I got this a few months ago as a free gift with purchase from Paula's Choice. All of the reviews I've read of this palette have been glowing, but I don't love it, so I thought it might be worth putting a dissenting voice out there. We all know how much I like to be a dissenting voice.
Although it has the word "contour" in the name, it's not really a contouring palette in the same sense as others out there like the ones from Anastasia or NYX. It's really a blush palette with a highlighter and bronzer included. I think that the color of the bronzer would make it unsuitable for contouring on most people (more on that below), so really the only contouring product in here is the highlighter.
Heres an angle so you can get a better idea of the very smooth shimmer it contains. Though it looks slightly pink in the pan, the sheen is mostly just pearly with maybe a hint of yellow gold.
Now the worst part: the bronzer (Bronze). It's possible that this shade of bronzer would work for someone out there, but it is really awful on me. My skin tone is pretty neutral, leaning just slightly warm/yellow. This bronzer looks like dirt on my face. It's quite pigmented and not easy to blend, so it gets patchy, which only worsens the effect. The color is very brown, with a little red in it, which isn't good for me at all. I don't know if some people tan that color, but I certainly don't. Here it is compared to some other products I have for reference (left to right): Wet N Wild ColorIcon Bronzer in Princess, Tarte Park Avenue Princess, Paula's Choice Bronze, and NYX Blush in Taupe (which is not a bronzer, but works well for contouring pale skin since it's cool).
The Wet N Wild is warmer, maybe, but it's more of an orange-gold warmness than red, which makes it look less dirty on my face. Closer to an actual tan, I suppose. In the swatches, the Paula's Choice doesn't look so far off from the Tarte bronzer, but the Tarte works just fine for me - so that slightly cooler and slightly yellower color apparently makes a big difference. The nice thing about the Paula's Choice bronzer is that it has no shimmer in it, so on someone for whom the color worked, it would look more natural than a glittery bronzer. Presumably.
The blushes are somewhere in between the highlighter and the bronzer: they're okay, but they don't really work for me either. They have the same type of formula as the bronzer, i.e. matte, quite pigmented and difficult to blend smoothly. They are also all very warm and a little ruddy. They're just not colors I can use easily, and because they are all so warm, there isn't one in the bunch that I can really wear. Which isn't to say I can't ever wear coral or warm pink blushes - but not these ones. All of these, even Peony and Soft Mauve from the far right side of the palette - which look relatively cool next to the other two - are still too ruddy and just not flattering on me.
Top row: on the left, Delicate Coral; on the right, Peony:
Bottom row: on the left, Dusty Rose; on the right, Soft Mauve.
Delicate? Dusty? Soft? Not so much. See how, even though they look fairly different in the pans, they somehow look very similar on my skin? Not identical, but there's not exactly a great variety here. Disappointing.
The blushes cause the same problems with blending as the bronzer. Because they are quite pigmented and the colors are iffy to begin with, they create a blotchy, unnatural effect on my face. Blush is supposed to give you a healthy flush, but instead I end up looking sicker. The patchiness is worse if I wear moisturizer (or on days that my skin is particularly oily). In the photo below, I applied moisturizer to my arm and let it soak in for 10-15 minutes, and then swatched one of the blushes (unfortunately I didn't note which one, and they all look so similar that I can't tell what it is from the photo).
This is as smooth as I could blend it out with a nice, soft brush, and then it wouldn't budge. It's even worse on my face, because the skin on the inner side of my forearm here is smoother and less oily than the skin on my face. Primer doesn't seem to help. I would highly recommend using a stippling brush with these blushes, like the one e.l.f. sells for $3. That makes the application a million times easier, because it doesn't deposit all the blush in a couple of spots that you then have to blend out. In fact, I never really understood the point of a stippling brush until I used it with these blushes. I've never had a blush that applied like this. I get it now. On the plus side, the Paula's Choice blushes are quite long lasting, so if you can master the blending and want something that will stick, this is an option.
In the end, this palette was an interesting concept that really didn't work for me. I was excited about the vibrant colors, but I think they'd be better for someone with a different skin tone from mine (who also owns a stippling brush!). Warmer and maybe less pale? I considered keeping the whole palette just for the lovely highlighter, but I have enough other highlighters that are perfectly functional. At $38, I don't think it is worth buying for the little pan of highlighter alone (and I'm glad I didn't spend that money on it). My general experience is that while Paula's Choice makes great skin care products, their makeup is hit and miss and rarely worth the high prices.
I'm really curious how this might work for someone with different coloring from mine, so here's what I'm going to do. If you would like to try it and report back, I'd be happy to send it to you for the cost of shipping (in a small, flat rate USPS Priority box: $5.95, US only, Paypal). Send me an email at cheapasf AT gmail DOT com and it's yours. First come, first served! (Though I will send it to the second (or third or fourth) person who contacts me if I don't receive the shipping money within 48 hours of my responding to the first one.)
This palette doesn't really look very pretty in the pan; I don't think I would have given it a second look if I saw it on a shelf somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have bought it if it hadn't been a GWP, though I actually thought the colors looked interesting. Different from what I would normally choose - which is good when something's "free," I guess. But since I almost never use bronzer, I would have skipped it for $40.
DeletePatchy matte blush, no no no. That might be why I stuck with cream blush exclusively for so long- all the extra oil on my face helps it blend (is that gross? sorry). I actually do have that exact e.l.f. stipple blush and it works really, really well for very pigmented powder blushes.
ReplyDeleteI can't see myself ever seriously looking at a face palette. I'm too picky about colors and too unwilling to buy something with multiple shades unless I know for certain I like all of them. I am really curious about your bronzer collection, because as a fellow pale/neutral person I've never found a bronzer that didn't look like dirt on me- even cool toned contour shades just look like a light dusting of charcoal. The yellow tones in that Tarte swatch are very intriguing.
I think cream blushes blend better in general, not only on oily skin. The down side is that they don't last as long. At least on me they don't.
DeleteI agree that cream blushes are usually easier to blend, though I sometimes have problems with them interfering with my base. They aren't great over powder foundation, and they can sometimes mix weirdly with liquid foundation or remove it. It depends on the products and how I apply them. Usually I prefer powder blushes, because I find them faster to use and less fiddly. I've never really had this problem before. Even over moisturizer or oily skin, if I use a light touch and blend a lot, it's generally fine. But this stuff just clings to the first spot it touches and doesn't want to budge.
DeleteAs for my bronzer collection, I doubt it would be very useful, I'm afraid, because I almost never wear it. I liked that WNW one when I bought it a few years ago, but I haven't actually put it on my face recently, so I might have to revisit. I know I wouldn't have liked it when it was new if it looked dirty, though! The Tarte one was a sample card, but those cards last FOREVER, so if you can ever get your hand on one, it's worth trying. Made me look a little less dead but not dirty, which I assume is the general goal with bronzer. (The only other bronzers I have are from a Canadian brand called Quo and came in a holiday palette ca. 2004, so also not very helpful.)
I still haven't gotten to try mine, but this doesn't sound encouraging. I agree that Paula's Choice does skin care better than makeup. I think they focus on ingredients and let the color aspect slide. And that just doesn't work for color cosmetics.
ReplyDeleteI'm still intending to try the blush Pallet. So thank you stipling brush tip. I'm a bit darker then you, so maybe blushes would work better. Also I like the idea of using dark background to show color and texture or the highlighter. Those things are almost impossible to capture on bare skin.
I'm interested to know what you think when you try it! Like I said, all the other reviews I read were positive, so my experience doesn't seem universal. I wonder if it's mainly my coloring that is the problem here. If they were flattering on me, maybe the other issues wouldn't bother me as much.
DeleteHi there! I also got this palette as a gift (well, my husband got it as GWP when buying Paula's Choice stuff for my birthday), and I've been liking it so far. Especially the highlighter and bronzer--I think they look good on my face, although, as someone with neutral undertones, I seldom have a problem of things looking "off" (or so I delude myself, lol). I haven't tried the middle "column" yet, but I used the two on the right for the Jezebel Millihelen trick of applying a darker blush as contour and a lighter blush as blush. I liked the results actually--it looked quite natural. I find both blushes and the bronzer to be pretty blendable. I apply them on top of powder and blend with my huge fluffy Real Techniques powder brush.
ReplyDeleteI got this palette as a GWP too, but just by looking at the shades in the pan, I knew it was something I wouldn't use, so I put in my box of stuff to pass on. I used to like very bright blush shades in the past, but now I find them difficult to work with for every day, and for someone with my fair skin, the Paula's Choice blushes in this palette are positively scary. Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteThat's a very generous offer, and I WOULD take you up on it (hi, I own a stippling brush), but I have too much blush as is. I find cream blushes are the bane of my existence because of blending. Milani Rose line (those sculpted rose blushes) goes on easiest without patchiness no matter what brush I use.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how people have such different opinions about whether cream or powder blush is easier to blend! It must depend on skin type. I have been tempted by those Milani blushes in the past, but I haven't tried one. I have too much blush too.
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