Kat Von D shade and Light palette and Brush (Review and Swatches)

Contouring and highlighting is here to stay! Unless of course you prefer not to add some dimension to your face. This fine, you do you boo!

The packaging on the Kat Von D Shade and Light palette is edgy and a little bit of the dark, dare I say, gothic side.

It has the Kat Von D logo at the top of the pallete. The name of the palette is written in calligraphy-style font and is raised, with a silver shadow on the black lettering, giving it a 3D appearance.

Open it up and are greeted by a full size mirror.

The palette is made of sturdy cardboard with a magnetic closure.

Onto the powders.

You get 6 shades, 3 highlight and 3 contour shades. All the shades are matte. Now, y’all now I appreciate a good, shimmery highlight but I don’t mind that this palette doesn’t one. I like that this guy is pure sculptor.

I like that the names are listed on the back of the palette in the order they appear. It’s a nice touch.

Highlighting and contouring is about light and shadow. The three contour shades create realistic shadows that pull facial features back while the three highlight shades bring forward the facial you want, creating dimension to the face

These silky, buildable powders blend effortlessly into the skin and are long lasting.

You get

3 x 4,5g Shade powders: Sombre (true taupe), Shadowplay (soft brown), Subconscious (deep brown)

-3 x 2,2g Light powders: Lucid (pinkish nude), Lyric (yellow beige), Levitation (soft peach)

 

The palette includes an illustrated step-by step tutorial featuring three easy, artistic ways to define your cheekbones, slim your face, and shape your nose. The Shade + Light Contour Brush is sold separately, which I do have.

The insert in illustrated by Kat Von D herself and the charts, guide you to master the art of contouring in three simple ways: Define, Slim and Shape

Define cheekbones: sculpt and chisel your appearance.

Slim your face: slenderize features and define the jawline.

Shape your nose: taper your silhouette.

Lucid: A pale slightly pink/beige toned powder which is a great brightening powder on pale skin and bit too pinkish on my skin. However, I find that I can use this to tone down a yellow-toned highlighting powder. If I have lost my marbles and applied too much product.

Lyric: This is by far one of the best highlighting powders I have ever used. This fine, super pigmented, brightens up the face while setting and keeping concealer in place without caking up

Levitation: A pale orange shade, which is great to colour correct on deep-skinned beauties and take away an ashy finish.

Sombre: Is grey toned and I was worried that this was too cool to show up on my skin, but this is my most used contour shade. Because it mimics a shadow beautifully and has little warmth to the tone, this will not look brown and muddy. This shade will work well up to a deep tan skin tone.

Shadowplay: Deeper and slightly warmer than Sombre. I love to contour and bronze with this shade.

Subconscious: The deepest shade in the palette and will make a wonderful contour shade for all the deep-skin beauties out there! I love using this shade; sparingly, to hollow out my cheekbones a touch.

 

The powders are buildable, blendable, finely milled and really do cater for most skin tones. If you are super pale or super deep in skin tone this won’t be as useful to you as it is to me, which is a shame. I can honestly say that I can make use of every shade in this palette. I think those beauties with dark skin and a yellow undertone like mine (I’m an NC40 in MAC) up to an NC45 can safely use all the shades in this palette.

The contour shades are all grey in tone you can achieve a truly sculpted look! The highlight shades are all matte, and you can mix and match to customize your perfect shade.

The powders are also super pigmented so a little really goes go a long way.

The pan sizes for the contour shades are very generous and I think the whole palette in general will last a decent amount of time.

The Kat Von D Shade + Light Contour Brush doesn’t come with the palette. You have to buy it separately.

The Kat Von D Shade + Light Contour Brush is a dual ended brush.

It has an angled end for contouring and a tapered dome-shaped end for highlighting.

It come in it’s own protective ‘coffin’ case. I love the coffin, well, the brush case because it does make staring double-ended brushes a dream. I really never know how to store double-ended brushes and this is great.

The bristles are soft; I have washed this brush twice and haven’t experienced any shedding.

If you are new to contouring, the brush is perfect.

Do you need it if you have an army of brushes? No!

I find it isn’t quite the best blending brush in the world for contour work.

While I can say that the highlighting side works flawlessly.

I will say that while, the contour side is great for placing product and sculpting the face, I do go in with a fluffier brush to give the powders one quick buff to tie it all together.

The angled side is not fluffy enough to do this.

Because the brush has such floppy bristle, you can get a very chiseled look, which I think is a downside for master sculptors but a good thing for beginners as these powders are hella pigmented and it controls the product so you don’t end up a muddy mess. This is the best highlighting and contouring palette I have used to date! Definitely worth the splurge and the hunt!

Kat Von D shade and Light Palette:

Where to buy:  Sephora, third-party sellers, use a freighting company like Aramex as this is exclusive to Sephora or try amazon. Be prepared to pay a pretty penny for it. I promise you, it is worth it.

Price: $46

 

Kat Von D Shade and Light brush:

Where to buy: Sephora (this is also a Sephora exclusive), amazon, third party sellers or a freighting company like Aramex.

Price: $36 at Sephora. Prices range depending on other places you buy.

Have you tried the Kat Von D Shade and Light Palette or the Brush?

Will you try it?

I’d love to hear your thoughts

Until next time stay blessed and beautiful

Love you all lots and lots (No shade, I promise)

xoxo

Prativa

Beauty Bugle