Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Duo in 01 Review and Swatches


You know you have problems when you wake up in the morning all happy and excited not about the new day laying ahead of you but about the new contour and highlight duo you just got and you'll get to use on your face soon. That was me this morning. Which product has me this excited you ask?






Ladies, meet my new love: the Make Up For Ever Pro Sculpting Duo in 01.
I don 't usually start posts with spoilers and I try to be neutral about a product when I review it but sometimes it's just love at first sight.
The compact looks like a regular Make Up For Ever powder compact: sleek and black. The texture of the powder reminds me of MAC's Extra Dimension Skinfinish, that hybrid between a cream and powder that feels so smooth and silky, almost cool to the touch. The powders are extremely soft milled and one swipe is enough to get a rich swatch. The highlighter packs a punch while the bronzing part is a tad softer when it comes to color payoff.



 The highlight is a frosty pink that blends really well and reflects light beautifully; when swatched straight up it looks frosty and bright but when applied with a brush and blended onto the skin it sheers out to the most amazing veil, it almost disappears into the skin imparting a subtle luminosity and glow to areas where applied. Given the awesome texture it's really easy to diffuse it or keep it more concentrated if you so desire, making this highlighter so versatile. It wore beautifully all day and compared to my other highlighters it never looked frosty or obvious but made me look like I have really, really good skin.

The bronzing powder is just as finely milled but less pigmented which is really great when it comes to contouring. When applied with a brush it ads a whisper of color creating that much sought after illusion of shadow under the cheekbones. The sheerer texture is great when used for contouring as I didn't get that stamped in effect when depositing the color, meaning I didn't have to blend the bejesus out of it to sheer it out. Too often I find that contouring products are too pigmented and I end up making a mess in the blending process, moving my foundation around too much and irritating my skin from trying to remove those awful patches of bronzer. That was not the case with this product. It's sheer enough to be foolproof and it builds beautifully making it so easy to create depth in some areas while keeping it sheer and subtle in others. The color is soft brown with subtle orange/tan undertones but given the formula it looks incredibly natural on my NC20 skin, it didn't came out too orange and it's a nice alternative to other traditional contouring powders that can look too ashy and obvious on my pale complexion.


 




The other key player in applying this product was the Make Up For Ever 156 Wavy brush, a small tapered blush brush that does a great job at picking a small amount of product and depositing the right amount of color onto the skin without stamping it on. The brush is soft as a feather and lightly packed which makes great for blending product on top of a base (like foundation) without moving everything around. I find it pairs so well with the Sculpting Duo, I tried using many different brushes in my arsenal but the Wavy one gave the best results by far.
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Overall, I have nothing but good things to say about this duo. It looks pretty and it performs outstandingly. This has to be my favorite Make Up For Ever product in my stash and I thing the brand did a phenomenal job with the formula. It's all about the formula. They nailed it! I can see this being the perfect product for a beginner, a minimalist makeup lover or a more experienced makeup junkie that crazes that airbrushed contour that's so in right now. I really hope they will expand the range and see new products with this formula. come out from MUFE because they nailed it. Wait, I said that already...

Wearing both the contour and the highlight in daylight


 ... with flash

 .. and low light



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