I will admit to loving this as much as I do on account of the way it smells. If you haven’t experienced the wonderful cocoa vanilla scent for yourself, I highly recommend dropping by your nearest Sephora to give it a sniff. This palette includes highlight and undereye powder pans, as well as two contour colours you can mix or use individually (the lighter shade to contour your nose, and the deeper one for your jawline). I only wish this came in a range of different palettes for different skin tones.

As the cheapest of the lot, Colourpop actually has the widest shade range available with six different contour shades. These come in really cute little pencil-shaped contour crayons, and blend out quite nicely. I think these would be a good option for someone looking to try out contouring without investing too much into it.

This is a timeless classic in the beauty world. Though it’s touted as a bronzer, the shade is neutral enough to make a really good contour colour. The formula blends well and works on a surprising number of skin tones in the light-to-medium spectrum.

You can get this palette off Beautybay.com, which currently stocks the shades Light-Medium, Medium-Tan, and Tan-Deep, which covers a wonderfully large number of skin tones. The palettes have a range of shades within them as well, meaning you can mix and match where necessary to create a warmer, cooler or deeper contour shade. It’s quite a lot of bang for your buck, considering you get six different colours in each palette. Plus, the site has free shipping to Singapore.

Contrary to popular belief, cream contours are a really easy beginner’s way to get into contouring, because you can blend out the cream really well and control more precisely where you apply it. The new sculpting duos from Nars come in two shades, one with a Laguna multiple and another with a Sidari Beach multiple which works with lighter skin tones. If these shades are too light for you, Nars has also released powder Contour Blush duos and there is a darker shade called Melina.

I love the formula of Nudestix pencils. They’re smooth, creamy and easy to blend. Another bonus: They come in such compact little pencils and will fit in the smallest of handbags. There are only two shades of the Sculpting Pencil available that suit light or medium skin tones, but if you’re looking for a darker shade you can also consider the brand’s Concealer pencils.

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I love this palette for the range of shades available. It’s got both cool and warm-toned contour shades suitable for light, medium and dark skintones. The lighter “highlight” shades are buttery and blendable; they also aren’t too pigmented so you can use them to set your under eye concealer and to brighten the under eyes for a really natural effect.

As an affordable cream contour option, I really enjoy the texture of these Nyx dual-ended stick concealers. They draw on really smoothly and blend well. I only wish that Nyx would release more shade options for this.

This single kit contains a really light, medium and darker contour shades, making it a really good option for medium skin tones as well. There are two versions of this kit, one with a shade “light cocoa” that’s more suited for lighter skin tones, as well as a deeper palette with a “cocoa butter” yellow shade for the under eye, that has much deeper mocha contour shades.

I’ve seen both YouTube beauty guru NikkieTutorials and American makeup artist Jeffree Star use this contour powder, and it looks incredibly natural and blends like a dream. The powder is available in two shades as well for light or medium skin tones, though the brand also offers much darker bronzer powders if you have deeper skintones. It’s available on www.net-a-porter.com.

This story first appeared in HerWorldPlus. 

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