I’m still trying to catch up on reviewing some of my “older” makeup purchases, but today’s post is focused on some of the newer launches and shade extensions!

Westman Atelier Face Trace Contour Stick in Whiskey and Ganache

Since its launch, I have only ever heard good things about the Westman Atelier powder bronzers, cream contours, and cream blushes. Unfortunately, their shade options were considerably lacking in those days. I could finally try the Beauty Butter Powder Bronzer when they introduced the shade Beau Soleil in Summer 2023; and I loved it! I had also gotten a sample pack that included the cream contour in Truffle and cream blush in Petal. They seemed nice, but I couldn’t get a true sense of the products’ performance because those shades are intended for makeup lovers much lighter than me.

After learning that the brand expanded the Trace Contour range, I only had enough self-control to wait for a sale before finally giving in. Nice cream blushes are a dime a dozen, but I don’t have a cream contour that I can point to as my favorite. So, this was a wish fulfillment type of purchase. After buying Whiskey, I wondered if I might have been better off with the shade Ganache, which is not part of this most recent expansion. It’s just that all the promo images for Ganache made that shade look so rich by comparison, so I assumed it would be too deep for me. It also looked quite red, instead of cool, in some photos and videos. After seeing the brand’s swatches of the full range together, Ganache didn’t seem as dark, though perhaps still a little red. I didn’t plan on buying a second shade until I realized Cult Beauty stocks the mini sizes and they ship to Germany. So, my curiosity got the better of me and that’s how I ended up with another one.

For those curious about the differences in packaging between the full-size and the “petite” is that the full-size has a magnetic closure, gold colored ring around the twist up base, and the brand name etched into the rim of the lid. It’s also weighted (not just from there being more product inside) and it costs €50 for 6 grams of product. The mini is not magnetic and closes with a snap. It’s too small to have words around the rim of the lid, but the “WA” heart logo is inside the cap. There’s still some weightiness to the mini, but it’s not comparatively heavy, and it costs €27 for 2.5 grams.

I don’t mind the fact that Whiskey blends in so much that it is hard to see in photos. The best contours are the ones that create the sculpted effect without being able to tell it’s due to makeup. Unfortunately though, this shade doesn’t create a shadow. I knew this was a neutral color, but I didn’t think about the fact that neutral ones that worked for me in the past were a lot deeper (brontours). So, because this isn’t that much darker than my skin tone, I can just see a brownish-pink color without it having any affect other than adding the tiniest bit of dimension from being a different color than my foundation. It doesn’t create a true shadow, so it doesn’t work like a real contour on me.

I didn’t want to buy Ganache because I didn’t think this formula was that much better than the €30 Fenty Match Stix Matte Skinstick, and I still liked the €38 Uoma Double Contour Stick even more. To me, it’s not that much different from the €34 Anastasia Beverly Hills Smooth Blur Contour Stick either. However, getting a better shade did improve my overall opinion of the product. Ganache still has some red to it, so it can look a little more like a bronzer on me, but the depth level does create a sculpting effect. So, I view it as a brontour.

My holy grail cream contour brush is the one by Patrick Ta, but the Westman Atelier Contour continually looked patchy when I used it (even if I didn’t draw the stick directly on my skin). The same happened when I used the Trace Contour with my Bisyodo S-517, but I was successful in blending it with the Sonia G Mini Base. Finding the right brush for this definitely raised my opinion of the product, but for that price I would expect it to blend beautifully with all of my favorite brushes for cream and liquid products. The sleek black packaging with magnetic closure feels luxurious, but the formula is a little stiffer than I prefer. It doesn’t glide as easily as the Uoma or ABH, even when I warm it up on my skin first before applying it.

I appreciate the longevity and non-dewy nature of the Trace Contour that sets to a dry touch, plus it being fragrance-free, but formulas exist (at least in bronzer ranges) that are creamier while still drying down and setting on their own. My favorite type of cream cheek product is melty like the Rare Beauty Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Stick. This is my preference because of my dry skin type, and perhaps people with normal, combination, and oily skin get along well with the Westman Atelier Contour because it’s less emollient and has kaolin clay. Plus, the amount of pigment one gets with a thin layer lends to it being easier than other sticks to build up color without overdoing it.

With these aspects in mind, perhaps it is much harder for others to find contours that suit their skin type or undertone, so this product is worth it to them. As that isn’t a problem for me, I can’t help but feel a little bit of regret in buying the full-size, though I didn’t know the petite size existed until I started shopping through Cult Beauty for the first time.

I may as well mention that I don’t intend to buy the newly launched Westman Atelier Sun Tone Bronzing Crème because the duo best suited to my skin tone is Soleil Parfait 4, which is practically the same depth as Ganache. I don’t believe the slight undertone difference among them, based on swatches by Daps_Makeup, is going to look different enough on my face.

Prada Touch Cream to Powder Blush in B32 Caffee

I continually see this shade name written as “Caffe” in the marketing photos, but it says “Caffee” on the unicarton and blush packaging itself, so that’s how I’ll reference it. Coffee is “caffè” in Italian, so it sounds like that should be the correct spelling, but I believe the name written on the product determines what is correct over what is listed online. I might have thought the names were different depending on which country they are sold in, but the US-websites also say Caffe instead of coffee and the German word for coffee is Kaffee. So, that doesn’t apply either.

This blush is long-lasting, but doesn’t set down to 100% dryness on a moisturized base (for example: a dewy sunscreen, glowy primer, and hydrating foundation). So there is a little bit of transfer. This doesn’t have as much slip as I’m used to in a cream to powder formula. It leans more on the side of being a cream.

When I’ve had a drier base that was powder-set before applying this blush to the cheeks (versus the other cheek being powdered after the blush was applied), I could still feel moisture on my skin which also still had some transfer. Powdering makes the blush finish look matte, but it doesn’t do much else. What stops transfer is the Pat Mcgrath Glass Setting Spray, which also lets me keep the hydrated look.

I heard this can be used on the eyes and lips as well, so I tried those once.
On one eye, I didn’t use a primer and the other eye I used the Lisa Eldridge Liquid Silk. I had creasing on both eyes, but the one without the Lisa Eldridge product was worse. I was able to fix the creasing by powder-setting the better side and that worked. However, it also muted out the color a bit. So, I don’t plan on using this blush on my eyes again.

As a lip product, it looks beautiful. I feel it looked even better than Fwee Pudding Pots, but it’s drier. The time it takes to repair my lips once it dries past a certain point isn’t worth using Caffee this way again.

Although “parfum/fragrance” is not written on the ingredient list, it still contains aroma/flavor, vanillin, and quite a few essential oils and extracts that have scents. It still smells exactly like my Prada lip balm and highlighter, but thankfully nowhere near as potent. I had to bring the blush right up to my nose to detect it.

These are some of my small cheek brushes that fit fairly well in the pan, but can still get some product around the edges.

Please forgive me if you’re tired of hearing or reading complaints about the packaging, but it’s something I cannot overlook. Packaging has always been important to me, to the point where I’ve bought items in the past that I knew were purely for collecting/display purposes. In my post about Weighty Makeup Packaging, I talked about the look and feel of a product contributing to the perception of luxury and what my expectations are if it comes with a high price tag.
In the case of the Prada Blushes, I could tell from photos that the plastic would be light, and that fact alone almost stopped me from buying one. Even though the square silver and gold mirrored refillable compacts aren’t that heavy, they still have a high end look to them. Although I wouldn’t want to pay the same price for the blushes as the brand’s eyeshadow quads and highlighters cost, I would still be willing to spend an extra €20 for a more substantial container than what they chose. The Prada Blushes feel exactly like the material used for my Bluetooth earbuds case!

It was the brand offering a blush in my favorite type of color, combined with the 20% discount from Douglas, that made me give this product a chance. However, I can’t help but be disappointed whenever I hold it (which is ironic because I love my Bluetooth case) because it feels like I’m handling a knockoff instead of an authentic product from Prada. The chunky triangle in that soft color is somewhat cute, and I understand the appeal at being able to snap two or more blushes together in that packaging, but I don’t even get to utilize that feature unless I buy another one. Products should be satisfying to use on their own without the gimmick of being stackable. The discounted price I paid was supposed to make up for the disappointing packaging as long as I loved the actual makeup inside. Because it’s not the type of cream-to-powder that dries down completely, it didn’t fully make up for it.

Givenchy Prisme Libre Highlighter Powder in 004 Coral Copper

This is another wish fullfillment purchase of sorts. The coral portion of this highlighter has the same kind of vibrant vibes as the Haus Labs highlighter in the color Fire Opal, which I ended up returning because that specific shade was way too glittery. This tone of highlighter isn’t that popular compared to the typical pink, champagne, gold, and bronze. I wasn’t even sure if Coral Copper would suit me, but I wanted something different. The only highlighter that comes to mind from my collection that’s anywhere near similar to this one is Dreamsicle by Becca Cosmetics, which is eight years old.

Thanks to A A Luxury Makeup stating that this highligher isn’t as deep as marketing images show, and the discounted price of €37 at Flaconi, I felt there was less risk of dissatisfaction in making this purchase. Plus, it’s a baked product, which is a feature I tend to like in highlighters (or at least I love baked gelee and gel-powder hybrid formulas). The Prisme Libre Highlighter Powder is said to contain micro hyaluronic acid and squalane for hydration and comfort.

One of the first things I look for in a highlighter is incredible smoothness in texture. The tinier the particle size the better. I also prefer highlighters that can be subtle up to medium intensity. This highlighter is an interesting mix of having small particles and looking smooth, but some of the shimmer in the mixture is super reflective and pearly. The base colors partly blend into my skin, so it looks subtle in that way, but the reflect is strong enough to be considered a strobe type of highlight. To quote the brand, “A blend of blurring powders and light-reflecting pearls, helping to visually smooth the skin and provide multidimensional radiance and a long-lasting blurring effect.”
This has indeed been my experience. I like the blur properties, but the reflect is too much for me, so I tend to blend out the highlighter quite a bit or use brushes specifically suited to pick up less product.

Sheerest application vs heavier application on top of a peach colored blush.

A different lighting situation with a normal application vs a normal amount on moisturized skin.

My experience with this highlighter has been very inconsistent because it looks different in various lighting situations. It looks exactly to the smoothness level I like at some angles, but then the shimmer looks obvious at others. If I’m using all my hydrating skincare underneath, the highlighter practically melts into my skin and looks subtle even with a heavy application. If my face is on the drier side, I can see the highlighter take on a little bit of a wet look that’s either textured or smooth depending on how the light hits it in that moment. Essentially, this isn’t a perfect highlighter for me. It’s too reflective to pass as a natural looking glow, however, pairing this with a peachy or coral blush (to match the base color) gives me results that I am the happiest with.

So, this range is best suited for someone who likes a beaming and obvious highlighter without containing actual glitter. Parfum is fairly high on the ingredient list, so that could be a potential issue for someone. It smells like the typical Prada powders mixed with the typical Dior powder scent. I can detect it the entire time the compact is open, and I can also smell it on my face for at least ten minutes before it goes away. It’s not the strongest I’ve ever smelled and it’s not overwhelming, but I never fail to notice it.

In terms of longevity, I’ve had no issues. It’s just the perfume and radiance level that I’m not thrilled about, but I’m so pleased with how it looks paired with certain blushes that I’m still glad I bought this. I must admit though that I’d be unhappy if I paid full price for it. It costs the same as a Prada highlighter refill, which I think is a worthier purchase, minus the Prada one being overly perfumed. I still hate that.

The packaging can seem a bit bulky, since it’s the same size as the Prisme Libre pressed powders and bronzers without including the brush. However, I don’t mind because of the potential to be refillable (the bottom pops out), and the fact that I dropped it on a hard floor and the compact sprung open without the highlighter breaking.

One more thing I wanted to mention is that for some reason, the Douglas website lists the shade I own (H004 Coral Copper) as “H005 VELOURS BRONZÉ.” This makes me wonder if there is a 5th shade coming and they accidentally listed it. However, it could also be purely an error. Shade H002 Rosy Gold is currently listed as Coral Copper instead. At the time that I finished typing this post, the shade names for the new/reformulated Tom Ford Bronzers are still incorrect and I’ve seen incorrect names as well as two products with switched names listed before. So, it could mean nothing, or maybe it was even a planned shade that got scrapped, but how fun if I learned a secret!

Whenever I discovered errors on the Sephora-US website, I used to email customer service and they corrected it within a few days. I’ve attempted to contact Douglas twice in the past and once I never got a response. The other time was regarding the swapped names of the holiday Gucci blushes and they didn’t respond back until three or four weeks later and it took another week for them to attempt to correct it (which still had another error). So, I don’t bother.

Anyway, that concludes this series of reviews! I hope this has been helpful. Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤