Maybelline Master Contour Face Contouring Kits Review & Swatches!

Contour Kits! They seem to be on every shelf in the makeup aisles lately and everyone is going all out on this trend. From cream contouring to clown contouring to strobing and everything in-between. Contouring has taken the beauty community by storm and yes, I'm jumping on the bandwagon. I'm not spending hundreds of dollars trying to find the best contour palette and really I'm not interested in purchasing any from high-end brands besides Kat Von D (because I've heard killer things about the Shade + Light). However, when I saw Maybelline roll out their new products at the beginning of 2016 and heard that they were including the Master Contour Palettes I knew 100% that I was going to purchase them to try.

One of the greatest things about the drugstore over the last couple of months has been seeing how they are inventing new products and really focusing on putting unique products out to consumers. As far as I understand, Maybelline, Rimmel, Wet N Wild, and L'OReal are the only lines in the drugstore right now that carry contouring products (please correct me if I'm wrong). That being said contour products are extremely hard to find in the drugstore and many girls are getting confused. Bronzing is not contouring. Like me emphasize that! BRONZING IS NOT CONTOURING! Bronzing is the act of warming up the face to make it appear that you have a sunkissed glow. Contouring is the act of using a grey-based powder to slim down and deemphasis certain areas of the face. So while the drugstore carries plenty of bronzers and certain colors of bronzers can work as contour powder, they aren't the right product if you are going for a true contoured look. That's why I feel the drugstore is lacking in the contouring products.

So now that I've ranted about bronzing and contouring, let's get to the actual product review. The Maybelline Master Contour Face Contouring Kit (available at WalMart and Target along with many other retailers) come in two shades: Light to Medium and Medium to Dark. Each product comes in a really classic black Maybelline plastic case with a window so that you can clearly see the product inside. The package is sturdy and excellent for carrying around or for traveling. The product also comes with a small angled brush which is fairly soft and I've kept just in case but isn't something I use with the product on a regular basis. For me, the brush works good on small areas like contouring or bronzing the nose.

The first thing I want to point out is that I'm fairly pale and I generally reach for the lightest (to second lightest) foundation in a range. When purchasing this product, you would then assume I would need the Light to Medium shade and while that's partly true it's also partly wrong. I find that the blush and highlighter in the Light to Medium shade are the perfect match for me, but I find the bronzer/contour shade in the Medium to Dark palette to work especially well for my skin tone. In conclusion, I would really go down to the drugstore and see if you can swatch these products before choosing one or the other. If you can't, I'd recommend picking up both because I feel like most women will have the same issues I did with the color selection.

Another thing I want to point out about the shade selection is that those with medium to deeper skin tones might find it extremely hard to use the shades within both of these palettes. I wish that Maybelline would have come out with a third shade within this range for those ladies with deeper skin tones. Because Maybelline has such a great range of foundation and concealer shade, it shocks me that they didn't bring those deeper shades into a product like this.

Maybelline Master Contour Palette in Light to Medium:
Retails for $13.96 (CAN) at WalMart
As I said above, this palette is my favorite for both the blush and the highlight because they are the perfect colors and tones for my skin. The contour shade in this palette is a light orange based brown shade and reminds me a lot of the NYC Smooth Skin Bronzer in Sunny (which is also a favorite of mine). These types of shades work better for me in the Summer when I've been able to get a bit of a tan. The blush shade is a beautiful soft baby pink shade with a slight satin finish. This is the perfect shade of pink for my skin and gives me a really beautiful fresh-faced appearance. And finally, the highlighter shade is a pink based highlighting shade. The only thing with this shade is that it's a very subtle highlight and doesn't contain a lot of glitter or shimmer

I reach for this palette most often for the blush and find that this really is the standout product of the three shades. I wish the contour product was more grey-based to be your traditional contour powder (or the palette was labelled differently) and I wish the highlighter had much more shimmer and sheen.

Maybelline Master Contour Palette in Medium to Dark:
Retails for $13.96 (CAN) at WalMart
As for this palette, I prefer using it for the contouring shade which is really just a deeper version of the shade in the Light to Medium palette. I do find that this shade is a bit more orange but when blended out it doesn't look harsh or muddy. The blush in this palette is a beautiful shade of bright peach with a slight golden sheen. I love that this shade isn't flat and matte and gives some real dimension to the face. And of course, the highlighting shade in this palette is a pastel golden shade with again a very subtle shimmer and highlighting effect.

I reach for this palette most often for the contouring shade but again I wish this was a more grey-based product or was labeled appropriately. I would never use this shade as a contour product but love it as a bronzer. I do also enjoy the highlighter in this palette used as an eyeshadow when sprayed with some MAC Fix+.

So what's the verdict, Krystal?

For someone who doesn't own contour palettes or many contour products, I do feel like these have been great assets to my collection and they are something I love from a brand that I love. The only thing that I regret is the price point. At almost $14 they are extremely pricey for a drugstore product and if these were around the $10 mark I would absolutely recommend them. I also think that the labeling of the product really confuses me as a Makeup Artist.

As I said in the beginning, these are labeled as a 'contouring' product but yet they don't contain any contour powders and they only contain bronzers. For people who don't know the difference though this really won't be a huge issue but with the explosion of contouring within the beauty community I wish it was displayed right by Maybelline through these products. I'm happy I have these, I just wish some small changes would have been made to the products to make them great!

Have you tried the Maybelline Master Contour Palettes?
Are you loving them? Or are you still on the fence like me?