Hey everyone!
Today I will be reviewing the SOSU Contour palette. I've heard some negative reviews on this palette and to be honest I'm not sure why. I simply love it. I feel like people dislike this because they don't know exactly how to use it. Which I completely understand, I mean contour is tricky enough to begin with!
Like anything, this is all practice and finding your style and what suits your face shape the best. This will take time and a lot of practice! Believe me, I did have those big orange lines when contouring was first introduced to the public about two years ago. I say 'introduced to the public' because contouring has been around as long as makeup has. We just didn't know it. This is the method drag queens use to change the shape of their face/enhance their features.
So back to basics. Contouring is creating shadows on your face. It is where our face is naturally hollow. So your cheek bones, as everyone knows, has a natural hollow, you just need to find it. Some people have lovely prominent cheek bones already and don't have to look for them. Some people have more meat on their face, like myself, I had chubbier cheeks growing up and my jaws still stand to me haha! So I actually have to press into my face to find my cheek bone and where it hollows. You can do this or also do the duck face and pout it out. The general rule is to find your hollow of your cheek and contour from the top of your ear to the start of your eye. So not even half way across your cheek. I will demo this in another blog post.
Highlighting is where you want to extenuate the features on your face and make them stand out. Here we use a lighter/paler colour. You generally want to highlight down the center of your face. However, if you are not comfortable with a certain feature on your face, we all have that one thing we don't like which is sad but for the most part true, then do not highlight that area and it will draw attention to that area. For example, I feel like I have a massive forehead, maybe I don't but I think I do. So I don't highlight this AS much as I highlight my nose and chin. I do highlight it but a very small amount. I actually contour a bronze up my forehead to give the appearance of a smaller/shorter forehead.
You see lads contouring is all an illusion. It's just about creating shadows and shapes on the face which can actually change your entire look.
You do not have to contour at all by any means but in my opinion I think it is nice as it gives shape and dimension to the face. I always contour and highlight myself and on my clients. You can contour using cream products and also powder products.
The SOSU palette has a mixture of creams and powders but I would still label this as a cream contour kit. As you can see inside you get 3 cream highlight and contour shades, 1 cream illuminator and 2 powders. I'm going to talk you through each individual pan and let you know my thoughts on it.
I'm actually going to start with shade number 4. As you can see it's like a mixture of shade 1 & 2. It's not really a highlight and it's not really a contour. However if you have a darker skin tone it actually is a lovely highlight.
So girls, I do my eyebrows, my eye makeup and then my foundation, concealer and then cream contour. A lot of product I know but that's just me. I would use shade 4 as a foundation on it's own so you can apply this all over your face as your base. I would also use this to clean up any contour lines that I created with shade 2. This will all be more clear in my next blog post which will be a demo of this. If you are going to use shade 4 as your foundation then you need to prep the skin.
This is a cream product so it's extremely thick and has oils in it. If you have oily skin you will need to prep and prime your face. I would suggest using a mattifying primer. Then you need to set that cream in place before it goes all oily. I would recommend using a loose powder, I personally use baby powder to set my makeup. Then I would set it also with a makeup setting spray. You will have to touch up throughout the day with some blotting paper or powder but I don't mind doing that.
I really do like shade 4 as a foundation as it is full coverage and extremely pigmented. All of the creams are super pigmented which is what I love most about this palette. A little bit of product goes a long way so don't go too heavy handed with it.
Next I'm going to talk about shade 1 which is our highlight shade. As you can see this is a very pale shade which is good for us pale Irish! As mentioned before this is super pigmented and creamy so this will need to be set in place with a powder and/or setting spray. A tiny bit goes a massive way! This would also be a great foundation if you're very pale. It is also a great concealer and if you ever want to carve out your eye brows or do a cut crease. This is a multi purpose palette which is another great feature and why I love this palette.
Now shade 2 scares people. I know I get it, it's very dark and it is extremely pigmented. This is the part that you are all scared of. This again will be more clear in my demo but for now I would say use a little bit. You only need a very small amount to make this product work. With shade 2 I find that you need to work fast as this is so thick and pigmented it can be hard to blend out. But just stick at it, keep practicing and use a very light handed amount. If you have a darker skin tone this is also a beautiful foundation.
Shade 5 is a beautiful cream illuminator which you can use on the tops of your cheek bones, nose and lip. Again this will be more clear in the demo but I do really like this. It gives such a beautiful golden glow to the face and is a fantastic base for any powder highlighters you may use.
Shade 3 is my least favorite. I honestly do not like this powder and I will probably never use it. I don't find it does the job well. It definitely does not set my makeup in place or keep me from getting oily. I really wouldn't rate this powder but sure look it's only one!
Shade 6 is a beautiful bronzer. I would not use shade 6 for contouring as suggested because it is simply too warm and orange for contouring. As mentioned contouring is to create shadows on the face so you want a sort of grey/brown ashy under tone in your contour. But I do like this as a matte bronzer.
My plan is to wear fake tan so that I can show you how to use this palette when you have a tan and then to also show you how to make it work when you have a paler skin tone. As you all may know I am currently sick so that demo should be up soon. I would love to get it done tomorrow but we'll see how we go.
So I want to talk about the palette overall. This costs €30 and is available in Sam McCauleys Dungarvan for sure! For €30 you get 6 shades so that's €5 a pan which is not bad at all. The pan sizes are massive and as I said a little bit goes a long way. You will 100% get your moneys worth out of this. Now Sue has included a step by step tutorial inside the palette which I think is a brilliant idea but everyone has their own styles and it does take practice but at least there is a guide there for you to follow.
Another great aspect of this palette is how lightweight it is. It is very thin and light and as mentioned it is definitely a multi-use palette so perfect for travelling or anything like that. The packaging is lovely and Sue has created online tutorials for us to watch on YouTube so a lot of thought, time and effort has gone into this product which I like to see.
You can probably tell by now that I do really like this palette. I don't always cream contour but when I do, this is the only palette I reach for and trust me, I have plenty out there!
Like you, I was skeptical about this so my cousin gave me hers to try out before I purchased and I'm glad I did. I hope you found this talk through helpful and I will be posting a step by step demo on the blog including photos and even more tips.
I would recommend you purchase the double-ended foundation brush from Penneys it's like €2 and also the beauty sponge from Real Techniques. That is how I apply this product and that is what I'll be using in the demo and that is all I use anyway!
If you have this palette, let me know your thoughts! I'd love to hear what you think and should you need any help with it just keep an eye out for the demo, that should answer all your questions. So yes, I would recommend this palette to a friend but I would also show them how to use it first!
Hope you enjoyed!
Thanks for reading!Xx
