Charlotte Tilbury’s new sculpting face palette made me rethink filler

My favourite of Tilbury’s latest drops, the lip cheat contour duo added depth and fullness to my mouth within a matter of minutes.

Applying the fair pencil’s sculpt end around the edge of my mouth and under the hollow of my bottom lip, I was wowed by how the creamy formula glided across the surface of my skin without dragging. As I’ve seen creators on TikTok do in many a make-up tutorial, I overlined the lips with the sculpt pencil to see if the contour effect would better mask this attempt at faux plumping.

I was pleased to report that it did and, after swiping the equally buttery fill end onto the centre of my pout, saw that my lips appeared instantly voluminous. It’s my job to criticise these products, but I can’t fault it.

Following on from the lip cheat duo, I topped off my pre-primed and lined lips with the unfortunately-named big lip plumpgasm. For context, the plumpgasm gloss isn’t actually a new release, but its nudegasm diamond shade is brand new. Combined with the contour from the fair pencil, I found that the diamond shade was a perfect complement to highlight the natural fullness around the centre and cupid’s bow areas of the lips. Plus, with tin oxide and pearlescent synthetic fluorphlogopite, the finish is glowy and lit-from-within.

This formula swipes on much like a normal lip gloss; however, give it a chance to settle, and your lips will be tingling thanks to the included chilli pepper (capsicum frutescens resin) and menthol-like (methyl diisopropyl propionamide) ingredients. It’s a fun but slightly odd effect, but if it’s meant to increase plumpness, I don’t think it quite works.

Though the brand claims to have seen increased, long-lasting plumping of up to 25 per cent after twice daily application over two weeks, this test was only carried out on 33 participants. It’s not a result I could replicate. For me, the plumpgasm gloss created a short-lived fullness that was simply a fun, zingy way to kick off the day.

As someone who usually takes a cream or liquid approach to contouring, I was intrigued by the idea of four powder products in a one-stop-shop palette. Much like the plumpgasm gloss above, the nudegasm palette isn’t entirely new, either. Rather, it’s been brought back (and repackaged) for fans after an initial launch more than five years ago.

Using the below shapewear brush, I kicked off with the soft sculpt shade (bottom right) to contour my nose. I did this with a horizontal line across the lower third of the bridge, followed by two vertical lines on either side of the bridge, roughly from the tear ducts down to the nostrils. Buffed out with the fluffier end of the brush, this created a faux uplift towards the end of my nose, as well as ‘snatching’ the width of the bridge. I combined this with pops of the super glow shade (top left) on the tip and upper bridge of the nose for a more dramatic effect.

For my cheekbones and temples, I continued using the soft sculpt hue in the buccal fat area to create some Bella Hadid-esque hollows, and around my hairline for a more lifted finish. I then deepened the shadows as needed with the darker super sculpt shade (bottom left). Again, I added a few sweeps of the super glow to my upper cheekbones, chin and central forehead to really hammer home the illusion of depth.

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Lastly, using Tilbury’s multi-glow shade (top right) with a fluffier brush, I worked in some blush warmth across my cheeks. This was a welcome addition to combat the initial harshness of the contour-highlight contrast.

I was in awe during this entire process. As someone who’s always been self-conscious about their nose, I was stunned at how akin my nose contour was to a non-invasive rhinoplasty (in short, filler) and how the hollows of my cheeks appeared as though I’d hopped on the buccal fat removal trend of 2022. The two highlighter shades balanced everything out with a youthful glow. I think Tilbury’s comparison to a “full face filter” isn’t far off. Even as someone who reviews makeup for a living, this was very impressive.

After testing a Charlotte Tilbury kabuki brush (£36, Charlottetilbury.com) a few years ago, I’ve been a big fan of the brand’s bristle choice and sturdy rose gold casing. The shapewear make-up brush boasts these same features, and it works equally well when carving and buffing out definition without moving your foundation.

When using it to create the above nose, cheek and temple shadows, I enjoyed its precision, but found the densely-packed fluffy end worked well to combat the dreaded ‘drawn-on’ look. In this way, it worked well for delicate sculpting, but I didn’t find it easy to blend larger areas of shadow, blush or highlight, owing to the minute size (1cm circumference approx.) of both ends. If you’re planning to use the shapewear tool daily, you might also find your shimmers become dulled by any residual contour on the bristles and, at the same time, your sculpting shades more luminescent. If this were to become a staple in your routine, I think you’d need a second brush.