Beauty Trends – Cream Contour

I have talked before about how I contour and highlight using powders, but right now what’s really hot is cream contour palettes. I recently got the 06CF Cream Foundation/Highlight Palette from Morphe Brushes ($18.99) and I can’t believe that no one has been talking about this palette!! I can’t find many reviews or YouTube videos talking about it AT ALL! This palette contains 6 huge cream pans 5 are foundation/highlight for very light people like myself and 1 is a contouring shade. The contouring shade is still somewhat warm and very intimidating in the palette, but it looks nice blended out. What I did was I took the contouring shade and mixed it with a lighter shade on the back of my hand before applying it. I also used the foundation/creams as concealer as well to really put this palette to the test and while it could definitely cover up darkness and discoloration, it was too creamy to wear under the eyes and would crease up super quickly. I started with a bare face, mapped out where I was going to put my highlight and contour, then blended out the highlight first then the contour using my damp BeautyBlender. After that I applied Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. I set the contour with Bahama Mama by The Balm which is a powder bronzer/contour color and set the highlighted areas with my Ben Nye Luxury Powder in Cameo. I have talked about the Ben Nye Luxury Powder in Banana before as it is super popular because of Kim Kardashian, but Cameo is a great shade for us fair girls so we don’t look like we have jaundice.

Also if you’re wondering, this is the difference between an iPhone 5 front camera and my Canon Rebel T3i.

I always shy away from cream blushes and contours because I don’t think I have the skills necessary to blend them and just assume they will make my face look muddy and dirty, but these Morphe creams were very easy to blend out and I think they stayed where they’re supposed to be. I’ve seen demos of the Anastasia Beverly Hills cream contour products and everyone is having to blend for what seems like years to get those products to look blended. Speaking of…

If you follow any beauty gurus on YouTube or Instagram you know that the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Cream Kit has landed and everyone “really likes them.” Anastasia is a genius and she sends these PR packages out and gets the cheapest advertising ever when the IG celebs post about it and all of her products keep selling out like crazy. Obviously I’m jealous and want to get new fun makeup in the mail to play with! The kits were released online on 2/17/15 (and are sold out) and they come in Light/Medium, Medium/Tan, and Tan/Deep with a Fair kit on the way. They will be in Macy’s Impulse stores on 3/15/15. They have 3 highlighting shades and 3 contouring shades. I’ve watched a lot of reviews and demos of this kit and people are saying the same thing- the contour shades are way too warm they’re more bronzers than true contour colors. Too warm means they have orange undertones vs. gray or ashy undertones. A gray or ashy undertone looks more like a “shadow” which is what you’re trying to create when contouring. Then again, as far as beauty trends go a bold contour is pretty on trend right now so I don’t think having dark orange lines down your cheeks is as much of a beauty sin as it once was. Here’s a picture from @anastasiabeverlyhills/@naye0na with swatches:

And my much less fancy swatches of the Morphe 06CF Foundation/Highlight Cream Contour Palette:

You can see there’s a nice range of pink, yellow, and neutral undertones.

Here’s a picture showing the difference between the Morphe 06CF Foundation/Highlight Palette and the Anastasia Beverly Hills powder contour palette (I think the cream will be a similar size):

Here’s some other brands that have come out with cream contour palettes:

Cover FX Contour Kit is $48 and exclusive to Sephora. The nice one about this product is that there are 6 different skin shades to choose from.

The Laura Mercier Flawless Contouring Palette is $50 and comes with 3 cream contour shades and 2 cream highlights (the bottom right color is actually a highlight). I like the biggest contour color because it looks super neutral.

The Becca Lowlight.Highlight Perfecting Palette is $42 and contains a natural shadowing cream with a  Shimmering Skin Perfector luminizer cream. I haven’t heard anyone talk about this which is kind of crazy seeing as how popular Becca powder highlighters are right now. This one definitely leaves out any confusion of figuring out where every color is supposed to go haha.

The Stila Shape & Shade Custom Contour Duo is $40 and comes in light, medium and dark (see below).


If you’re going to order anything from Sephora.com be sure to use Ebates to get 4% cash back. That money can add up quickly in your PayPal account if you are an avid online shopper 😉

My girl Mally Roncal has an online only Mally Beauty Pro Tricks  Correcting Palette is $40 and comes in this lighter shade (shown above) as well as a deeper shade. Ebates also has 3% cash back at Ulta.com … just sayin’.

The Motives Mavens Sculpt Series is $35 and comes with 4 “creme foundations.” The palette is available in Fire (warm/yellow undertones) and Ice (cool/pink undertones). Ebates has 7% cash back at Motives Cosmetics btw.


For funsies I’ve included an ultra high end one- The Tom Ford Shade & Illuminate Highlighter & Shader Duet at a cool $80 for 0.49oz. this comes in 2 different “intensities.” And Ebates also has 6% cash back at Nordstrom which you’re gonna need if you buy this big boy.

If you’re trying to cream contour on a budget the City Color Cosmetics Contour & Correct Palette is on sale for $14.99 and contains 4 color correctors that can reduce redness, discoloration, dark spots or circles and the contour shades come in both warm and brown shades.

The NYX 3C Conceal Correct Contour Palette is only $11.99 and so far I have seen pretty good reviews for it. It comes in 3 different shades.

If you’re wondering what the difference is between cream and powder contour products, cream products are more natural looking and can be used under or over foundation. Cream products should, however, definitely be set with a powder counterpart in order to keep them in place. Or at least that’s how the beauty industry has convinced us we need twice the products ;).

I’m sure there are many more cream contour palettes out right now, did I miss any good ones? Are you on the cream contouring bandwagon? What’s your favorite?

Have you seen my post on another big beauty trend- liquid lipsticks? Want to know what to buy at Sephora?

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