Laura Mercier Contour Palette Review

I've done a fair few posts on contouring recently, but the lure of a new contouring palette means it's time for one more! Laura Mercier is a brand I often think of when it comes to fantastic natural makeup - they seem to produce products that enhance your natural look, rather than mask them and the new contour palette* definitely continues that theme.

Inside the palette are three different shades of cream contour plus two shades of cream highlighters. Now, the first time I saw this palette, I freaked out a bit at how dark the shades are. Even the lightest one screamed 'contour fail' to me, but after being given a demo by the lovely Sasha from LM, I let out a deep breath and relaxed.

The palette has been designed to work with pretty much every skin tone, even super pale ones like mine. In the palette the shades look pretty deep, but with a light touch and a bit of blending, they'll take you from flat faced to chiseled cheekbones with minimal effort.

Because these are creams, they're best applied with a brush - using your fingers can make it easy to be heavy handed and end up with the dreaded contour stripe from hell. Use a slanted brush that's designed for creams (something with denser packed bristles) and dab a small amount onto the brush. Apply this just under your cheekbone in a gentle line. Once applied, take a softer brush and buff upwards to remove any harsh lines and voila! Cheekbones ahoy.

The highlighters can be dabbed on with either a brush or your fingers - I quite like to use a finger for these to get a slightly dewy look. The champagne shade is the better fit for paler skins, while the bronzy one is great for medium-dark tones, but there's no reason you can't experiment with both or even blend them together.

As the products are all cream texture, I'd recommend setting them in place with  a small amount of translucent powder to help them wear all day. Without this, you might find you need a little top up mid-afternoon.

I love the fact that there are a few tips and tricks cards included within the palette itself - these come in really handy if you're not quite sure how to make the most of your palette.

At £35 I think this is a decent value palette, especially from a high end brand like Laura Mercier. It's great to have the shade choice all in one place and although I will mostly use the lighter shades, it's definitely something i'll be keeping in my makeup bag for the forseeable future!

You can find the Laura Mercier contour palette exclusively at Harrods until mid-February when it launches across counters.

Do you like the look of this palette?

*PR sample