Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit Review

The Product: Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit

Price: $40

Quantity: 3.0 g/ 0.11 Oz. each powder pan

The palette comes with 6 different contour and highlighting powders.

Pigmentation: 10/10 As pictured below, the swatches show how pigmented the powders are with just one swipe. Although pigmented, it's not with difficulty to apply each powder either in a subtle way or intensely.

Longevity: 10/10 Though these powders are not at all waterproof or smudge proof they adhere to the skin just like any powder and last moderately well through out the day. However, it wouldn't hurt to apply a fixing or setting spray as added assurance.

Application: 9/10 It was easy to apply and blend the powders once applied to the desired areas of the face. The powders are not at all powdery or chalky and are velvety smooth to the touch.

Swatches: (Left to Right) Vanilla, Banana, Sand, Java, Fawn, Havana

Packaging: Sturdy black card board with strong magnet to keep the metal powder pans in place. There's no mirror in this palette, which may or may not be a good thing. Personally, I don't mind that the palette does not have a mirror because it gets dirty anyway and quite frankly it would only pose as a challenge to apply these powders on my face with a small mirror. 

I like that the name of each powder is written on the back of the pan, so there's no mystery in trying to figure out which is which.

Overall: I really like these contour and highlight powders. The contouring powders gives the most natural looking contour whenever I use it since they are of matte finish. The highlight powder Sand is pretty and the only one with shimmer finish. It reminds me of a powder version of Benefit's High Beam with it's pink undertone (but more subtle).
I barely use the Vanilla powder although this would be good matte highlighter. My favorite powder is hands down Banana because it's great for highlighting and brightening under my eye areas. It reminds me of Ben Nye Banana powder except this is the pressed form.
Moreover, I like the convenience of reaching for one makeup palette and having the different powders for contouring and highlighting all in there.

How I use it: After applying my foundation and/or concealer, I then set with my face powder. Then I lightly dip my brush into all three contouring powders and apply them onto the sides of my cheeks, outer parts of my forehead, jawline, and sides of my nose bridge. Using a small brush, I take Banana and apply that under my eye areas. I take the highlighting shade in Sand and apply it on the high points of my cheeks, under by brows, nose bridge, and a little bit above my eye brows or forehead area. As I mentioned earlier, you can use Vanilla instead of Sand or maybe even mix the two for highlight.

I would definitely re-purchase this palette in a heart beat!