17.10.2016
Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance is the palette everyone was talking about this summer. I didn’t plan to buy it, but the hype got to me and I ended up purchasing it (link). When I got it I immediately understood why it’s so popular. The colors are really unique and you can’t find them in other palettes. Modern Renaissance is inspired by the Renaissance painters. I thought that this claim was just a marketing trick, but indeed some of the colors in the palette are ochre, sienna, brick red and burned orange. Modern Renaissance is not a limited edition item, so you can get it anytime.
The packaging - The packaging is made of cardboard, but it’s covered with pink velvet. It looks really pretty, but I guess it will get dirty very quickly. You get 14 shades 0,7 g. each. With the palette you get a two-sided brush which is quite decent.
The formulation - These eyeshadows are highly pigmented and to be honest I needed some time to get used to them. They kick a lot of powder and you need to shake the brush. There’s no fallout during the day while you are actually wearing the eyeshadows. The intense pigmentation causes a few problems during the application. You need to do your eyes first and to clean the undereye area afterwords from the eventual fallout. If you don’t own many eye brushes, you have to know that you’ll be needing more than one if you want to avoid washing the brushes while you are doing your makeup. This palette is not great for newbies. The eyeshadows are intensely pigmented and many of colors are pretty strong. It’s easy to make a mistake with this palette.
Colors - All reviews stated how wearable this palette is despite the berry shades in it. I kind of disagree, I find them hard to work with. For a makeup artist they won’t be a problem, but for the average woman I don’t think that this palette is completely wearable. Modern Renaissance contains a mix of neutral and berry shades.
The brown eyeshadows are amazing and differ from the colors you can find in the other palettes. There’s also a good balance between mattes and shimmers. I’m happy that they’ve included a matte highlighter Tempera. When it comes to the berry shades, they are quite red and very pigmented. Maybe if I had blue eyes I would have liked them more, but now I feel like they are just too much work without doing much for me. There are only four red shades though, so you are still left with 10 neutrals.
The quality of the eyeshadows in Modern Renaissance is amazing. If you own a lot of palettes and you are looking for something a bit different, you’ll love it. If you are a newbie I don’t think that this is the right palette for you because of the intense pigmentation of the eyeshadows.
