With a wider availability, comes a wider audience and I have to say I have always felt really excited to pick up products from the brand. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw an Anastasia Beverly Hills palette in T K Maxx. I couldn't believe my luck so I picked it up despite the bad reviews I had seen. I already had the Modern Renaissance Palette which is an incredible palette. I feel like because Modern Renaissance was so good people expected the same from every subsequent palette but unfortunately that was not the case.
The Curious Case of Subculture
The hype around the launch of the Subculture Palette was huge. Everyone had tried and raved about Modern Renaissance but as the reviews of the Subculture palette started to come in, the feedback was less than great. Honestly, I have never seen one product create such a shitstorm within the beauty community. Literally every Youtube video I watched completely annihilated the formula of the powders. The Modern Renaissance palette is outstanding but Subculture is completely different. What was also really disappointing was that the shade range was so pretty and ideal for anyone who loves a bit of grungey makeup. Everyone said due to the formulation, you simply weren't seeing these stunning colours on your eye lid.Everyone's problem with the formula was how powdery the matte shades were. I think everyone agreed that the duochrome shades were amazing but the mattes really let this palette down. In comparison, it was the formulation of the matte shadows in Modern Renaissance that everyone loved. In the video reviews people literally swirled their brushes in the pan and there was so much fall out that literally the entire pan would be empty in no time. This does display a bad formula but I didn't agree with it. No one swirls their brush into shadow, everyone knows you tap and having used the palette I do not experience fall out quite like these Youtubers did but at the time of buying it, all I had seen were the bad reviews.
The bad reviews had two simultaneous effects. For a long time it put me off the brand. I didn't understand how one palette could be so much worse than the other so in a way it tarnished my whole perception of the brand. At the same time it made me incredibly intrigued to try the palette that seemed to unify everyone with their hatred for one palette, was it truly that bad?
Formula
The formula was definitely the area that caused all of the problems for the Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture Palette but I have to say I thought it was going to be 1000x worse than it is. The shimmer shadows are completely gorgeous as all of the reviews said. They are all incredibly glittery without much fallout. The only one that disappointed me slightly was Cube because of the shade rather than the formula. Let's face it, you aren't here to read about the shimmers, you probably want to know about the mattes.
The matte shadows are powdery, there is no denying it and they can be patchy. The shadows make a mess of the palette and of your face. However, it is no where near as bad as it seemed in all of the reviews I had seen. I always tap into my eye shadow rather than swirl, there is a small amount of fallout but nothing major. As these shadows are so powdery, they do require a bit of building but they are still really pigmented.
One of the big problems was creating a look solely using the palette and I have to say the shades do struggle together. They do not blend together properly and you do get a line that appears and no matter how much blending you do, it will not go away. This patchiness that is created is not good. I will admit that in that respect this is a bad palette but that doesn't stop you from using it with other shadows. I think it is safe to assume that if you are considering buying this palette, you have other palettes so just incorporate this palette with some of those, that is what I do. Combined with other shadows, I haven't had this same problem. I use a couple of shadows from this palette but I will mostly use other shadows and I make sure to use a cream eyeshadow as a base.
I have to say I don't think this is the horrid formula everyone made it out to be! I think there was a lot of fuss made so that people's videos would go viral. I understand that they have used hyperbole because they want to stop people from buying a expensive palette but it was to such an extent that I didn't know if I would bother using the brand again. The formula certainly is not as good as Modern Renaissance but if you are desperate for these shades, it can be worked with.
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Shade Range
Seeing the palette online I never thought I wanted it. The element of colour in the palette didn't seem like something I would actually use but when I saw it in T K Maxx, I could see the appeal. When I looked at the colour range I realised I would actually use most of these, really there are only 4 shades I wouldn't normally use. The first portion of the palette was gorgeous and I knew I would get a lot of use out of these shades. However, I knew I would struggle with the shadows on the right hand side.
I have to give credit to Anastasia Beverly Hills for the shade range because I've never really seen a shade range like it. There aren't many palettes which have this grunge look mixed with colours, but the formula could be the reason for this as these shades aren't the easiest to formulate.
The shades I wouldn't wear are: Edge, Axis, New Wave and Rowdy. Turns out it is pretty good I wouldn't wear Axis because it does stain your skin and it does got patchy. Both New Wave and Edge are very warm and very bright which is not for me. The rest of the shades are gorgeous, you just know you have to be careful with using them. I love the combination of the shades: Dawn, Destiny, Fudge. Adorn and Untamed, looking at all of these shades in the palette together is very pleasing. The shades really build on the military look of A/W19, it is just a shame that all of these can't be used together to make a look. I have to find similar shades in other palettes if I want to create this look.
The shades I have used the most from this palettes are Dawn and All Star. Dawn is an easy to use light beige shade. It is incredibly powdery and it does make a mess of the palette but it creates an amazing base for any looks you go on to create. All Star is a beautiful dark plum shade which still has a berry pink undertone so it is almost bright but not overly bright. I love to use this with a more pink based look and I will use this in the crease to add a bit of pink into Benefit Hoola which is my typical crease shade. It just helps to make the look more cohesive.
When you take in all of the shades in the palette you can certainly see what they were going for when they put all of these shades in there. You would be able to make so many different looks and they would be deeper and darker than your average palette but unfortunately you cannot wear them together because they do not work together but I still love the look of the shade range.
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| Row 2 |
Price
If you have ever looked into buying an Anastasia Beverly Hills palette you know they aren't cheap. Recently they have even gone up in price so the average palette now costs around £42. When I purchased my Modern Renaissance Palette they were £38 so these have gone up in price quite a lot in two years. I have to say the Modern Renaissance Palette is worth this price but the Subculture palette most definitely isn't. There is not a chance I would have paid full price for this palette. I had heard all of the rubbish reviews and I would prefer to buy the Soft Glam or Norvina palette for that price.
Luckily I saw this in T K Maxx and it was £24.99 and that seemed much more reasonable to me. I am still not sure if it is worth that money because you can't use this as a stand alone palette but considering this is still a Anastasia Beverly Hills Palette, it is a good price. Surprisingly you can find quite a lot of Anasataia Beverly Hills products in T K Maxx (I saw the Moon Child Glow Kit the other week,) which seems so crazy to me because you couldn't buy it for so long in the UK and now you can buy it at such a discount. It is definitely worth checking your local T K Maxx for some ABH finds.
Not only can you get items at a discount in T K Maxx but if you live close to Bicester Village they have just opened a little Anastasia Beverly Hills hut where all of the products are discounted. They did have the Subculture palette listed on the price list but I didn't see any in store. Instead they had the Sultry Palette when I was there and it was £30.
Not only can you get items at a discount in T K Maxx but if you live close to Bicester Village they have just opened a little Anastasia Beverly Hills hut where all of the products are discounted. They did have the Subculture palette listed on the price list but I didn't see any in store. Instead they had the Sultry Palette when I was there and it was £30.
Does the Subculture Palette Deserve Such Harsh Criticism?
Even though I have posed this question to myself, I am actually unsure of the response. In some ways I agree with the palette getting such harsh criticism. When you compare this to the Modern Renaissance Palette, it is bad. The Modern Renaissance palette did set the bar high but this just did not compare at all and the formula is not great. It makes it even more disappointing that the shade range is so lovely but you can't use them all together so I do understand why people were so brutal about this palette, it was disappointing.
However, the criticism was so harsh when realistically you can still use this palette, you just have to work out how to use it. The shimmer shadows are stunning and the matte shades aren't too bad on their own. I do use this palette quite a lot so I can't say it was a bad purchase for me but I did not pay full price for it. I would have been pissed if I paid £42 for this, which you can do because this is still available on Beauty Bay for this price. The packaging is still gorgeous and it has the same velvet cover as the Modern Renaissance Palette and the brush that comes with the palette is actually usable.
Personally I think the criticism was a bit much. When I have spoken to other people about this palette, no one seems to have those incredibly strong opinions I saw on Youtube. Everyone seems to just get on with it and use the palette. I think the palette can be worked with, it is not unusable so that is why I do not think it deserved such harsh criticism. Some of the criticism almost put me off trying the Anastasia Beverly Hills palettes, full stop, but I am so glad I have tried this for myself so I can make my own views.
Would I recommend you go out and buy this palette, no. No I wouldn't. This is not the easiest palette to use, the formulation of the shadows is not great. If you like the shades and you are willing to try to make them work, then by all means go for it but please get a discount! It is not worth £42 and it does seem to be discounted quite a lot because not many people will buy this palette. If you simply want this for your collection do not bother, do yourself a favour and pick up another Anastasia Beverly Hills Palette because since this palette, I've never seen any reviews about any of the other palettes that are as bad this one.
I would be really interested in your thoughts on the palette, especially if you have tried it because I do not think that the palette deserves such strong criticism. I agree people should know what they are buying and this is not a good palette but people such not have sat there swirling their brush in the palette and saying that is why it is a bad palette. The palette is bad and the formulation is bad but people tap their brush not swirl!
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