ABH Subculture Palette – First Impressions

Hello beautiful ladies,

With the wave of YouTube videos hitting my notifications on this palette, I decided that I wasn’t going to watch any of them until I’d made up my own mind, swatching and using it for myself. Not long after I ordered it, I started hearing the negativity and I just didn’t want to have that predisposed bias.

With that in mind, I also knew straight away from the original photos that it was not going to be as universally popular like the Modern Renaissance. The colour scheme just doesn’t allow it to be. However, to me, I felt it was different from the palettes I’ve been buying but not so out there that it scared me (like Pastel Goth did), and for that reason, I jumped on it as soon as it was released.

• ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS Subculture Eyeshadow Palette

• RRP – $USD42 = $AUD53.35 from www.anastasiabeverlyhills.com

I am going to presume it will be the same as the Modern Renaissance (as it is the same price as the MR on the ABH site) from Sephora when it is released in Australia which will be $75.

Why? I had been saving for Natasha Denona’s Sunset palette after my Heat palette splurge when this was released and decided that it was taking too long to restock the Sunset and I wanted this one instead. I wouldn’t say it screamed to me like Heat did but it definitely spoke to me. The colour scheme was interesting, I loved the formula of the MR and I needed a change from all the warm tones.

I also picked up a blush trio in Peachy Love that I saw on Instagram but wouldn’t have paid the postage cost on its own.

First Impressions: The packaging is the same as the MR, except the writing of Subculture is in gold lettering instead of white, the ABH symbol is not on the Subculture palette and the velvet is a dark teal (I’m not sold on this colour) instead of a pale pink. I’m not a fan of the velvet to be honest because it stains so easily but being a bit darker than the MR, it may be less obvious (hopeful look on my face).

The inside is black cardboard with a reasonable sized mirror on the inside lid, 14 colour pans and a dual ended brush. The brush has a blender on one end and a flat shader on the other. I only used the brush provided in the MR once or twice and didn’t think it was great but if you travel with your palette, its not atrocious like some palettes with the brush included.

It’s not the best brush I’ve ever seen but as I said, it would be handy for travel or your brushes are drying due to a massive clean (it has happened to me and I chose Urban Decay’s Smoky purely because the brush was capable of creating a nice look).

I have no idea how they come up with these names but they sound pretty cool anyway. I’ve taken the description of the colours from the Anastasia Beverly Hills website with a brief impression of each from my perspective.

All swatches are done with one circle in the pan and one swipe on my wrist. No primer or Mac Fix+ was used though I use both when I apply my makeup, I wanted to show you the actual shade and how it swipes without the extras that you may not use.

From top to bottom:

Cube: duo chrome pink-pearl. It didn’t even show on my skin so you can barely see what it is. I’ll use it with the Mac Fix+ as I do with these and see if it shows on my eyes.

Dawn: ultra-matte sand. I barely touched the pan for this intensity. Gorgeous all round nude.

Destiny: ultra-matte sage green. At first, this reminder me of Androgyny and military but swatched side by side, are nothing alike. Destiny is on the side of grey/green while military is a khaki green.

Adorn: metallic bronze. I compared this to Lumbre and Dirty Talk from the Heat palette and Adorn is a true bronze while Dirty Talk is more coppery. Adorn is drop dead gorgeous swatched so I hope that translates to my eyes.

From top to bottom:

Roxy: ultra-matte muted coral. I love peachy colours and this is just beautiful. I can’t wait to create something with this colour.

Electric: duo chrome lime gold. It hasn’t really shown up on my skin so I’ll probably need Mac Fix+ on this as well.

Fudge: ultra-matte warm bronze. Honestly, this colour does not look like a bronze (its a medium brown) to me and the swatch looks very patchy.

New Wave: ultra-matte citron orange. Wow….it is so pigmented and even though orange scares me on its own, I’m thinking of a way to make it work as I’m writing this. It’s definitely going to feature in one of my looks.

From top to bottom:

All Star: ultra-matte vintage wine. These aren’t the best swatches of these colours to be honest because I also swatch them again as I’m writing this post and it swatched a lot better. Its quite a pretty deep maroon.

Mercury: ultra-matte slate grey. This looks quite patchy here but again, after swatching again, it isn’t at all. It’s not how I picture a slate grey though. This, to me, is more of a cool tan colour.

Axis: ultra-matte blue-green. This one is still patchy the second time around and super pigmented so I’ll have to be careful not to make a huge mess with this colour – there’s no room for a mistake.

From top to bottom:

Untamed: ultra-matte tarnished green. If that means forest green then its correct in its description. Again, it swatched better the second time and it is very pigmented.

Edge: ultra-matte gold mustard. This colour doesn’t wow me but it is very pigmented.

Rowdy: ultra-matte blackened purple. This was still a bit patchy but it’s different to the usual blacks and deep browns as a liner shade.

The second half of the palette, with the deeper shades, did not swatch well the first time at all. In fact, I was a bit disappointed after seeing these photos but as I was swatching them while I’m writing this post, I was quite surprised that only two were still a bit patchy. I wonder if there was a slight film over the top the first time?

I’m going to swatch them all again and put them in my review just to show the difference.

This half of the palette has inspired me with what I can create with these gorgeous colours.

I’m hoping I can somehow work with this half of the palette and that they blend well without that patchiness.

As with the Heat palette, the matte shades didn’t wow me until I used them on my eyes, and with shimmers, I’ve had to use Mac Fix+ with so many of them to make them pop, it really isn’t an issue for me. There are a few meh colours in here, but overall, I’m going to love playing with this.

The review will be up in 3-4 weeks with my interpretation of some of these colours into three different looks.

Thank you for reading 🙂

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Until next time,

Nyobie