After hearing all the hype on this contour palette I HAD to buy it! I do have some mixed thoughts on it though.
The packaging is simple. It's a slim cardboard palette with magnetic closure. I often feel as though it's missing a mirror due to the large empty space on the inside of the lid but I suppose contour/highlight isn't something people tend to touch up on the go. Being able to replace the individual pans is quite a nice touch, making it more economical than buying a whole new palette.
The contour shades are very pigmented, which is great, but you do need to keep a light hand and blend blend blend! I tend to stick with the more neutral one of these shades as my skin is quite pale and I don't want to overdo it.
The highlight shades are where I struggle. No matter what I do, I cant seem to get the banana or vanilla shades to show up on my skin at all (not that I'm wanting yellow skin, but it doesn't do anything for me at all). The shimmery highlight shade is very pretty so I use that on my cheekbones a lot. Being shimmery, it's not very well suited to my nose etc though.
I'll keep persevering, but in hindsight it would have been better if I could have tested it out before purchasing or bought a cheaper dupe to see how well highlighters show on my skin.
I love my ABH contour kit, I was lucky enough to actually be gifted mine. As much as I love it, I'm unsure if I would pay for it now that there are a lot of other new products out there that can give me the same affect. Being a lighter complexion I don't get use out of all of the shades, but I try and use them for other things like eye shadows etc. The banana powder is great for brightening under the eyes and I definitely love that just as much as I love the contour shade I am using.
Its a great size for travelling and is multi purpose as it also has a face powder and a highlight in it as well as a mirror, so this is great for carrying around!
The powders are easy to blend and I usually just build the color up as I need it.
Over all, I think its a great product, but make sure to shop around first :)
Tips: Use the colors that don't suit your skin tone as eye shadows/crease colors. Even the "highlighter" can look great on the lid :)