Contour Palettes: Kat Von D vs. Anastasia

As you know, I'm a die hard Anastasia Beverly Hills fan. I use their contour kit as well as other products on a daily basis. I got the contour kit when it first came out and I've almost hit pan on the Banana shade and love the shimmery highlighter in it. As well as all the colors I really do like them. So when other contour kits came out I didn't even care. I'm not the type to buy the same thing in big products/palettes such as this. Concealer, foundation, eyeliner, etc sure I'll buy the same color in all of them because of formula and consistency but I don't do that when it comes to powder products. I usually get something I like and stick with it until it's empty and either try something else or repurchase it. When Kat Von dropped her contour palette I really didn't even bother to look at it. I figured that it was too similar so why bother when I have a perfectly good one. Then I kept reading reviews and hearing people talk about it. And then....the weirdest thing started happening. My contour powders weren't going on smooth anymore they were starting to be patchy. I really had only used one shade of contour cause too me they were too similar and I really just liked the cool toned one the best. Not that I don't use the others I do on occasion but only when I want to look more tan. So I was starting to find that the contour powders didn't seem to work well with setting cream contours the best either. They worked don't get me wrong but it took a lot of blending. The lighter shades were perfect just as they had always been but the contour powders were no longer jiving with my skin for some reason. Therefore, I decided to look into the Kat Von D Shade Light palette. This was $46 where the ABH one is $40. Also the contour powders are gigantic and the highlight shades are about half the size. The ABH one is all the same size powders. Which I like. 

Right off the bat swatching them I could tell the Kat Von was a smoother formula. What I also loved was there was a peach shade included in the highlight shades and there was a super dark contour shade and they all seemed to be if not cool toned then definitely more neutral. So for that reason I think it works for a larger variety of skin tones. The highlight shades are also more pigmented. The ABH ones are a little more sheer which I really like for setting my under eye area. I never have understood people getting so pissed because the highlight shades didn't actually highlight. The way I look at it is they do set your highlight and under eye area which is where highlight goes and then provided you with a shimmery highlighter that was to highlight your cheekbones. I never had an issue with that concept but some people really got mad about it. Which whatever you like that's up to you. The Shade Light palette I think will show up more but you'll want to be careful so that you don't look too cakey or powdery from it. They're also just a touch darker than the Anastasia highlight shades but not noticeable darker. I prefer to use a concealer or cream highlighter to do my highlighting and then just set it with a powder, any powder, whether it has color to it or not. I don't necessarily want to do the whole Kim Kardashian Banana powder line, piled on top of the cheek bones and stuff.  Again I say, to each his own. If you want to do that I think you could easily do that with the Shade Light Palette. The contour shades are so pigmented and would easily be enough by their self, you could set a cream contour with them too but I would stick with the lighter shade to do that unless you have fairly dark skin. Mainly because this whole palette is sooooo pigmented. The Anastasia contour shades are more warm where the shade light is more cool toned. You can build your own contour kit on the Anastasia site because they have plenty of shades both warm and cool toned. Along with different shades of highlights. It's still $40 when you build it as well. This is just the universal one sold in Sephora, Ulta, and wherever else.

Another thing I really like about Kat Von is that most of her products are Talc Free like her blushes, which has been known to cause breakouts. I can't find if this is for sure Talc Free but I'm thinking it probably is. I've been having some bumps under my cheek bone for months. Nothing crazy, and not pimples just bumpiness that got on my nerves. I started wondering if maybe it was because of the Talc. So I started using Makeup Geek Blushes and that helped but didn't have an alternative for contouring yet. So like I said the Anastasia had been starting to look patchy with the contour no matter what brush or sponge I used and was having texture issues so here I am trying a new contour palette hoping to resolve those issues. 

The top row is the Shade Light Palette. The bottom row is Anastasia palette. As you can see the banana shade in the Anastasia one is more yellow. The contour shades in the Shade Light are better in my opinion. They are different from each other all the way around. The Anastasia one I feel is better if you're more fair and the Kat Von is a little bit more universal for light skin tones to tan skin tones. You won't actually get a shimmery highlighter though in the Shade Light palette as you do in the Anastasia one which is one of my favorite highlighters.

This look is using the Kat Von Shade Light Palette by itself with no cream contour or anything. Using Sombre on the cheekbones. Shadowplay on the forehead and Subconscious on the nose with a very thin eyeshadow brush. It blended beautifully. No patchiness what so ever. The highlight shades oxidized just a little and I mean very little. All in all I do prefer the Shade Light Palette for my skin tone and needs. The Anastasia one is still a favorite, it's just not working for my skin right now but it's still a good product.