Battle of the Budget Contour Palettes

Yup, the title is ridiculous. 

Right so, for today's post I decided to compare three different contour palettes. 

They are all fairly inexpensive because unfortunately I cannot afford to spend a lot of money on a high end contour palette :'( 

With that aside, I'll be comparing the price, quality, pigmentation and shade range of each palette, along with other random details that may be relevant! 

Barry M Chisel Cheeks Contour Kit - £6.49 

First of all we have the Barry M Chisel Cheeks Contour Kit, which is available in Superdrug, Boots and online for £6.49. Whilst this palette may not cater for darker skin tones, Barry M do have another palette for medium to dark skin which I think is great. 

It includes a light powder to highlight, a bronzer, and a dark powder to contour with. Now personally I don't use the darker shade as it's just waaay too dark, so I contour with the 'bronzer' and surprisingly it actually works for me. There is a tiny hint of shimmer but for me it's not enough to worry about. If I wanted to really dramatically contour then I probably could get away with the darker shade, although it may start to look muddy. 

The shades themselves are very soft and easy to blend out, so it would be perfect if you wanted a basic contour palette and were just starting out. It's also widely available on the high street and at £6.49 it is very affordable. This palette covers the contour basics and I really like how Barry M have kept it simple!

Make Up Revolution Contour Palette - £8

You can probably tell from the picture above that I LOVE this palette, specifically three of the shades! This palette is available in stores and online at Superdrug and also on the Make Up Revolution website. 

So with 8 shades, this is more advanced than the Barry M palette. Whilst it does of course have more shades, I actually only really use 3 of them on a daily basis. I've hit pan on the first highlight shade and the cooler toned contour shade. I also use the white baked highlighter a lot as well and absolutely love it! I very rarely use the other 5 shades, so unless you can make all 8 work for you, it may not be worth getting this palette. However, I am absolutely in love with the 3 shades that I do use, so personally I would repurchase it simply just for those. 

The contour powders blend so well and are incredibly pigmented and smooth. The white highlighter as you can see from the swatch is just amazing! 

This palette would work for a wide range of skin tones and is also very affordable. It's been my go to contour palette ever since it came out, so it's most probably my favourite and also the best value for money. 

Pixi Natural Contour Kit - £12- £22

A slightly more expensive contour kit but in my opinion, still affordable. I got this palette from the Pixi website for £12, but on other websites it is £22, so it would be advisable to shop around. 

Unlike the other 2 palettes, this one has 8 eye shadows as well as 4 contour shades. I also personally feel that two of the eye shadows could also double up as highlighters, as you can see from the swatch above (they're at the end). 

I love the brightening powder and also the highlighter, they're very natural and subtle but at the same time the highlighter is still pigmented. Focusing on the 4 highlight and contour shades, it's actually fairly similar to the Barry M palette, except this one has the extra shimmer highlighter. Likewise, I couldn't make the actual darker contour shade work for me, so instead I contour with the 'bronzer' which works just fine. I love that the contour shade is cool toned but for some reason I just couldn't get it to blend properly and resulted in it looking muddy and really dark. The other three shades I loved and didn't have a problem with. The bronzer blended fine and the eye shadows also blended without any issues. 

So, would I spend £22 on this? No, probably not. Obviously you get the eye shadows with it but for a contour palette it's just not up to scratch in my personal opinion. 

So, to conclude the Make Up Revolution contour palette was the winner for me, followed by the Barry M one and unfortunately the Pixi palette came last!

Let me know which one is your favourite!