The contouring trend is long over, but Catrice still decided to launch a new contouring palette. They did one that is excellent, which I reviewed a long time ago, but sadly that was discontinued. So now they have decided to bring it back, but rather than a shimmery highlight and a contour shade, the reincarnation has a matte highlight banana powder, a matte contour shade and a translucent setting powder. How did I get on?
Catrice Shape in a Box face palette
As usual, this contouring palette does not break the bank. For just ā¬4.99, you get yourself three different face powders that look like they would make a great travel palette. It comes in two different shades: Light and Medium. I of course own this in the light version.
The Packaging
The palette is housed in a simple, but stylish looking plastic compact. There is no mirror, but the powders have a good size. They are as big as the new Blush Box blushes, so that means these powders are full sized. What you can also see however is that this does not come with a whole lot of product. In total this palette contains just 7.5 grams of product, which means that you get roughly as much as a single powder usually gets you. It is in fact quite a bit less than the older contour palette: that came with 10 grams.
The Palette
The palette comes with three powders and all the powders are matte. The main reason why I wanted to try this was to see how this would compare to the old palette. Because if this is as good or possibly even better, they have revived an old but very popular product and rereleased it. The three shades you get are a yellow banana powder, a contour powder and a fixing powder.
The Swatch
The first thing I noticed when I swatched these powders is how soft they are. They are very finely milled and therefore have a bit of kick up, but not so that it annoys me. You are wise to blow it away after first use though as it could easily dirty up your palette and have colour transfer in the other powders, especially because the darkest shade is in the middle.
In terms of blendability, these powders work really well. They blend easily, but the contour is a tad patchy. The banana powder is a touch too dark for me, which most of them are. The only one that I have found that works for me is the NYX HD Banana powder, everything else has made me look jaundiced. The translucent fixing powder is nice enough, but that can look quite white and stark again.
The Comparison
I wouldn’t be a good beautyblogger if I didn’t throw in a comparisons of the two contour shades, because that is why I bought the palette in the first place. The old version of this contour palette is one of my favorite contour shades and that is on the right. On the left is the new powder. As you can see, the new powder is darker, more pigmented, but also a bit patchy. There is more product concentrated in some places. It seems to go a longer way as well, but the older version of this powder is a touch cooler in undertone. I also love how easy it is to control the older version of the powder, so I don’t find that it isn’t as pigmented.
The Application
Since the yellow and white powders barely show up on my face, it wouldn’t make sense to do a before and after of the application to my face. The contour has no problem showing up, but as you can see it also applies a bit patchy to my face. The shade I don’t mind much once applied, it certainly looks less warm than in the swatch. But the patchy application isn’t great. It is much darker in some places.
However, I still like this powder. Especially if you never tried the original powder, this can still be a good contour powder that you can make work if you take your time to blend well. The palette gains bonus points for including a matte highlight and a fixing powder, making this your one stop face shop when it comes to doing makeup. So perfect for travel and I think you are a bit darker than I am that this may work much better for you than it does on me.
The Conclusion
The new Catrice Shape in a Box Contouring Palette is not my favorite, but it is a good substitute for the old palette. The contour shades are certainly close enough. The reason why I am not wowed by this is because it is a bit too dark for my skin tone which means that the powders do not work for me the way they should. That said, if this is a good colour match for you, then I would not hesitate to try it.