and it can be frustrating when you get excess from the darkest shade with the lightest shade or sparkle from the highlighting shade mixed with the contouring shades. It is chocolate scented, which is noticeable when applied but wanes after two to three hours. The powders have a very soft, silky consistency with the highlighter shade having noticeable sparkle. All four shades were pretty pigmented and the silkiness made them easy to work with on the skin, and luckily, they didn’t look powdery applied. I also wish brands that released a palette like this would consider releasing at least two or three variations–this is very warm-toned and more mid-tone, so a lot of skin tones get left out.

Light Cocoa is a light, yellowed beige with a satin finish. It is a very, very subtle highlighter that I could only see marginally in person, but it doesn’t appear in photos at all. For my skin tone, it was more useful to blend out edges of the contouring shades. The texture was powdery though silky, and it lasted for seven hours before breaking down. See comparison swatches / view dupes.

Medium Cocoa is a muted, medium-dark brown with subtle warm undertones and a semi-matte finish–there’s a smidgen of sheen but not a true satin or shimmery finish that ensures the powder looks natural but not flat on the skin. This looked more like a shadow that would fall on my face, though my guess is that it may be too warm-toned for those with rosier undertones. The texture was silky, very powdery, but blendable and easy to apply. It lasted for seven and a half hours before fading on me. See comparison swatches / view dupes.

Dark Cocoa is a medium-dark brown with warm, yellow and red undertones and a semi-matte finish. It had intense pigmentation and a little went a long way. The texture is very soft and powdery, so while blendable, it is harder to control the amount of product you apply. If you have medium or lighter skin, you may want to tap off excess prior to applying. This is a very, very warm-toned choice for contouring, which may work for those with a lot of golden undertones, but it is likely too warm to look like natural shadow on the face. It looks more like your typical bronzer as a result. On me, the color wears for almost eight hours before fading. See comparison swatches / view dupes.

Pop of Light is a light, peachy-beige with gold sparkle. It illuminates subtly, and then it just has a lot of larger sparkly bits that sit on the skin but don’t really do much as half of the sparkles get lost and the other half are randomly dispersed on the skin (and then travel during wear). I wish they had opted for a finer shimmer that contributed to the overall sheen of the underlying powder. It lasted for seven and a half hours on me before fading. See comparison swatches / view dupes.

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Too Faced Light Cocoa Highlighter

Too Faced Light Cocoa Highlighter

Too Faced Light Cocoa Highlighter

Too Faced Medium Cocoa Sculpting Powder

Too Faced Medium Cocoa Sculpting Powder

Too Faced Sculpting Powders

Too Faced Dark Cocoa Sculpting Powder

Too Faced Dark Cocoa Sculpting Powder

Too Faced Pop of Light Highlighter

Too Faced Pop of Light Highlighter

Too Faced Pop of Light Highlighter

Too Faced Cocoa Contour Chiseled to Perfection Palette

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder ($44.00 for 0.11 oz.) is a medium-dark taupe brown with subtle warmth and a mostly matte finish. Marc Jacobs Beauty Contour (P) is warmer. Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium (P) is a cream product. MAC Sculpt (P, $16.50) is warmer, lighter. MAC Coffee Walnut (LE, $20.00) is a cream product, slightly darker. See comparison swatches / view dupes.

After falling in love with Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo, it seemed imperative to test drive the powder version of the contouring shade. It’s a very shadowy contour, so for those who have bemoaned the plethora of warmer bronzes and feel like there is too much orange in other products marketed as contouring powders, this might be a great option. It reads warmer in tone in the pan and swatched, but even against my warmer undertones, it read shadowy, cool-toned, and very much like a true contouring shade. The product is incredibly pigmented, and a little goes a long way. The first time I applied it, the contour was deeper and more dramatic than I anticipated, so less is more with this one. It had a silky, smooth, and blendable texture that applied nicely and sat well on the skin. The contour wears well for eight hours before fading slightly.

I wish the brand also had a light and deep option, because I bet they could nail the right variation in color and undertone so it could fit a wider spectrum of skin tones. I’d also like to see a price reduction, because when they changed packaging, they reduced significantly (0.23 oz. to 0.11 oz.) without reducing the price–the product is so, so good but knowing it used to be double the size for the same price is hard to overlook.

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Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Medium The Sculpting Powder

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo ($28.00 for 0.16 oz.) is a highlighting and contouring set of shades in a cream formula. I think this will be nice on medium and fairer skin tones, with it being subtler on medium-dark skin tones. The contouring shade may be too subtle on deeper skin tones, though the highlight should be lovely. I was impressed by the long-wear, because both shades have a creamy, thin, emollient consistency that just doesn’t seem like something that would have any longevity, but there they were, nearly eight hours later with both color and a light sheen. (I have normal skin at the moment, for reference.) The contouring shade just made me long to try The Sculpting Powder to see how it works with the Celestial Powder. My only complaint is that actual pans are quite small, and it was difficult to use any of my angled contouring brushes as they were all oversized. I ended up flattening my brushes between my fingers and focused on getting the product primarily on one side of the brush.

Sculpting Medium is a medium-dark brown with yellow undertones and a subtle gray overtone with a satin-matte finish.
Kevyn Aucoin Tropical Days (P, $48.00) is much more shimmery, powder. MAC Matte Bronze (LE, $70.00) is warmer. MAC Sculpt (P, $16.50) is warmer, powder. Too Faced Chocolate Soleil (P) is powder. MAC Pure Sculpture (LE, $20.00) is warmer. Becca Lowlight (P, $38.00) is warmer. MAC Coffee Walnut (LE, $20.00) is more olive, darker. See comparison swatches / view dupes.

Candlelight is a champagne gold with a luminous sheen and very, very fine shimmer. It translates to a dewy glow on the skin that works as well on bare skin as it did layered over foundation (even when already set with powder). Burberry Nude Radiance No. 01 (P, $48.00) is sheerer. MAC Born to Dazzle (LE) is more sparkly. Chanel Camelia de Plumes (LE, $76.00) is cooler-toned. Tarte Champagne (LE) is warmer. NARS 413 BLKR (P, $30.00) is more metallic, warmer. Giorgio Armani Belladonna (LE, $88.00) is a smidgen warmer. Kevyn Aucoin Candlelight (P, $44.00) is lighter (I think the effect is similar, but the cream version runs more golden). Becca Moonstone (P, $38.00) is similar but a powder. theBalm Solid Gold (P, $24.00) is more metallic. Illamasqua Aurora (P, $24.00) is a smidgen less golden. See comparison swatches / view dupes.

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Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo

Kevyn Aucoin Sculpting Medium/Candlelight The Creamy Glow Duo