Kat Von D recently released the Shade & Light Contour palette that was hotly anticipated by beauty gurus, makeup artists and the everyday makeup lover looking to achieve the contouring techniques made famous by movie stars and models. Lets face it, contouring and highlighting is one of the most watched videos on YouTube and this trend is not going away anytime soon. I mean, who wouldn't want to look ten pounds lighter without giving up your favourite snacks or even setting foot in a gym? As an Artist by nature, the Kat Von D shades are expected to take this technique to another level with three matte highlighting shades and three matte contouring shades designed to suit most skin tones
Front Packaging
Back Packaging
The actual package mirrors the box expect the lettering is raised and very pronounced
The name of each shade is not written below each shade so the back of the package will be the reference to name each shade
Also included is a sheet that contains instructions on how to use the shade to achieve sculpted cheek bones, chin and nose
Top Row: Lucid, Lyric, Levitation Bottom Row: Sombre, Shadowplay, Subconscious
The highlighting shades comes in a range of tones with Lucid having a more pink undertone for very fair skin, Lyric with a yellow undertone for more olive/tan skin and Levitation with a peach undertone for tan to deeper skin tone The contour shades corresponds to the highlighter shades with Sombre having a greyer tone for more fair skin tones, Shadowplay for olive/tan skin and Subconscious for more deep skin tones. The contour shades has a bit more variety as they can be mixed and combined to create the perfect shade or used in different places on the face to create the desired level of contour(ness)
FAIR: Swatched over Make Up For Ever 110 Foundation
OLIVE: Swatched over Make Up For Ever 123 Foundation
TAN: Swatched over Make Up For Ever 173 Foundation
DEEP: Swatched over Make Up For Ever 180 Foundation
Viseart is a brand that has been a mainstay in the makeup kits of top celebrity, editorial and film makeup artists around the world. The palettes are created in Paris using the highest quality pigments in small batches to ensure product integrity and consistent quality. What was once an elusive brand with a cult following has now become widely available and within the hands of the everyday woman thanks to online store Sephora. Their are four eye shadow palettes available on the Sephora website but has remained sold out for months! The eyeshadows are highly rated by those that manages to get these palettes for their pigmentation, blend ability and staying power. Not to mention the myriad of nude neutral tones in both cool and warm undertones that offers a variety of looks from polished everyday looks to high fashion looks.
Sultry Nude 05 & Neutral Matte 01
The palette are very versatile with the matte shades being used to fill in brows as well as highlighting and shading the face, a trend that has made its way from film sets into everyday makeup application.
The palettes come in a sleek hard plastic case which is an upgrade to a their much bulkier cases. The clear plastic allows you to see which palette it is without opening. Each palette comes with 12 eyeshadows with colours in the Neutral Matte palette ranging from neutral beige to warm browns to cool taupe and grey tones and the Sultry Muse shades having warmer satin to metallic shades.
Neutral Matte 01
The 01 Neutral Matte palette: Cannelle, Beige, Sable, Ivoire, Chocolat, Brique, Taupe, Café, Charbon, Souris, Cendre, and Tabac shades
Top Row: Cannelle, Beige, Sable, Ivoire
Center Row: Chocolat, Brique, Taupe, Café
Bottom Row: Charbon, Souris, Cendre, and Tabac
Paris Muse 05
The 05 Sultry Muse palette: Yves, Camille, Kifu, Gitte, Tym, Jori, CIndi, Chantille, Chloé, Melonié, Diane, and Ceska shades
I did a review for this palette yesterday. Here are some pics of a look created using the Too Faced Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar Palette in addition to the video.
Last year around this time Too Faced Cosmetics released their Chocolate Bar palette to rave reviews and became one of the year's must have palettes. The original Chocolate bar palette not only came with 16 user friendly shades that was dominated by neutrals but also included some colours. I actually use the word colour very loosely here as we are referencing to the shades 'Strawberry Bon Bon,' 'Candied Violet' and 'Cherry Cordial.' But that is the thing that makes the Chocolate Bar palettes a bit different from all the other 'neutral' palettes on the market. Oh, that and the fact that the palettes actually do smell like chocolate (they're made with real cocoa powder) and the aroma is still present even after almost a year.
Now comes the new Too Faced Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar palette and you can already see why the excitement would be present when word got out about its release. It takes many of the traits from the original Chocolate Bar palette as in:
7 Matte shades
7 Shimmery shades
2 Glitter shades
14 smaller shadows
2 larger shadows
A dash of 'colour'
The sweet aroma of chocolate
Pics & Swatches
Front of the package
Back of the package
Hard case package
Notice the names written on the palette
Top Row L-R: Licorice, Coconut Creme, Nougat, Truffled & Hot Fudge
The new Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar palette comes with a black shade 'Licorice' which was much needed in the original palette so is a welcome addition to this palette. Coconut Creme is very similar to White Chocolate from the original palette only slightly more yellow. There are more cool toned eyeshadows in the new palette including 'Nouget,' 'Puddin,' 'Mousse' and 'Rum Raisin' which also contributes to the difference in feel of the new palette.
My fav shadow upon first look was 'Pink Sugar' but was a huge disappointment when swatched. The worse! 'Blueberry Swirl'was also very disappointing when swatched. 'Peanut Butter' on the other hand was very smooth and buttery (pun intended) but just a deeper shade of 'Salted Caramel' from the original palette. It is among the warmer shades in the palette which is still the dominant tone in the palette.
Bottom RowL-R: Rum Rasin, Mousse, Caramel, Bon Bon and Butter Pecan
I like that the shadows are not organized in any particular way so it gives the user freedom of creativity. However, if you require a little more guidance to create looks, a Glamour Guide booklet is provided.
Original Chocolate Bar Palette Top Row L-R: Gilded Ganache, White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Black Forest Truffle & Triple Fudge Second Row L-R: Salted Caramel, Marzipan, Semi-Sweet, Strawberry Bon Bon, Candied Violet & Amaretto Bottom Row: Hazelnut, Creme Brûlée, Haute Chocolate, Cherry Cordial & Champagne Truffle
The new packaging is much sleeker but contains roughly the same amount of product
Top: Original Chocolate Bar Palette Bottom: New Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar Palette
The new Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar palette is still a toss up for me. I love my original so much that this new palette is still the new fish in the tank. I may need to warm up to it a bit more in order to decide if it was really necessary to have both. I will say this, if you do not have any of the Chocolate Bar palette and is looking for a neutral eye shadow palette, the original is still far better, bulkier package and all. However if you prefer more cool toned shadows with your warm toned shadows, the Semi-Sweet palette may be the one to reach for. Most of the shades had the same pigmented, buttery feel we've come to love from the original palette with some great misses from 'Pink Sugar' and 'Blueberry Swirl' in the Semi-Sweet palette. Looks on the Semi-Sweet palette will be posted tomorrow.
I wanted to create a look that was neutral yet can be worn all year round by just simply switching the lip colour. Since it is fall, I wanted to do something vampy and dark but in various degrees of vamp. The first shade is straight Motorhead from Kat Von D, the second is layered with Lovecraft on top, and the last layered with Agatha, all from the Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick set.
