Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Eye Shadow Palette

I was initially skeptical to get this palette due to packaging. Decided to give in and buy it, gotta say, I am highly impressed. :)

I absolutely love this palette. The colours are right fit for me but also all their eyeshadows are very pigmented. It makes much easier to blend and the product lasts much longer.

I'm a matte eyeshadow lover, so this and Subculture are the only two ABH palettes I own.

So, people say these shadows are pigmented and beautiful (they are) and blendable and beginner friendly (they aren't). That said, for someone who can deal with fallout, extremely soft and (for lack of a better word) sticky and overly pigmented shadows, this is a gorgeous palette. As for what i mean by "sticky", the darker shades will stick to your skin and will not blend out. People thought it started with Subculture, it did not. So, set your lids, apply a tiny bit at a time (only applies to medium/dark shades.)

I use realgar, raw sienna, burnt orange or love letter on my lid then bon fresco, golden ochre or warm taupe in the crease and go. It's so useable. Some of the matte shades have a tiny bit of shimmer but it's not even a satin finish, the effect is matte. ABH calls it "ultra-matte". Cyprus umber is annoying shade to me. It's so powdery, it's dark but not really dark enough to line with. To deepen the v, it looks patchy, just an annoying shade. All that said though, I love the palette. I even love the packaging! It's soft and nice to use. If it gets dirty I just clean it with a wipe...np.

My 14 year old is obsessed with ABH palette and get them at Ulta usually. She claims they have "good pigment" and wear well for her. Should last her quite a long time. She now has a few of these.

I've finally bought this gem. I so enjoy playing with it.

As everyone knows, Anastasia's eyeshadows are known for their pigmentation and for how well they blend. The colours are simply gorgeous and I like that they included a brush which is actual good quality. I'm also happy that there aren't that many foiled and glittery shades. Most ABH palettes have quite a lot of glittery or shimmery shades but I find those quite aging and harder to incorporate in my eye look. This one doesn't which is great. There are a couple of shimmers but they're modest and usable. I wouldn't want a palette of which half the shades are barely usable and look bad on me. Glitter shades also have a tendency to have a lot of fallout and coat the rest of my face in hard-to-remove-glitter so I'd rather not use it. Many people wrote reviews, so I'll skip right to the downsides.

-I have oily skin and without primer the eyeshadow only lasts for 6 hours. Which is better than drugstores brands, but it's not a miracle.
- I love the look of the packaging but I'm frustrated that I always have to put it back in the original cardboard packaging. The velvet fabric makes it incredibly easy to get dirty. I can't even hold the palette while doing my make-up because even the slightest remain of concealer, cream, foundation or eyeshadow on my fingers stains it. It's frustrating. I also happen to travel a lot and it's so annoying to have to be so careful with this palette if I don't want to ruin it. That's why I enjoy plastic packaging more.
- The kickback, I'm so annoyed by kickback. It makes the palette dirty and it means that I'm losing product I spent a lot of money on. ABH isn't cheap but I'm losing almost 10-20% of eyeshadow because it gets loose and falls away. It's not a drama, that's for sure. It's nowhere near as bad as with the notorious subculture, but it's a typical ABH thing that there's this amount of kickback. Of course, a small amount is allowed, every eyeshadow with a lot of pigment that blends easily will have it. But Urban Decay and many of my other beloved higher end palettes don't have this much.

I've had this palette for about 10 months. I really enjoy this palette, use it regularly, and will continue to use it until it's not useable. So why only 3 stars?

I find the formula a bit frustrating to use. It's definitely pigmented, blendable, and creamy, but perhaps too creamy. The shadows seem to melt together on my eyelids, and I have dry, textured lids. It's always the same regardless of primer. While I like the effect, this palette can't be used for more than quick everyday looks. A more intricate look is pointless because it ends up looking like one shade all over the lid.

Some of the shades are not true to pan. Buon Fresco and Burnt Orange oxidize several shades darker within minutes. Red Ochre and Realgar look like similar warm orangey browns on my lids. Antique Bronze blends out very sheer.

The packaging is very sleek and sturdy, but the felt attracts a lot of dirt. The small shadow brush is really nice and one of my most used. The blending brush is very scratchy.

With so many less expensive dupes on the market, this palette just isn't worth the price.

My favourite palette ever! Unless you’re into berry tones I suggest you not the buy this palette and buy the soft glam instead. The mattes are very pigmented and has a little bit of fall out, the shimmers weren’t mind blowing to me but decent shimmers.

Love this palette!

As a neutral-warm toned person with grey eyes who loooooves orange, there are a lot of great shades for me. I can do daytime, evening, and party looks with this. The only shades I don’t touch often are “Vermeer” and “Buon Fresco”, they make me look a bit dead. I kind of wish that “Love Letter” and “Venetian Red” were one shade, because they look almost identical on the eye. A deep plum would be a great addition to this palette!

Excellent for people starting their makeup collection, but maybe not necessary if you already have a lot of warm neutrals. Packaging is pretty, but will get dirty. I wouldn’t buy this palette again, but only because when I finish with it I would rather make a custom palette.

The brush: just ok. It’s kind of scratchy.

This is a great neutral palette that also offers up a wide variety of color to play around with. You can create many neutral, warm reds, cooler berry tones, and orange looks and every shade plays well with each other. You can blindly stick your brush into any shade and you will still have a cohesive look. I've used almost every colour combo and none of them blend muddy like some of the other ABH palettes. I love how I can use this everyday because it's so pigmented you only need a small amount of product and even the brighter shades tone down to be work/school appropriate.

I've only found a few drawbacks:
- Cyprus Umber (the dark brown shade) is the most prone to patchiness but built up slowly with a light hand it looks fine.
- Primavera (gold shimmer) is not opaque like the other two shimmers. It applies as a very loose smattering of gold sparkles.
- these shadows will fade and crease. I do not have oily lids and this is the first time I've ever had to prime my eyes
- this palette has a shorter life span than average. Many people have reported after two years it becomes unusable so unless you're planning on regularly using this I would maybe choose a different product

I love this palette! An iconic collection of colors, both mattes and shimmers. The shadows are super pigmented and great quality. Even the double-ended brush it comes with is pretty nice as well. My one complaint would be there is a bit more fallout than I'd like.

The packaging is cute, but the fuzzy velvety material on the outside has gotten dirty after having it for a while.