Contouring is the makeup technique that’s been around for decades. Professional makeup artists have used the now infamous highlight and contour technique to sculpt and define the faces of your favorite celebrities for years. But with the rise of social media, beauty gurus, and makeup artists spilling their secrets online, the popular technique has changed the way that everyday women wear makeup.
To put it simply, contouring is a beauty tactic that helps to give the face shape. When done correctly, contouring subtly enhances the facial structure by defining areas like the cheekbones and jawline. While this was often a method reserved for skilled makeup artists, with its newfound popularity amongst Instagram celebs and influencers, beauty brands began creating contour kits to help women achieve a flawless contour and highlight, without the makeup artist.
Today there are countless contour kits available to help elevate your makeup look and define your face. You’ll find everything from powder contour kits to cream contour kits. Contour kits that have two shades and those that have six. You’ll even find contour kits in different packaging from palettes, compacts, to sticks. Regardless of your preference, using a contour kit is the best way to experiment with contouring and highlighting and will ensure you get the perfect makeup application every time.
Ready to explore the world of contour kits so you can sculpt and define your face with ease? These are the best contour kits to try no matter your skill level, budget, or skin tone!
Best Contour Kits
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Best Drugstore Contour Kit – E.L.F Cosmetics Contour Palette
Whether you’re just starting out when it comes to contouring or you’re simply on a tight budget, the good news is, there are many affordable contour kits that work really well in sculpting and defining your natural facial features. The most popular, affordable contour kit is the E.L.F. Cosmetics Contour Palette. This contour kit comes with four powder shades that can be used together or separately to meet all of your contour and highlight needs. You can use the shades to contour your cheekbones and jawline, slim the appearance of your nose, and create definition around your eyes. The shade selection is rather limited, however, with only two options available. The Light/Medium E.L.F contour kit is great for those with light skin tones and contains a pale pearlescent shade, a light tan, a medium tan, and a medium brown shade. While the Dark/Deep E.L.F contour kit is better suited for those with dark skin tones and contains a medium pearlescent tan, a light tan, a medium brown, and a dark brown shade.
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Best High-End Contour Kit – NARS Contour Blush
For those who prefer prestige beauty products, the Nars Contour Blush is the best contour kit to try. This contour kit is rather simple, consisting of only two shades that work together to naturally define the face. Each NARS contour kit comes with a light shade that should be applied to areas of the face where the light naturally hits to illuminate, and a dark shade to be applied to the areas that require definition. While the NARS contour kit is simple enough in its delivery, it’s the technology inside each shade that makes this a fan favorite. The pigments naturally adjust to different lighting ensuring that skin always looks flawless and natural. You can find the NARS contour kit available in three shades, Melina, Talina, and Paloma, that cover a wide range of skin tones.
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Best Cream Contour Kit – Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Cream Kit
While the easiest contour kits to use are powder kits, there are people who prefer a cream contour kit for application. If cream makeup products are your preference, the Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Cream Kit is the best option to try. This contour kit consists of six shades to highlight and contour your face. Each shade is an easy to blend cream that leaves a satin finish behind and you’ll find three shades are designed to help sculpt and define and the other three are designed to enhance and illuminate. The best part about this Anastasia Beverly Hills contour kit is that it comes with the most diverse shade lineup of all the kits listed here with four options available. The Light contour kit consists of a mixture a peach, yellow, and tan shades best suited for those with pale skin tones. The Fair contour kit includes medium peach and deep tan shades best for those with light/medium skin tones. The Medium kit has deeper shades of pink and brown for those with tan skin tones. And the Deep contour kit has dark shades of brown for those with dark skin tones.
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Best Contour Kit for Makeup Artists – Kat Von D Shade + Light Face Contour
Even though contour kits were created to help the average beauty girl achieve an effortless contour application, makeup artists also had a chance to discover new products to make their jobs easier. For professional makeup artists, the best contour kit is the Kat Von D Shade + Light Face Contour. This contour kit is unique for a number of reasons. First, this is the only contour kit on this list that is developed by a professional makeup artist. Kat Von D created this makeup artist contour kit based off of her unique process of contrasting colors, creating depth, and playing with gradients in her work. Also, this contour kit has a refillable design allowing makeup artists to create contour kits unique to their clients or projects they’re working on and it only consists matte shades which is unlike any other contour kit listed here. The Kat Von D Shade + Light contour kit contains six silky powders with endless options available in the hands of a professional.
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Best Contour Kit for Newbies – Maybelline FaceStudio Master Contour & Highlight V-Shape Duo Stick
If you’re brand new to the contour and highlight technique, you’ll want to choose a contour kit that is very simple to use and pretty affordable. The Maybelline FaceStudio Contour & Highlight Duo Stick is the perfect contour kit to try. This contour kit helps you master the contour and highlight technique in only two steps. Apply the dark shade of the Maybelline Duo Stick to the areas of the face you want to sculpt and apply the light shade of the duo stick to the areas you want to enhance. With a creamy formulation and a v-shape, this contour kit glides on smooth and blends like a dream. It’s also available in three shades, light, medium, and dark, which covers a diverse selection of skin tones.
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Best Contour Kit for Dark Skin – Black Up Contour Powder
While many brands have been improving when it comes to creating contour kits that work well on a variety of skin tones, many of them still fall short concerning darker skin tones. For women with deeper complexions, the best contour kit to try is the Black Up Contour Powder. Black Up is a luxury French beauty brand that creates makeup products specifically tailored for women of color. Their contour kit offers six options to help darker skinned women define and highlight their face. The Black Up contour kit includes two matte shades for contouring and one shimmer shade to highlight.
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Best Contour Kit Overall – Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit
And finally, when it comes down to everything you could ever want or need in a contour kit, the original Anastasia Beverly Hills Contour Kit takes the cake. This award winning, cult favorite contour kit consists of six powder shades that work to enhance the cheekbones, slim the nose, brighten and define the eyes, and sculpt the jawline. Each shade is super silky and blends with ease, making them perfect to wear alone, mixed together, or combined with the Anastasia Cream contour kit. And, like the Kat Von D palette, this contour kit offers refillable shades so you can create the perfect contour kit for you and is available in three options, Light, Medium, and Deep to cover a wide range of skin tones.
