In care you haven’t noticed, I’ve made quite a few blog posts about Kardashian/Jenner-related beauty (see my Kylie holiday, Valentine’s Day, and KKW collection thoughts). While this hasn’t been intentional, it goes to show how successful these girls are at creating and marketing their products—I, as their target customer, am literally putty in their hands. And TBH, nine out of ten times I’m not mad about this, because the products have all met or exceeded my expectations.
This time, however, is a little different.
While I love Kylie’s products but not necessarily her social media presence, Kim Kardashian West is someone I genuinely appreciate as a content creator and businesswoman. No, she isn’t perfect, and yes, she’s made major mistakes, but I’m not here to fight that battle right now. In fact, I’m here to talk about something way more important—her contour.
When I heard KKW Beauty was launching a créme contour and highlight kit as its first product, I was over the moon. However, I was simultaneously skeptical. I was unsure Kim was someone who could effectively create and test this kind of product; her face is naturally pretty flawless and quite chisled, so a product that accentuates her god-given (doctor-given?) features might not necessarily create them on someone not as #blessed, AKA me.
Regardless of my doubts, I eagerly scooped up the kit as soon as it went on sale. On a quest for a summery glow, I opted for the Medium shade instead of the Light. When my package finally arrived, I gawked at the gorgeous, millennial nude packaging. Did Kim create millennial nude herself, and will it be the new millennial pink? I hope so, because I’m here for it.
My first impression of the product, even before application, was how small it was. As a fairly short girl with relatively small hands, I marveled at how a makeup artist like Kim’s BFF Mario could hold the brush that comes with this product without getting a serious finger cramp. As I quickly found out, his fingers are likely cramp-free regardless, because the tool is total crap anyway. The brush is okay for a little blending, but it's very stiff and blunt, even for a flat-top, and I refuse to use the sponge side on account of my unwillingness to have a perpetually dirty sponge on one end of my makeup brush. Not to mention a few pounces told me it wouldn’t beat my beauty blender, anyway.
The Medium kit, swatched.
Onto the product itself. The kit comes with two dual-ended sticks, one boasting two contour shades, the other two highlight shades, one matte and one shimmery. The highlight stick is stunning, and while the matte shade is closer to my skin tone than a highlight, the fault is mine for not grabbing the kit in Light. The shimmer side of the stick is glowy and gorgeous, and I’ve got virtually no complaints. I love it most for highlighting the nose, brow bone and inner corners of the eyes.
This is the basic shape for my go-to, natural daily contour. One positive: the product does blend out like a dream.
The contour is good, but that’s the problem—it’s just good. I used it and I liked it, and I didn’t have much desire to reach for it a second time. The amount of product included is almost laughable—yes, you get four sides, but I doubt they’ll all run out at the same time, and they all seem like they’ll run out pretty quickly regardless. Kim also boasted about the pointed tips, which of course round out almost entirely after one or two uses. After two days of use, I was already itching to contour with my Charlotte Tilbury Beach Stick in Ibiza. However, I have since begun using this kit on no-makeup makeup days when I'm busy running errands, applying the lighter matte sides of both sticks and blending into bare skin. The effect is natural and glowy, and I definitely see myself incorporating the stick into my routine this way far more often than for a heavy-duty, Kim-K-esque chiseled look.
I know this review might sound quite negative—or perhaps I’m overthinking it because it’s the first piece of negativity I’ve really put on my blog—but I’m in no way trying to say this kit sucks; what I’m getting at is that it’s simply not a necessity. There’s nothing must-have about this kit beyond the brand name and the packaging, and as a Kim fan, I’m still super glad I got it. However, there are much better contouring products on the market, many of which I included in a list of alternatives to this product I wrote for Health.com.
All in all, I recommend picking up a different contour product if your end goal is to look a little more like Kim. I’ll definitely continue using the product, but I won’t be eagerly adding it to my essential kit anytime soon. Here’s hoping in the future KKW Beauty steps its game up, because you know that I’ll still be the first person clicking “Add to Cart” when they launch their second product. Sorry not sorry.
