Barry M Chisel Cheeks Contour Kit is a great place to start if you fancy trying your hand at contouring without spending big bucks on high end palettes like Anastasia Beverley Hills Pro Series or Laura Mercier Contouring Palette. It includes three matte powder shades to bronze, contour and highlight with a simple to follow guidelines to explain how it all works. All three shades are well pigmented, soft and blendable.
The light shade is a matte cream that adds light without shimmer, unlike most contour kits which do include a sheen at least (Barry M has shimmer and glitter covered elsewhere if that’s what you’re after). This can also be used to dust all over the face like a standard powder if you wish, though personally I think it’s best use is to blend out the edges of the darker shades, or use all over them to tone down the colour if you’ve gone overboard (who, me?).
The middle shade is a warm medium bronze, neutral enough to suit many skin tones and could be used as a blush replacement for a subtle make-up look.
The cool toned dark shade is my favourite of the three, the perfect contour shade that actually creates the effect of natural shadows on the cheeks. Kevin Aucoin and Chanel have created great cooltoned contour products in similar tone, with even more shadowy grey undertone, but the price and performance of this make it a great alternative.
My favourite contouring combo is the darkest shade of Barry M Chisel Cheeks as contour with Clinique Chubby Stick Sculpting Highlight where the light catches naturally, on tops of cheek bones and brow bones. You can read more about Clinique’s contour kit in yesterday’s post.
While I think it’s great that these new kits make contouring more accessible to everyone, my only concern is that people will overdo it and end up looking ridiculous. At least with Barry M’s version, you won’t break the bank in the process! If you can’t wait until launch date to get chiselling, have a go with a cool greyish brown eye shadow like MAC Omega.
Barry M Chisel Cheeks, £6.49 launches into Boots on 4 February and Superdrug 11 February 2015.
