If you guys didn’t know – the makeup brand Black Radiance has made its way to South African shores and is being exclusively sold at Dischem. Several weeks ago I went to the store to check out what the brand had to offer and to see what items piqued my interest. I must say that my first feeling was one of underwhelm; I felt like the collection was outdated. I promptly went to check their Instagram to see if what I saw is the makeup they are selling in the US or if they brought their outdated stock to South Africa. We are definitely missing some of their newer realeases here in SA, I really hope that they have plans to bring us up to date makeup trends in the future because if they don’t, I think it will be difficult for them to make a mark in the country.

So the one thing that did catch my eye was the True Complexion Contour Palette and after a bit of thought, I went to buy it a week and a half a go. I’ve been using it daily since I bought it for the purposes of reviewing it for the blog.

The palette consists of contour and sculpting shades and a highlight – there are 2 options: light to medium and medim to dark. I chose to go with the medium to dark as it was the best matched for my complexion.

I was impressed with the way the palette swatched, the shades looked perfect for my skin tone.

On the inside of the palette there are instructions as to how to use each of the shades – I disregarded the instructions for the sculpting shade because it made more sense to me to use it to set the areas where I had used concealer: under my eyes, forehead and chin. The contour shade I used on the hollows of my cheek bones and on my forehead. I used the highlighter on the highest points of my cheeks, brow bone, nose bridge and on my cupid’s bow.

I really enjoyed the contour shade, I love the fact that it’s matte and the colour matches me perfectly. It is very pigmented, a little goes a long way – I also found that it blended very well. The hightlighter was also a winner, I love golden highlights and it provided the perfect shimmer. The sculpting shade was a miss for me; it isn’t light enough to act as a highlight for areas where I applied concealer, it’s very close to my actual skin tone. I feel like the sculpting shade from the light to medium palette would be perfect for me.

The palette costs R199, I think that this is a fair price given the fact that you get 3 products. It would be great to travel with because it is compact. I highly recommend this product, especially because of the contour shade; it is hard to find affordable, matte contour shades for dark skin tones in South Africa. This palette is going in my makeup rotation and I foresee it getting some heavy use 🙂

Have you seen the Black Radiance stand at Dischem? What did you think of the products?