Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Quickie Contour Stick Review

When I picked up the November issue of Elle magazine it came with a freebie Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Quickie Contour Stick. Benefit Cosmetic's Hoola Bronzer powder is one of their bestsellers and combined with the popularity of contour videos on Youtube, Benefit wanted to satisfy their fans and created a cream stick version. The Hoola Quickie stick is a cream to powder formula and the stick makes it easier to draw the lines on your face. This is my first cream bronzer/contour because I find that many of them contain Ozokerite wax which I think I'm allergic to as it always stings my cheeks.

While people do use a warm toned brown to shape their faces for a bronze summer glow, true contouring should be done with a cool toned brown that mimics grey shadows to create angles and to slim the face. Therefore I think the description 'bronzer' it more accurate than 'contour' because the brown is warm toned.

Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Quickie Contour Stick comes in a gold tube which has small brown vertical lines to give it a bamboo-like appearance for an exotic, summer holiday vibe. The contour stick makes it easy and quick to apply, you just 'draw' it onto your skin- under the cheekbones, around your hairline and along the edges of the nose. I wouldn't say the stick is very delicate but I have read that the stick can break or fall off but if it happens you can try using the same method of fixing a broken lipstick in this tutorial here or decant the contour stick into a small container.  I found it easier to apply this directly onto the skin and then use my fingers to blend it. It's quite pigmented so you don't need a lot, so don't go crazy drawing big, long contour lines all over your face because then you'll have to do a lot of blending! Benefit Cosmetics claim that their cream to powder formula 'blends seamlessly for a soft natural matte finish' and I agree it's easy to work with and the matte finish looks very natural on the skin. If you're fragrance sensitive then don't worry as there is no real scent to this contour stick.

The colour suits my Mediterranean skin tone well and does not pull orange, but I think it would look too muddy or orange on very pale skin tones. I'm surprised they haven't made a Hoola Lite stick to match their Hoola Lite powder. Also this shade probably won't show up on women of colour.

This wears off after about 6 hours on me but I do have a habit of resting my face in my hands which probably doesn't help! If you have oily skin or want it to last all day/night then setting it with powder will help, such as Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Powder or a good setting spray. I've not tested this in the summer so I don't know how it fares on hot, sweaty days.

It does contain a lot of silicones which I only noticed looking at the ingredients (not from the texture of the product) specifically Dimethicone,Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer and Triethoxysilylethyl Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone which is something to aware of if you are allergic to silicones.

Benefit Cosmetic's Quickie Contour Stick is compact and you don't need a brush so it's good for on the go. I do really like this bronzer/contour stick, it hasn't broken me out and it is the first matte cream bronzer I've seen that doesn't contain Ozokerite wax. It's also really easy to use and the colour complements my skin tone. It is a bit pricey at £24 (which is almost the same price as some foundations) but I will buy the full size when I run out because I don't have anything similar and I haven't seen any other cream bronzers that do not contain Okerite wax. The only improvements I can suggest is that it would be better if they had more shades.

The Full Sized Benefit Cosmetics Quickie Contour Stick is 8.5 Net wt 0.3 oz and retails for £24. It's available at Benefit Cosmetics, Feel Unique , Boots and Selfridges.

Freedom Pro Strobe Palette & Pro Strobe Cream Review

Freedom Makeup is a budget beauty brand created by the same people behind the popular and successful Makeup Revolution. I was lucky enough to win this in a competition on Georgina's blog She Might Be Loved.

The Freedom Pro Strobe palette is sleek and compact, making it travel friendly with a good sized mirror and a brush to boot! I'm really impressed with the colours, there's not a sight of glitter or orange bronzer to be seen and the powders are finely milled. There are 6 shades, 3 highlight colours and 3 contour colours.

The contour shade in the largest pan is an ashy brown perfect for mimicking shadows and faking chiseled cheekbones. The middle shade is a warm brown which is great for bronzing and is also the darkest shade in the palette which is great for skin tones on the darker side of medium. The final contour shade is a pale brown which would suit lighter skin tones or those who like their contouring to look very subtle. Despite being lighter than the other shades it still shows up on my NC25 skin.

Surprisingly for a palette called 'Pro Strobe' there is only one shimmer highlighter and the other two highlighters are matte. The biggest highlighter pan comes in a shimmer finish, a pinky-silver shade and it gives such a lovely glow and highlights really well. This shade who be good for those with cool skin tones. I have a warmer skin tone and tend to suit more golden shades. There's also a yellow and beige highlighter. I have used the yellow highlighter to set my under eye concealer. The matte highlight shades could be used to 'bake' highlighted areas.

I was really happy that a brush came with the palette, I had a similar shaped Illamasqua one which fell apart and needs gluing. The brush is fairly small (about 14.5cm long including the handle) the same size as the palette, but it's far from useless. The brush head is oval shaped and so soft and dense. I found short strokes worked best and it seemed be better for placing the powder across on the cheek bone and using another brush to blend it (I used Zoeva's 110 face brush to blend.)  I did use the Freedom brush to apply contour along my forehead by dipping powder on one side of the brush and then turned the brush over and used this cleaner side to do the blending.

The powders are long lasting lasting about 6-7 hours on my combination skin. This palette would suit light to medium skin tones, any darker and the contour shades wouldn't show up. This palette is good value for money with 3 contour shades, 3 highlighter shades and a brush for £10.  However I would describe this is as a contour palette rather than a 'strobe' palette because there is only one shimmer shade that gives that dewy, glowing strobe effect. Nevertheless I totally recommend this palette- you get a lot for your buck and the powders are very long wearing!

Onto Freedom's Pro-Strobe Cream. Packaging wise I like the holographic label and the silver cap. The packaging is practical and won't leak if you pop it into your bag.  Freedom claims this cream gives 'a subtle and natural illumination and highlight to the skin.' You can wear it to highlight on top of your makeup to highlight certain areas or wear it all over as an illuminating base. The consistency is like a body lotion and it smells like amaretto (almonds.)

I used this over my foundation. Freedom recommends to use your fingers to apply this cream.  On application it starts off as a white lotion with a hint of pink, and while rubbing into the skin you get this glowy silver-pink dewy highlight. However after about 10 minutes it sinks into the skin and the effect becomes very, very subtle. So just be aware that the full power highlight disappears quickly, leaving a faint trace of colour and becomes more in keeping with the natural look. Unfortunately the Pro-Strobe cream seemed to irritate my sensitive skin. On the whole I think there are better liquid highlighters out there that make more of an impact rather than fizzling out as this seemed to. My Verdict: Priced at £8 I don't think it's worth the money; very disappointing, save those pennies instead.



Pro Strobe palette is available at TAM Beauty  priced at £10 and the Pro strobe cream is £8.

Get Cheek bones like Kate Moss-Ben Nye Contour Powders and Blush.

I always find contour powders that have an actual grey tone (grey to mimic shadows) impossible to find on the high street and don't get me started on bronzers they are all so orange! Enter Ben Nye Contour powders- realistic colours at high street prices. 

Ben Nye speicalises in theatrical make up but the brand has become so popular with makeup artists and youtubers they've started to develop products for the mainstream beauty market. Their products are very pigmented because stage makeup needs to be seen from back row seats and also be long lasting to withstand hot theatre lights. While they are are cheaper than high end brands such as MAC or Make Up For Ever their quality is just as good. Fortunately as they have become popular they haven't t raised their prices by very much. 

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                                          Left contour no 1 and Right Contour no 2.

The contour powders come in 3 shades: Contour no 1, no 2 and no 3. Their primary use was in theatres so there was no need for fancy names. I have no 1 and no 2 because I'm a tan shade and didn't know which one would show up or suit me better. 

I needn't have worried both suited my tanned olive skin tone. Contour no 1 is cooler and has a grey tone to it, making it perfect for contouring as the grey mimics grey shadows. Contour no 2 is warmer so is best suited to bronzing. They last all day although I haven't tested them in the hot summer heat. 

The packaging is a basic black snap close case although the matte rubber is similar to Nars packaging. The downside to this is they are difficult to keep clean and can end up a bit sicky. The pans contain more product than Kevyn Aucoin's famous sculpting powder (3.5g vs 3.1g) and is so much cheaper at £15.48 each. The pans measure about 3.7cm across. 

Because the powders are so pigmented I wouldn't recommend purchasing them if you have pale skin or if you like your contour and bronzer to be very subtle or require a lighter shade. These blend well but need a light hand so if you're a bit heavy handed with bronzer bear this in mind.   

Ben Nye is not as widely available as established mainstream make up brands. I bought these from Treasure House of Make Up which is based in the UK here, if you look under powder rouge you'll find the contour powders. They are under the pre-order drop down menu but I actually didn't find that it took that much longer to arrive (perhaps an extra 7 days.) Treasure House of Makeup is extending their 25% off pro discount to everyone at the moment. Ben Nye also sell contour creams in very similar shades to those above, however they do contain Ozokerite wax which I am allergic to which is why I stuck to buying the powders. In the US Camera Ready Comestics and Screen Face carry Ben Nye.

My other purchase was Ben Nye Powder Rouge in Dark Tech DR-9.

Contrary to the name this blush is not dark. On the website this looks like a muted orange but it's a bright coral colour in person. This is actually the colour I wanted but in the pan it looks so scary like the colour red clown cheeks and noses. On the cheeks it does give that summer coral blush but careful this blush is so intensely pigmented you have to apply just the tiniest bit on your blush and make sure you tap away all the excess so that you don't overdo it. I'd recommend washing your blush brush soon after so it doesn't stain the brush. Since this is so pigmented i'd recommend using a fan brush or a synthetic brush that doesn't pick up or apply as much blush. This lasts all day and the pan would last you a very long time like a year or much longer.

I bought this as a refill pan so while the packaging looks basic and a little unattractive it's actually quite functional- there's a sponge that keeps the pan in place which can be thrown away and the pan added into another palette. Unlike other packaging that houses refills the plastic case is sturdy and practical, I've had refills in really flimsy packaging before that you have to move immediately before the whole thing disintegrates. 

The refill pan contains  3.5g and costs £8.98 and is available at Treasure House of Makeup here