Battle of the Drugstore Contours! Elf, Wet N Wild and Essence (+ High end "Contour" shades)

Alright So I just got the Essence Contour Powder in light recently... and then I used the Wet n Wild Contour thing recently and I already had the Elf Contour Kit... so let's compare them! (Btw... I was going to include pics... but they really aren't good at all... so I decided to not include them... but idk if I made reference to the pictures... so just kinda ignore that if I did... just trust my word because that was better than the picture. Lol.


Essence
So lets start with the Essence Contour Powder because I'm only really going to get into the drugstore ones in this battle because really the Too Faced and Benefit's are bronzers, I just wanted to use them as reference to show the similarities between Hoola and the Essence Contour Powder.

This I feel like applies nicely, I have trouble blending it out though... if you look at the looks I did this week using it Here and here you can see that I didn't blend it out that well... and I'm pretty sure in the Peanut Butter Jelly look I used the Real Techniques Sculpting Brush and in the other I used the Bold Metals Contour brush... so it wasn't them... which I will have a battle of... but anyway it was probably user err... but I feel like when I did go to blend it... it wasn't all that easy. Idk. Thats one of the down sides to this.

And while this looks pretty warm and a little orange maybe... it isn't too warm or too orange. There is still a coolness to make this workable. I kind of like it with an orange blush because I feel like it makes it look a little more blended... idk its just a little less harsh I think. Maybe mixing this with another color for the forehead might look better? Idk probably not. I think I'm just a little harsh with my forehead contour. Lol.

Anyway... this one is good, not great. The Highlight kinda shows up too... I'm not really judging the highlights because I prefer a glowy dewy highlight. I want my cheekbones to show up from space... and these just won't do it.

Wet n Wild 
This I feel like is the contour-iest of all. I really like the contour shade in this and the highlight shade makes a nice under eye powder too. I also like the packaging of this because on the back there is a helpful guide to contouring... so if you're a beginner or if you just need some help contouring, this helps. Contouring is hard. Lol. I'm not super into it... but I've been liking it lately and I like this little contour lesson on the back. The Essence has a guide too... but no pictures! Lol.

Elf Contour Kit 
This one I've had the longest... and I think I'm going to hit pan on the contour kinda soon. This I feel like I can use all of the products... the shimmery highlight is nice, the matte highlight is nice and good for setting the undereye and the bronzer and contour are really nice too. And Blendable. This is just really good. I love Elf and I think this is one of the best things they have... and when this is so good, it makes me not want to splurge on a $40 or up contour kit.

So overall I think my top recommendation would be either Elf or Wet n Wild... I'm gonna go with elf because it is good to put on a contour and then a bronzer... and the matte highlight and shimmer highlight are great too. If you just want a good contour and undereye powder, the wet n wild... and I'd still recommend the essence. Its a good contour and I know Essence is easier to get in europe... so if you're in Europe or anywhere where Essence is more available... this is not a bad contour to pick up.

I'm not exactly sure of the prices... I think Wet n Wild is the cheapest and Elf is the most expensive... but there are always deals and stuff... you can really get these prices down. I like all of them and I think I'd eventually repurchase any of them really... is that weird? Like I feel like I have no need for 3 contours... and if I do hit pan on the Elf contour, I could probably just use the wet n wild... but I like the Elf Palette a lot... so idk! Tough call! I'd probably just use the Wet n Wild instead until I use up all of everything... lol. I think I would likely repurchase the Wet n Wild too though! Maybe not the essence... but its not bad at all! Lol.

So that is everything. I hope you guys enjoyed this or found it useful. I never thought I'd like contouring and now I really like it... so yeah. Maybe next I'll try color correcting. Lol. I'm eyeing the Ulta Color Correcting Palette... and they also have a contour palette that might be interesting to throw in the mix here too!

Byeee!
-Shannon

Comments