For those of you who aren’t well-versed in contouring, it’s a makeup technique that involves enhancing the shape of your face by adding shade and light in the right places. To accentuate your best features, you must take to contour formulations – available in liquid, cream, and powder form – and adopt the correct technique for a razor-sharp, sculpted look. However, cheekbone-carving products can be tricky to master. So, before you attempt to ace the complex skill of contouring, you must settle for a formulation that’ll suit your skin best.
How to Pick the Right Contour Product For Your Skin
When narrowing down on a contouring product, bear in mind the shade and texture of the formulation. For instance, a defined, dewy appearance calls for a cream-based contour stick. Cream finishes are subtler when compared to powder and are great if you have dry skin. Meanwhile, powder variants are ideal if you possess greasy skin that runs the risk of melting off makeup. As for the hue, a contour product shouldn’t be more than a shade or two darker than your foundation. Work your contour along the edges of your forehead and under the cheeks and jawline to add drama and dimension.
Contour Palettes and Sticks We’re Obsessed With
High-Resistance Cream Contour
Rating: 3.8
Price: INR 450
This high-performance face sculptor has a luscious, creamy texture that delivers a semi-matte, satin finish. The super-blendable formula also doesn’t clog your pores or accentuate your skin texture. Whether you're an amateur or a makeup professional, LAMEL’s BB Contour is easy to use.
Worth the Splurge Contour Palette
Rating: 4.5
Price: INR 4,790
Featuring six highly-pigmented, versatile shades to sculpt, bronze, and highlight, Smashbox’s The Cali Contour Palette is the only product you need to own for a lit-from-within glow. The cruelty-free palette boasts a blush, three matte powders, and two pearlescent powders for a chiselled complexion.
Clean Beauty Contour Stick
Rating: 3.5
Price: INR 3,500
Nudestix’s bestselling offering, the Tinted Blur Sculpt Stick, is vegan, synthetic fragrance-free, paraben-free, phthalate-free, and sulphate-free. Available in three shades for fair to dusky skin tones, the contour stick lends a natural finish with brightening pigments that blend with your complexion. Go in with a dot and stripe skin-sculpting approach with this cream-to-powder formula.
Professional Contour Palette
Rating: 4.4
Price: INR 2,199
Enhance your bone structure with the stroke of a brush using Character Pro’s Contour Powder Palette. While the deeper shades define the angles of your face, the lighter shades highlight your best features. A dual-purpose palette for all your makeup needs!
Moisturising Contour Stick
Rating: 4.3
Price: INR 725
Get sky-high cheekbones with this celebrity-approved contour stick, enriched with marula oil, vitamin C, and antioxidants to retain your skin’s moisture. Gliding on like butter, the Kay Beauty Contour Stick comes in three shades for all Indian skin tones and will make your cheekbones pop.
2-in-1 Contour Palette
Rating: 4.1
Price: INR 429
Ace contouring and highlighting with this highly pigmented cream contour palette that lends a flawless demi-matte finish. In the MARS Agory Contour Palette, opt for two shades darker than your skin tone and swipe along your cheekbones, hairline, and jawline for a super-sculpted look.
Buildable and Blendable Cream Contour
Rating: 4.5
Price: INR 3,950
Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood Contour Wand is a lightweight, seamlessly blendable and buildable formula that is vegan, gluten-free, paraben-free, sulphate-free, and cruelty-free. Ideal for a natural contour, the formulation’s pigments boast adherence and colour uniformity for a striking and well-defined look.
Longlasting Contour Palette
Rating: 4.6
Price: INR 2,995
As a beauty editor, I can vouch for the PAC Spotlight Contour Palette. It lends instant colour payoff, and the mix of contouring and highlighting shades leaves you with a flawless, chiselled finish. For naturally enhanced razor-sharp features, purchase this product today.
Dual-Purpose Contour Stick
Rating: 4.1
Price: INR 695
Makeup Revolution’s Fast Base Contour Stick is your perfect travel companion, owing to its portability and versatility. The velvety texture of the contour and highlighter ensures no streaks are left behind while lifting, sculpting, and brightening the high points of your face.
Velvety Contour Palette
Rating: 4.2
Price: INR 749
Nykaa’s Contour & Conquer palette includes a contour and a highlighter, boasting a silky-smooth formulation. With the help of a brush, apply the contour along your jawline, on the sides of the nose, under your cheekbones, and along the edge of your forehead. Use the highlighter powder on the bridge of your nose, along your cupid’s bow, brow bones, cheekbones, and chin, for final touches.
