Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette

Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette: Swatches & Review

Hey everyone! One of my Christmas presents was the beautiful Modern Renaissance Palette by Anastasia Beverly Hills. It has quickly become a favourite and I am constantly reaching for it.

I bought mine from Cult Beauty where it's currently £41.00 or AUD$68.

First of all, it comes in really unique packaging with the exterior a light mauve velvet type of material. Inside it comes with a double-ended brush and of course the 14 matte and shimmery eyeshadows.

The colour palette is very warm, with a range of oranges and pinks/reds. It ranges from a few lighter gold toned shades to deeper warm orange and red-browns.

The quality of the eyeshadows are some of the most pigmented I have used. I would compare them very similarly to Makeup Geek eyeshadows. You only need the smallest amount on your brush for most of the colours to get intense pigment.

I find the darker shades are the most pigmented, particularly Cyprus Umber and Realgar. Both Vermeer and Primavera however are gorgeous light shimmery white and gold shades, and are very pigmented.

Some of the colours take a bit more work to get as pigmented, particularly Tempera, Golden Ochre, Buon Fresco, and Warm Taupe, which are some of the lighter mattes. However they are still very nice in quality and I still use them just as much as the other shades in the palette.

First Row L-R Tempera - Cyprus Umber

Second Row L-R Raw Sienna - Realgar

The included brush is a double-ended one with a blending brush and shader brush. Unfortunately I found the brush to be quite a let down. The blending side is not overly soft, and rather scratchy on the eyelids. The other end is more decent, with quite soft bristles, but is quite a bit smaller than your regular shader brush, although this does make it good for the lower lash line or to work in smaller sections of the eye. 

Despite the quality of the brush, I still absolutely love this palette and would still purchase it just for the eyeshadows. 

If you're thinking of buying this palette, I would highly recommend it. The pigmentation is amazing, it has gorgeous packaging, and it isn't your regular nude palette, so you probably won't be buying a palette filled with shades you already own tons of.

Hopefully this review was helpful for any of you to decide whether to buy this palette! Let me know if you bought it and what you think of it.

I'm also wanting to do a tutorial using this palette, so stay tuned for that!

- Ella

My Christmas Gifts

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a great Christmas/holidays! Today I'm sharing all my beauty related Christmas presents. I am very lucky and grateful to have received all these gifts. Enjoy!

Becca Glow on the Go set - This set features a liquid (5g) and powder (2.4g) version of Becca's Shimmering Skin Perfector in Opal. I have really been wanting to try this and it was a complete surprise to receive it so I am very happy!

LUSH Snow Fairy Shower Gel - This is one of my favourite ever scents, and Lush is one of my favourite brands, so it's definitely an appreciated gift!

LUSH Think Pink Bath Bomb - Lush bath bombs are another one of my favourite things, and this is one I haven't tried before, which smells sweet and amazing and looks so pretty with the flowers on top, and I can't wait to use it.

Mariah Carey's Lollipop Bling: Mine Again - I actually chose this out myself after smelling it, and had to get it - it smells of lollipops as the title suggests. If you haven't guessed yet, I really love sweet scents!

Mecca Cosmetica Artistry Nail Polish in Gold - despite my huge nail polish collection, I didn't own a single a single gold shade, so this was perfect! It's a really nice pale shade of gold which I really love.

Mac Matte Lipstick in Velvet Teddy - I only owned a couple of Mac lipsticks and I loved them, and this colour has been on my wish list for quit a while. It is a perfect darker nude shade and I have a feeling it is going to become one of my favourites!

Art & Makeup by Lan Nguyen-Grealis - This is an amazing book which shows how makeup is a form of art and how it can be used to create art, as well as looks inspired by artists and pieces of art. It includes tons of beautiful pictures as well as some tips, tutorials, and information and history. It is definitely a book worth getting.


I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and holiday. Let me know what you all got for Christmas, or if you got anything similar, and how you spent the holidays. Also tell me if you would like to see a review on any of the products.

-Ella

Tarte Rainforest After Dark Palette

Recently I recieved my first ever Tarte product, the Tarte Rainforest After Dark coloured eye & cheek palette, which includes 6 eyeshadows, a blush, bronzer, and highlighter. It is a really beautiful palette which is very usable and can create many different looks, and I have found myself reaching for it every day!

The palette comes in gorgeous packaging. The box is a purple gradient with a snake skin texture and a metallic gold snake. The packaging of the palette itself has the same gold snake with a purple gem on its head, and is on top of a wood patterned background (the palette is made of plastic).

It also comes with a page of two tutorials for different eye looks you can make with the palette.

In the palette, the two larger colours around the edge are the highlighter on the left and the bronzer on the right and the blush in the centre of the palette. The eyeshadows include both pink tones and warm browns & gold. It includes three matte and three shimmery shadows.

I found the blush to be much more of a peachy pink than it appears to be in the palette where it looks like much more of a muted pink. The highlighter is subtle but gives a really nice glow. I also found that using a brush picks up a lot more pigment than using your fingers.

I really love this palette, and I think it would be a perfect Christmas gift for a makeup lover as it is very versatile with a nice range of shades.

 Let me know if you would like to see more of this palette, such as a tutorial! I hope you enjoyed the post!

- Ella