Hello, everybody! I just received the Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture palette in the mail, so naturally, I had to take pictures and share swatches with you all! I haven’t noticed too many swatch photos of this (most of the swatches I’ve seen are in video form). I know that this palette has a ton of mixed reviews due to the inconsistency in pressing, but I thought I’d let you know my two cents on the quality of the palette that I received.
The palette came housed in a bunch of shredded crinkle paper and a bubble wrap sleeve.
A packing slip with a return form and shipping label were included as well.
The Subculture palette comes in the same packaging as the Modern Renaissance palette.
Upon opening the palette, I immediately noticed that a few of the colors have some cosmetic issues.
The first thing I noticed was the nick in the shade Electric.
Here is a closer look. You can also see that the shade Fudge has somewhat of a fingerprint marking.
The shade Destiny is also a bit streaky.
It is somewhat hard to tell here, but a bit of the shade Untamed has transferred onto the shade Edge.
Similarly, some of the cool teal color has transferred to New Wave.
The shade Mercury also has some streaks.
Here is a closeup.
There is some type of white hair in the Axis pan. I’m going to give Anastasia Beverly Hills the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s just a long piece of fuzz and simply dust it off.
There was some sticky residue on the packaging above the shade All Star.
Some sticky residue at the bottom right-hand corner as well.
I might just be too critical here, but as I mentioned before, I’m going to give Anastasia Beverly Hills the benefit of the doubt and assume the fingerprint-like marks, nicks, and streaks are all just due from manufacturing error and not a used palette. I would return and ask for a replacement, but as you may know, the company acknowledged the inconsistencies in the eyeshadow quality due to pressing issues during manufacturing. I’m on the fence because if I return it and get one without cosmetic damage, I risk getting a lower quality palette. What to do?
Plus, I’m moving out of the country in nine days and Anastasia Beverly Hills is a bit slow in the processing and shipping department, so there’s that too.
Here are some pictures of swatches in different angles and lighting.
I put in my two cents about the eyeshadow quality of the palette I received down below so stay tuned!
The following is based on my experience with the palette I received. Claudia Soare, the president of Anastasia Beverly Hills, stated that there were inconsistencies due to the company’s first time using automated pressing. When I finger-swatched the shades, I was surprised that there wasn’t too much powder kick-up. I tried it with a brush, and while I did notice some kick-up, it wasn’t too bad. I’ve seen YouTube videos where the eyeshadows hit pan in only a few uses, so I already knew beforehand that these eyeshadows were very delicate and soft. Maybe it’s because I went in with that knowledge and used a light hand when picking up the product with a brush, but I did not experience too bad of aforementioned kick-up. I think that if you use this palette knowing that the eyeshadows are soft and go in with a lighter hand than usual, it is definitely usable and won’t have too much kick-up. Or maybe I just got a palette on the better end of the spectrum. Who knows?
I also saw the reviews stating how terribly these blend on the eyes. I tested out the shadows on my eye and didn’t experience anything horrendous, but seeing that I just unboxed this palette, I will have to try it out more before I can comment on it any further. I will say, however, that since this palette features a variety of colors, it may be on the more difficult side to use. For example, if you use Edge, All Star, and Axis on the eyes, these colors are on the opposite end of the color wheel (Axis being blue, and Edge and All Star mixing to be an orange). This means that if you over-blend these, you can end up with a blackish result.
Hopefully you found the swatches and my thoughts on the new Subculture palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills helpful! This palette retails for $42 USD and can be found on the brand’s website or online at Sephora and Ulta with the palette coming to stores soon!
Thanks for reading, and until next time,
