Contouring with Crownbrush | The Palette

As of January, I became Head of Make-up Artistry and Social Media Manager for one of my all-time favourite brands Crownbrush UK. Now, since working here the ONE product that everybody literally goes nuts over is this 10 Colour Concealer Palette. I must receive hundreds of messages weekly asking about this product, so I wanted to test it out for myself to see what all the fuss was about. 

The 10 Colour Concealer Palette has become more widely known as the Crownbrush “Contour”  Palette. Ever since Kim Kardashian posted on her Instagram that infamous picture of her glowing, contoured skin, this technique has become incredibly popular. I have previously done a post on this technique which you can read here but I thought I would do an updated version today using this palette. 

First of all, let’s discuss the packaging – simple, matte black casing suitable to throw in your professional make-up bag or even in the drawer of your dressing table. It has a very professional feel about it and I would definitely be happy to put this in my kit. 

There is an array of both pink and yellow undertones throughout the shades available, making this palette suitable for a wide range of skin colours. This is what I like about this piece of kit, as some palettes I have used in the past have generally been yellow based so it’s great to have a good colour selection. It also means you can custom make your own blends really easily by mixing  2 or more of the shades together. The pan size of each shade is really generous considering the bargain price of £16.99. 

As for the texture, with it being concealer, it is quite thick but has a creamy consistency. This means you will only need a little bit and therefore this palette should last quite a while. The finish is cream to powder, so it will give you a matte finish. If you want to add some radiance you could always mix in something like M.A.C Strobe Cream. As for the coverage – I would say definitely full coverage, so if you prefer the natural look, try mixing it in with your favourite moisturiser. It feels really lightweight on my skin, and is really long lasting! I didn’t need to powder whilst wearing this and by the end of the day had a lovely glow about my skin.

Here you can see where I have mapped out the contour and highlight, in comparison to other contouring attempts I have seen this is quite low key. I always contour my beak aka the nose and hollow out my cheek bones. The general guide to contouring is to choose one shade 2-3 shades darker than your natural skin tone for the “contour” and then a shade 2-3 shades lighter for the “highlight”. I custom blended my own shades from the palette and was really impressed with the tones when I applied them to my skin. The concealer blended beautifully and did not look too heavy. 

I then blended the concealer together using a large C406 Duo Fibre brush from Crownbrush and set it in place with my favourite Illamasqua Translucent Loose Setting Powder. I finished off the rest of my face with the usual blush, eyeshadow, mascara and da daaa. 

Contouring is not something I would bother doing every day, simply because I do not believe you need to. I like to contour when I am going somewhere special, maybe a night out with the girls, or a posh dinner with the boy. It really mind boggles me seeing all these girls post pictures of their pristinely contoured faces to pop to the shops – silly beans. A bit of bronzer does the trick for me day to day, so when I do come to do my make-up for a night out it feels more of a treat and like I am making that extra effort with the contoured look. 

So, this post was the first part to my Contouring with Crownbrush series, my next post will cover which make-up brushes to use. If you would then like to see “daytime” and “night time” contouring tutorials leave me a comment below and I will put something together for you. 

Just before I leave I have a little somethin’ somethin’ for you guys in the form of a 10% discount code! All you need to do is type in FINMS2014 at the checkout! This code is available throughout the entire month of March!! Shop Now.