And the Etude House post marathon continues! I was given the opportunity to sign up to try out the new Etude House “Personal Color” line. The first product in that line that I will be reviewing is the Contouring Palette in “Cream” finish, with a post about the Cool Tone Eye/Lip palettes up next!
Etude House has released some “higher-end” palettes geared towards makeup fanatics and makeup artists. They are based on your “personal color”, or the undertones of your skin! I will go into more detail on skin undertones in the eye/lip palette post.
They released two contouring palettes, one in “powder” and one in “cream.” Out of the two, I received the “Cream” finish. I own many powder contour/highlighting products, so was glad they sent me this one as I’ve never tried cream contour before!
The palette has a very minimalist design, and is quite big – around the size of a diary notebook. However I find it’s still a decent enough size to throw into my purse if I’m doing makeup on the run!
And here it is! It comes with a huge mirror on the inside 😀 .
Inside is also a plastic slip which shows how you should contour your face according to your face shape. It does not mean that each face shape must use the designated colour behind the slip, and instead means you should use all the colours in the palette according to the drawing that represents your face shape.
There are 6 colours – 5 mattes and one shimmery highlighter. The contouring shades are quite cool-toned, as is the highlight. The blush works on my skin tone, so I’d say it’s either cool or neutral-toned. The powder palette has a peachy orange blush instead, so I’d say that one is probably geared more towards warm-tone skin. Each pan contains 3g of product!
The highlighter is a pearl frost shade, and very subtle and transparent! I wasn’t sure if it was going to show up on my skin at all, but it adds a very natural glow.
•○ Swatches ○•
First I would like to point out the names of these are absolutely terrible 😂. #1 Sun Shine, as mentioned above, is subtle and a shimmer with no glitter flecks in it. #2 Chu Cream (Choux Cream?) is a very pale matte highlighter shade, which is unfortunately the exact same tone of my skin so I haven’t been using it 😥 . #3 Rose Blush is a coral pink blush which is cool toned enough to suit my skin. It looks fresh and natural and has more of a cream finish than a matte one! #4 Honey Beige is a very light contour colour that I’ve been using as a transition colour to fill in gaps when I apply my contour incorrectly or blend it out too much. Etude House recommends to use it for a nose contour shade but I personally find it a little too subtle for this. #5 Coffee Shade is the colour I’ve been using to contour! It’s a great natural contour shade for light skin tones that offers warm shading without being too warm for cool-toned skin. #6 Woody Shaper is quite dark, so I imagine this would suit light-medium skin tones better than uber pale ones like mine. If I use it, it’s along my jaw as Etude recommends!
•○ Application ○•
I never contour my nose because I always found it looked too strong or too muddy, but with how subtle Coffee Shade is, I’ve been liking the look a lot! I apply it with a flat concealer brush. The formula is quite thin, unlike other, thicker cream contouring palettes that pack on a lot at once. Because of how heavy cream contour palettes usually are, makeup artists say to avoid them if you’re a beginner. However this formula is sheer and build-able, making it fool-proof for newcomers to cream contouring like me!
I applied #3 as a blush first, blending it out with my finger. I always find it really hard to tell if I’m applying enough blush over the freckled area on my cheek bones, and I can see now in this picture that I didn’t 😂. I then shaded my nose using #5 and a flat concealer brush. As these creams blend out so easily, I didn’t need to use a sponge – the flat brush was enough! Next up was the cheekbones, applied with the same flat brush and blended out with a damp beauty sponge. The same process was done to my jaw and the edges of my chin. I then topped it off with #1 patted on with my finger on the high points of my cheeks, my nose, the end of my chin, my cupids bow, and my forehead.
The left half of my face has been contoured, blushed, and highlighted, with the right side only with foundation. You can especially tell around my jaw how much the shape has been altered through contouring! My contouring style is similar to the Oval Face contour from the insert.
•○ Final Thoughts ○•
I honestly had no particular expectations for this product as I was mostly excited about the eye and lip palettes 😂. But colour me surprised! The contour and highlight colours have made it into my daily routine without adding hardly any extra time to it, and I have been using the blush often too!
This is a great palette for beginners to cream contouring, and those with pale to light-medium cooler skin tones. It retails for 25,000 KRW for 3g x 6 pans, which is a bit on the pricier end for Etude House. However when dividing the price between pans and grams, it’s not too bad! You are also likely able to get use out of every single colour, unlike other contour palettes where one or two pans stay untouched.
And that’s it for today! I hate to make four Pink Bird reviews in a row as I don’t want my content to seem biased, but as I’m sure you all know, my opinions are always honest (and let’s be real, I’m pretty Etude House doesn’t even read my posts, so I don’t feel bad to express my thoughts freely 😂). I’m excited to share the eye and lip palettes as I’m equally as in love with those!
Jasmineitor & Korea 
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