Kevyn Aucoin The Contour Book Volume II

Kevyn Aucoin's Contour Book Volume II was my big ticket VIB sale item, and after using it for the past few weeks I thought I would share my impressions. Here we go!

This compact contour palette packs a surprising amount of the Candlelight and Contour shades - much larger than the first version with .17 oz of the Candlelight and Contour powders and .16 oz of the Candlelight and Contour creams. Considering the single compact of Candlelight contains .11 oz and costs $44, it made the price of the palette ($65) seem like much more of a deal.

Candlelight was the main draw for me, having read such positive reviews on it, and it lives up to it's reputation.  It's actually quite a subtle highlighter, with finely milled powder that gives a soft pale champagne shimmer.  There is a slight difference in color between the powder and cream versions of Candlelight, with the cream running slightly cooler in tone.  I did a comparison of other similarly toned powder highlighters in my collection, and Becca's Moonstone is very close, albeit with slightly more intense shimmer.

The four eyeshadow shades were a bonus for me, but also where the palette started to get a bit lackluster.  The Brighten and Starlight shimmer shades are very nice, but the matte Cool Tan and Ruddy Earth have some sticking points. Literally.  They have a tendency to "grab" the skin and are difficult to blend out. At first I thought it was just that my less than smooth lids were contributing to the problem, but the arm swatches showed me that nope, it's the shadows.

With the exception of the two matte eyeshadows, this palette is a winner for me. I've been using the cream Contour shade under my cheek bones and along the sides of my nose and find it very easy to work with.  I use the powder Contour shade on top of the cream to set it, and find that they are both hard to overdo. Pigmentation is definitely there, they just blend so nicely and look quite natural on.

Sadly, this Sephora exlusive appears to be sold out, but I'm glad I focused in on it during the VIB sale, it was worth it!

Haulin', Haulin', Haulin': What I Purchased During Sephora's VIB Sale

Disclaimer:  I purchased this.

I've been spreading a little too much love amongst various beauty brands/sites lately, so my Sephora VIB purchase this year was modest - in size at least. I decided to focus on a brand I've been curious about for a while but have yet to try, Kevin Aucoin.

I love a good highlighter and Kevyn Aucoin's Celestial Powder in Candlelight ($44) gets good reviews, so why not go all out and get the Contour Book , I asked myself ($65 regularly, $56 with VIB discount)? Plus, the Contour Book actually contains larger sizes of both the Celestial and Sculpting powders and creams than the singles, which is crazy! Crazy good, actually. Here's what you get:

- 0.17 oz The Celestial Powder in Candlelight 
- 0.04 oz The Celestial Powder in Starlight 
- 0.16 oz The Creamy Glow in Candlelight 
- 0.16 oz The Sculpting Cream 
- 0.16 oz The Candlelight Cream 
- 0.14 oz The Sculpting Powder 
- 4 x 0.04 oz Eye shadow in Eye shadow in Brighten (luminous pearl), Starlight (luminous light peach/pink), Cool Tan (light brown), Ruddy Earth (rust) 
- How-to guide

I've just started playing with it so expect a full review in a bit. Initial impressions are positive.

Clinique really went all out with the packaging for their Take the Day Away cleansing balm sample, didn't they? It's larger than the contour book. I'm all for visual presentation but this seems a bit over the top/wasteful considering the size of the actual sample.  

My other 2 sample picks were erborian's Bamboo Waterlock plumping mask and Bobbi Brown's Intensive Skin Concealer or Serum, which I forgot to take a picture of. Honestly, I enjoy choosing samples so much and have walked away from a purchase if the samples were not to my liking. Weird, I know, but they can sway me yay or nay.