MAC Coffee Walnut Pro Sculpting Cream

I’ve been looking for a good cream contour product for a while now, so I was excited when I heard that MAC would be releasing six cream contours, called the Pro Sculpting Creams, as part of the Face & Body collection.  However, once I saw photos, I was a bit disappointed – most of the shades looked too warm to work as a contour, which should generally have some gray in it to mimic shadows. The one shade that looked like a possibility was Coffee Walnut, so I decided to order it.  This post is a first impressions review – it’ll take a couple weeks before I know if I love / like / hate it, but I wanted to get the swatches up since it’s limited edition.

Coffee Walnut Pro Sculpting Cream is packaged exactly like a MAC blush.  I like MAC’s packaging because it’s compact, functional, and allows me to see the product inside.

I like the texture of the product – it’s sort of a dry cream (rather than a greasy cream), and it is very easy to blend.   You have plenty of time to work with it and blend; it doesn’t dry down right away. In fact, I can’t tell whether it dries down to a powder or not, because I’m using such a small amount. It is very pigmented, but easy to sheer down to a wearable level.

MAC Coffee Walnut – heavy swatch, blended swatch

I’m sort of unsure about the color; it’s very different than my go-to contour product, which is MAC Sculpting powder in sculpt.  Coffee Walnut is sort of olive – gray – brown, and seems to have some yellow tones in it too.  MAC Sculpt is more of a soft cool brown. Here’s a comparison of the two – these are medium to heavy swatches.

MAC Coffee Walnut; MAC Sculpt – natural light

MAC Coffee Walnut, MAC Sculpt – flash

When I applied Coffee Walnut, I found that if I wasn’t careful with my placement and blending, it made me look sort of dirty.  However, once applied, it seems to work as a contour – creating shadows on my face.  In the photo below, I have applied Coffee Walnut below my cheekbones, on the sides of my nose, and below my jawline.

lipstick: essence red carpet

So, I’m undecided.  I like the texture and the pigmentation level, but I’m not completely sure about the color.  If you know your way around contouring products, I’d love to hear your thoughts!