| Review | Dior Backstage Collection Contour Palette
I wanted to snatch up this collection as soon as it was released but since it was coming to Sephora, I waited extremely impatiently for it to arrive. The Backstage Collection is inspired by this year's 2018 runway show for spring and summer. This year is the "Year of Nude", everyone is toning down the makeup significantly and creating very natural makeup collections.
Dior is no exception, this collection contains a massive range of 40 Face & Body Foundation shades, 2 Eye Palettes, 1 Cheek Palette, 1 Contour Palette, 2 Brow Palettes, and 1 Lip Palette; all with super natural shades and finishes! In the past, Dior has released a Backstage Palette but nothing of this caliber has been released from them for their runway collection. According to Dior's Creative Image Director of Dior Makeup, Peter Phillips, this collection is just the basics but there is room for the collection to grow to more extreme shades. I am excited to see what is to come in the future but I appreciate this beautifully crafted collection of makeup staples that anyone can wear!
I have this weird weak spot for contour palettes despite not being a person who contours daily. However, I really love sculpting my face and often do it with bronzer. Curiosity and weakness got the best of me and I decided I needed to try this palette.
The Dior Backstage Collection Contour Palette retails for $45.00 USD and is available at Sephora. The entire Backstage Collection is housed in simple plastic cases, not Dior's usual luxury approach but these were meant for makeup artist backstage, so I can see the benefit of having clear cases for easy identification of products and colors. I have also heard it is because they wanted to pour all their quality into the product and keep the price reasonable for consumers. I love Dior products and their packaging, but I have personally had some problems with their Backstage Collection packaging in the past. Remember the Reviver Palettes? (Review here) I will be comparing them with the new shadow palettes in my review. Well, I had some issues with the hinges of the palette wearing down and breaking very easily. While I hope that that does not happen here, the packaging seems to very similar and I have a lot of concerns about the longevity of this packaging.
The contour palette comes with 4 different shades (2 highlighters and 2 contour shades):
Highlighter Light - This light highlighter is a very satin light beige shade, it think it's great for blending out the other shades but on my skin tone, I wouldn't consider this much of a highlighter. It very barely brightens up the areas it is applied to. If you want to use it as a highlighter, it will be extremely subtle. I used it as a brightening setting powder for under my eyes and even all over my skin and that worked well for my medium skin tone.
Highlighter Deep - This is more of a satin finish light bronzer shade. I use it to vlend out my contour shade or to bronze up my face.
Contour Light - This shade is a very nice cool medium taupe shade, a common for contouring. This is the shade most skin tones will use as a contour.
Contour Deep - This shade is very warm and has a very red undertone to it, which would work really well for deep skin tones. For fair to medium skin tones, it is a bit harder to work with because it is a darker and very red shade. You can use it lightly to deepen your contour or very very lightly mixed with the other shades and bronzer. You can also use this powder on the eyes for a warm eyeshadow shade.
You may be thinking why include 4 shades, why not create a light and deep palette? First things first, to get a truly natural and seamless look, using multiple shade will help you accomplish that. You won't have harsh lines and you can blend the colors very well into your skin. Second, our skin tones change throughout the year, why not include options for us to customize and cater to our seasonal skin? I personally like having the multiple shades because when I contour, I always use a minimum of 2 shades, a contour (cooler and deeper shade) and a bronzer (warmer and lighter) to blend seamlessly into my skin. However, I can see that unless you are a makeup artist, you may not need all these shades. As a medium skin tone, this palette is more versatile but if you are quite fair or have a deeper skin tone, it may not be as versatile.
The powders are all very soft and blendable. They are very pigmented and very buildable. I feel for most skin tones the only suitable contour shade is the Light Contour because it is actually a cool toned brown, capable of creating a natural shadow. I enjoy having the Highlighter Deep shade as well for blending out the contour shade but personally, I could do without the other two shades. I find the Contour Deep to be much too red toned and very pigmented, it makes it hard to do very much with it. I have attempted to apply it very lightly as a bronzer but you have to be very careful because of it's pigmentation! The Light Highlighter is like a face powder to me, it doesn't do very much but brighten a tiny bit. As you will see in the swatches below the Light Highlight almost completely blends into my skin tone.
Shop The Dior Backstage Collection:
I have this weird weak spot for contour palettes despite not being a person who contours daily. However, I really love sculpting my face and often do it with bronzer. Curiosity and weakness got the best of me and I decided I needed to try this palette.
Top: Broken Hinge from Palette and Bottom the Contour Palette Hinge New
The broken hinge next to the new hinge
The contour palette comes with 4 different shades (2 highlighters and 2 contour shades):
Highlighter Light - This light highlighter is a very satin light beige shade, it think it's great for blending out the other shades but on my skin tone, I wouldn't consider this much of a highlighter. It very barely brightens up the areas it is applied to. If you want to use it as a highlighter, it will be extremely subtle. I used it as a brightening setting powder for under my eyes and even all over my skin and that worked well for my medium skin tone.
Highlighter Deep - This is more of a satin finish light bronzer shade. I use it to vlend out my contour shade or to bronze up my face.
Contour Light - This shade is a very nice cool medium taupe shade, a common for contouring. This is the shade most skin tones will use as a contour.
Contour Deep - This shade is very warm and has a very red undertone to it, which would work really well for deep skin tones. For fair to medium skin tones, it is a bit harder to work with because it is a darker and very red shade. You can use it lightly to deepen your contour or very very lightly mixed with the other shades and bronzer. You can also use this powder on the eyes for a warm eyeshadow shade.
You may be thinking why include 4 shades, why not create a light and deep palette? First things first, to get a truly natural and seamless look, using multiple shade will help you accomplish that. You won't have harsh lines and you can blend the colors very well into your skin. Second, our skin tones change throughout the year, why not include options for us to customize and cater to our seasonal skin? I personally like having the multiple shades because when I contour, I always use a minimum of 2 shades, a contour (cooler and deeper shade) and a bronzer (warmer and lighter) to blend seamlessly into my skin. However, I can see that unless you are a makeup artist, you may not need all these shades. As a medium skin tone, this palette is more versatile but if you are quite fair or have a deeper skin tone, it may not be as versatile.
The powders are all very soft and blendable. They are very pigmented and very buildable. I feel for most skin tones the only suitable contour shade is the Light Contour because it is actually a cool toned brown, capable of creating a natural shadow. I enjoy having the Highlighter Deep shade as well for blending out the contour shade but personally, I could do without the other two shades. I find the Contour Deep to be much too red toned and very pigmented, it makes it hard to do very much with it. I have attempted to apply it very lightly as a bronzer but you have to be very careful because of it's pigmentation! The Light Highlighter is like a face powder to me, it doesn't do very much but brighten a tiny bit. As you will see in the swatches below the Light Highlight almost completely blends into my skin tone.
Overall, I think these powders have an excellent formula and look really beautiful on the skin. They really blend into the skin seamlessly and look very natural. While I really enjoy using this palette, I just don't think it is worth it. I feel like I only get use out of two shades in this palette for its intended purpose. The powder is very soft and creamy, making it very easy to blend and work with but I have many other contour powders that have a nice creamy formula. This product is very nice but it just doesn't seem sensible for the everyday user, it seems much more useful for a makeup artist, who will be working with many skin tones.
Shop The Dior Backstage Collection:
-01.jpg)
0 Comments