Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette Review & Swatches

Have you ever purchased a makeup item that's so pretty, you don't even want to touch it? That's what happened when I purchased the new Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette ($42 at Ulta & Sephora) during the Ulta Platinum Member preview a few weeks ago. I kept opening it up and looking at it...I even took photos to post here on the blog but I just couldn't bring myself to dig in and mess it up.

But I finally did, and I can honestly say this one is worth all the hype! When a product starts blowing up in popularity, I usually take it with a grain of salt, and I wasn't even sure I wanted to buy this one because I have too many eyeshadow palettes (more than I'll ever use before they expire). But...I ended up caving in because it's full of shades that I don't have in my collection...that alone made it worth it for me.

Let's take a look...

Packaging: 

This is the first Anastasia eyeshadow palette I've owned, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The packaging is a really pretty dusty lavender shade and the palette itself is cardboard with a magnetic closure and a soft, velvety material covering the outside of it. You can kind of see in the photo above...it's fuzzy, kind of like velour and I can picture it getting filthy really fast!

On the back are the ingredients and description.

The palette contains fourteen neutral and berry shades plus a double-ended brush and a fairly large mirror. The cardboard that surrounds the eyeshadow pans is coated to make it glossy, which is great because any eyeshadow that migrates out wipes away easily, unlike the cardboard inside the Lorac PRO palettes, which tends to grab onto any color that gets outside the lines.

Shade Selection: 

At first I wasn't sure that I would use some of the shades in this palette (cranberry red!?) but I knew I needed to go outside of my neutral color zone...especially since warm orange shades really make blue eyes pop. This color scheme will actually look amazing on fair-skinned girls with blue eyes, but ultimately, anyone can wear these shades. Also, don't let the darker, bolder shades scare you...I know that's what initially pops out at you but if you really look closely at the palette, all of the shades are very neutral and wearable with the exception of two cranberry shades and a bright orange.

There's a beautiful selection of both matte and shimmer shades and all of them compliment each other nicely. It's rare to find a palette that can be used all on its own, but I've found that with this one, you can create so many different combinations because the colors are all so compatible. You also have a few different highlights, several transition/crease shades, and a couple of deeper shades to choose from.

Formula: 

I'm mostly going to let the swatches speak for themselves because they're just that good. These are swatched over bare skin with no primer. They're super pigmented and buttery without feeling heavy or creamy. They remind me a lot of Lorac's eyeshadows or The Balm's Meet Matt(e) series. They're very soft so you can expect quite a bit of fallout but I don't mind...tapping the brush before applying to your lid works just fine for me. I love how easily they blend on my lids and they don't get muddy.

You can see how wearable this palette actually is, and shades like Love Letter, Venetian Red, and Realgar can add a gorgeous, rich pop of color to any of these other neutral shades.

Overall, the Anastasia Modern Renaissance Palette is on my must-buy list! You can wear these shades now and they'll be even more amazing heading into fall and winter. The quality is superb and there's not a bad shade in the bunch. I wore a few shades over primer yesterday while walking around outside all day on vacation and they didn't budge. When I went to bed at midnight, they looked the same as they did when I applied them. Love, love love...definitely worth the splurge.

You can find it now at Ulta.com and Sephora.com

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