Make Up For Ever 'Pro Sculpting Face' Palette

I often find that powder products are too much and make my skin look dry. With central heating being switched off to cranked up and moving from outside to inside, skin becomes a bit fed up.

That's why I wanted to find a product that I could use as quickly as a powder but that would add a look of luminosity and as if my skin was hydrated!

I know contouring is going out of style but, quite frankly, anything that will help define my hamster-like chops is well worth doing.

After looking at Kevyn Aucoin's 'The Creamy Glow Duo' palette and reading some reviews that complained about blending, I decided to try Make Up For Ever's 'Pro Sculpting Face' palette. So far, so good.

The way that I use it is with a 'beauty blender'.

I don't do the popular trend of painting stripes on the face and blending them in – no one has time for that. I use a damp or dry 'beauty blender' (it works well with either) and lightly dab it into the product and onto the face. It's quick, easy and efficient. Basically, it contours without making the face look two-toned.

THE PROS:

• The selection. I love that the palette has a brightening cream and a shimmer to enhance the highlighting process. 
• The palette comes in light, tan and dark to cater for different skin tones and, although that isn't a huge selection, the light palette works perfectly for my skin tone and would work for lighter and darker skin tones than myself. 
• The blush is a beautiful coral colour and blends beautifully. 
• The shimmer is delicate and doesn't cover the face in glitter particles! 
• The contour colour is dark enough to create the contour but doesn't look like you have rolled in mud. However, less is more and check that it is properly blended. 
• The palette has made my skin look less dry and I have currently given up using my Hourglass Ambient Lighting Palette, which is saying something, as I have been using that religiously for over a year. 

THE CONS: 

• The product can get a bit messy – not on you but on the packaging. Not enough for the colours to intermingle but enough to tell that it's been well used! 

£29, www.debenhams.com 

Strobing – the new contour

Contouring

Strobing

Just when you had got your head around contouring, strobing pops up! Strobing is a technique that enhances a natural looking glow by accentuating where the light hits the face. It's a 'glow from within' type of idea and, unlike contouring, it doesn't make use of the face's natural shadows. Illuminators and highlighters are used but to prevent looking like a glitter ball or going from dewy glow to sweaty mess. Here are a few things to help: 

1. Use a toner, serum, moisturiser etc, like you normally would. Strobing is all about radiating light so dry skin patches won't help! 

2. Pick a tone of highlighter that suits your skin tone. Being a mid to fair toned gal, something champagney toned will suit. My friend, who has a darker complexion uses Liquid Soliel De Tan Chanel and it looks amazing. 

3. Use a brush, such as the Sigma Duo Fibre F50, that lightly picks up the product and gently deposits it. 

4. Apply your chosen product to the areas that the light naturally hits the face: bridge of the nose, cupid's bow, centre of forehead, top of the cheeks, top of the forehead, above the cheek bone and below it. 

5. Try not to over shimmer. Obviously, the whole idea is to highlight certain areas, but they are only accentuated if the other makeup isn't equally as shimmery. 

6. A little trial and error is required with this one. If it all goes slightly awry, use a damp beauty blender to blend it. Less is more and you can always build up the product. 

It suddenly occurred to me that MAC's Strobe Cream has been designed to do just that – to strobe! Despite my dappy moment for not working this out sooner, I will be trying it out for this purpose.

Conclusion:
So far, I'm not convinced. I still prefer the contour look but, I will keep trying it out and see how I feel in a few weeks.