One of the many brand new releases from NYX Cosmetics is their Wonder Stick, which is a dual-sided highlighting and contour stick. If highlighting and contouring your face absolutely scares the crap out of you, this is a wonderful product to use. It is basically foolproof and even beginner’s can get the hang of highlighting and contouring with this product. I have Medium and Universal for you today. The Medium is good for skin tones that are light to medium with neutral, olive, or yellow undertones and the Universal shade will work with every single skin tone. I’ve got full swatches, my review, and a pictorial demonstration inside!
I purchased Medium and Universal because my skin tone has warmer undertones to it. Medium will be especially great for those occasions when I want a darker, more intense contour on my face whereas the Universal shade will work well for daily use. On the packaging, there is a picture of @Vegas_Nay on Instagram and how she uses the product on her face to highlight and contour. You can easily use these photographs as a guide for your own face, just remember that everyone has different face shapes and features and your own contouring and highlighting will vary. I’ll go into greater detail on that in just a moment…
The Wonder Stick’s themselves basically look like markers with dual-sided ends. One side has your contour shade and one side has your highlight shade.
The contour side of the Medium and Universal shades are actually almost identical. There is very little difference in the pigmentation or color at all.
The highlight side of the sticks are very different, however. The Medium has a completely matte, flat finish to it and the Universal is shimmery. As to which one is ideal for you, it is honestly going to depend on what your skin needs are. If you tend to have dry skin and need a boost of glow to your skin, you won’t mind the shimmer in Universal. If you have oily skin or have more mature skin, you may want to avoid the shimmer because it can emphasize fine lines, wrinkles, and pores. It can also depend on the occasion, as shimmer can look divine at night, but a little too much during the daytime.
I personally like owning both of these because I have my choice of either a shimmer or a matte cream highlight. Again, choose what is best for your skin type, age, and daily makeup preferences. I feel these are inexpensive and enough of a beauty bargain to purchase both.
You can see in the swatches above that the contour shades are just about identical and the highlight shades are vastly different. Universal has the shimmery highlight and Medium has the matte highlight. These were both super pigmented and creamy when applied. I was impressed with the cream formula and how smoothly it applied and blended.
HOW-TO CONTOUR USING THE WONDER STICK:
So this is what my makeup looks like in the “Before” photo. There’s nothing wrong with the makeup per se, but it lacks that extra something that really makes the face makeup stand out. I love highlighting and contouring because it’s a magical way to really play up your facial structure.
Above is a representation of where to highlight and contour. All of the products are applied heavily to my face so that it would show up in pictures for this diagram. I typically apply my highlight and contour with a lighter hand than this because too much product can really give you “cake face,” and you don’t want that.
WHERE TO HIGHLIGHT (AND WHY):
- Center of your nose: makes your nose contour stand out and the bridge of your nose look slimmer.
- Center of your forehead: natural light hits here and this can make your complexion look brighter and more awake.
- Underneath your eye to the side of your nose, to your temple, in a triangular shape: brightens your under-eye area in a broader way and gives the illusion of high cheekbones.
- Center of your chin: makes your complexion look healthier and can slim a large chin.
- Right in your Cupid’s Bow (above your upper lip): makes your upper lip look larger.
- Just above and underneath your cheek contour so that the contour has more contrast and stands out more: gives the illusion of super sculpted cheekbones.
WHERE TO CONTOUR (AND WHY):
- Down the sides of your nose and between your nostrils: slims a wide nose bridge and lengthens the nose bridge dramatically.
- Around your hair line and right above each eyebrow: gives the illusion of a much smaller forehead.
- Down the sides of your Cupid’s Bow: helps define the Cupid’s Bow and makes the area above your lip stand out more, which is widely regarded as sexy.
- In the hollows of your cheekbones: creates a shadow where there typically is one on someone who has very slim, sculpted cheekbones.
- Underneath your jaw-line: creates a shadow that gets rid of a double-chin.
Every single person is born with unique bone structure, so instead of fighting yours, learn to enhance it with highlighting and contouring. You can dramatically alter the look of your bone structure with this alone. If you have a feature that you don’t particularly love, you can create shadows and highlights to slim, trim, and sculpt!
When blending out the cream product, I always use a Beauty Blender sponge. You wet the sponge under running water, squeeze out the excess, and use it damp. It really helps to blend out face products and soak up any excess product so you aren’t left with cake-face. You want to make sure everything is very well blended. When in doubt, blend some more!
My face after highlighting and contouring doesn’t look like a completely different person, but it looks like a better version of myself. My cheekbones are sculpted and the parts of my face that the light naturally hits are glowing. It gives my skin and face a MUCH less “flat” and “boring” look.
You can see the comparison side-by-side in the above photo. It just adds that extra something to the facial features and gives a much more polished look.
The NYX Cosmetics Wonder Sticks are available at Ulta Beauty stores nationwide and online by clicking here. They retail for $11.99USD each, making them a total beauty bargain! These are available in Light, Medium, Deep, and Universal.
[ALL PHOTOGRAPHY ON THIS SITE IS TAKEN BY REBECCA KAZIMIR. NO PHOTOGRAPHS ARE TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.]
Xanthia says
Hi,
Just got the wonder stick and I’m new to contouring and highlighting.
Do we apply it over top foundation? Thanks
candice vela says
Does Ulta still sell the sticks I would love to buy them and try the contour
joanne says
Do you use the wonder stick under liquid foundation? over? instead of?
Cassie says
Hi, I can see some of the contour swipes on your face are different shades. Which shade did you use for the hollows of your cheeks and which shade fid you use for your temples?