I have chosen to do my first real review on inside the makeup box on the much sought after Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette, which I purchased for £41 from Cult Beauty. I wanted this palette because it was so different from my other palettes. I’ve never been one to be adventurous with my eyeshadow, mostly sticking to my trusted range of Urban Decay naked palettes, as well as the Urban Decay Smokey palette. Red, orange and pink shades were not something I had experimented with before, however when these shades came into fashion in summer 2016 with the release of the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette, Morphe 35O, and the Kylie Kyshadow burgundy palette, I felt it necessary to buy one to expand my eyeshadow range.

Packaging

It comes packaged in a simplistic light mauve box, the same colour as the palette inside which has a pretty velvet finish, similar to the Urban Decay naked palette finish. The brush it comes with is decent, and again similar to the urban decay naked palette in this respect, although I personally feel the ABH brush is somewhat better at blending.

Formula

The Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette, containing 14 different shadows, packs a lot more pigment than other palettes which are available in the same price range. The eyeshadows have a more ‘creamy’ texture than your generic formulas, which means they are extremely easy to blend, and create a beautiful finish. One thing I did notice using these shadows is that there is a lot of fall out from them which can be particularly annoying if you’re the type of person who does their foundation before their eye makeup.

Tempera – A light beige with an ultra matte finish
Golden ochre – A light golden yellow with an ultra matte finish
Vermeer – A beautiful pink champagne shadow with a shimmer finish.
Buon fresco – A creamy mauve/lavender shade, with a matte finish.
Antique bronze – A rusty, metallic brown, with a beautiful shimmery satin finish.
Love letter – A dark pink, red wine tone with an ultra matte finish.
Cyprus umber – A dark cool toned brown with an ultra matte finish.
Raw sienna – A deep amber toned shadow with an ultra matte finish.
Burnt orange – A deep orange, is exactly what the name is, with an ultra matte finish.
Primavera – A beautiful shimmery gold shadow, with a metallic finish.
Red ochre – A deep red brick shade, with an ultra matte finish.
Venetian red – A deep crimson red, with a slightly shimmery finish.
Warm taupe – An earthy grey holding yellow undertones with a matte finish.
Realgar – An orange undertoned rusty red shade, with an ultra matte finish.

Testing it out 

I wasn’t sure at first how to go about switching from my usually smokey eye and brown tones, to using these orange and red shades to create a look. After playing around for half an hour I created something I liked.

I started off with tempera all over my lids, follow by burnt orange. I then applied realgar to the outer corner of my eyelids and blended upwards. I then added a small amount of red ochre to the outer corner of my eye and proceeded to blend that too. I touched up my inner corner of my eyelid with tempera and brought it to the centre of my eyelid. Vermeer was then applied on the centre of my eyelid to give it a shimmery look. Underneath my eye, I used realgar, followed by red ochre and cyprus number. That completed my look using the Modern Renaissance palette.

Other products used:

• Maybelline drama lasting gel eyeliner – black
• Benefit they’re real! Mascara
• Red cherry 43 false eyelashes

Overview

I do really like this palette. It brought some new colours to my existing range of eye shadows, and the pigmentation was far better than I expected. It is not something I would wear everyday, but it is perfect for nights out or when your feeling a bit more vibrant! One down side to the palette for me personally is that I think the colours suit people with brown eyes a lot more than those with blues eyes. That’s just my opinion but I always think the shades look better on my friends than me, who have brown eyes. Maybe I’m just too used to using brown shadows and creating smokey eyed looks that I’m not used to the change! But overall this palette would be a brilliant addition to anyone’s collection, and I would recommend it to anyone! Want to try it for yourself? You can purchase it from the Anastasia Beverley Hills website here.

Have you tried this palette before? Let me know what you think! 

Laura
♡