Anastasia Beverly Hills ~ Prism Palette | Review!

I'm so behind on product reviews guys. The Sephora Sale got me good this year and I'm now swimming in freshly unwrapped packaging and barely touched products. Please excuse a delay in posting everything up!

I've decided I want to experiment with an idea I had that will only further delay me getting my posts out on time. Fortunately for you, this may help you get a better idea of each product to help with your decision making. Friends and family members who don't try to prohibit me from spending a glorious amount of each paycheck on cosmetics often suggest that I bring my out-of-this-world talent to the realm of video. I'll be honest and say I'm not sure that being a YouTuber is in my DNA, but I thought it night be fun to create a short video with somewhat decent lighting to accompany some of my blog posts. So yeah, that's what we're going to do now.

Now that all that boring stuff is out of the way, onto the product!

So the Anastasia Beverly Hills "Prism" palette was released as a Limited Edition palette for the holidays. I have no real thoughts on why this should or shouldn't be a LE palette. To me it's unique enough that I wanted it and will def use it but I also wouldn't consider it a staple. My thinking is that they will make singles of many (if not all) of the shadows in it and release those permanently at a later time. I could def get on board with that.

ABH "Prism" Palette (bathroom lighting)

This palette got its ass handed to it as it followed the extremely controversial launch of ABH's last palette, "Subculture". I admit, I don't mind SC. I don't love it to the moon and back, but I didn't return it either. I'm still learning from it and flexing my creative muscles. A lot of people didn't like it though, and that's perfectly fine and I am not surprised. It's def not for everyone. So "Prism" entered the scene and a lot of people just kinda looked the other way, still deeply offended by the existence of SC and the fact that some people actually do think that it's a good product. Personally, I find Prism to be more like Modern Renaissance than Subculture in terms of performance, and somewhere in the middle of the two palettes in terms of wear-ability.

ABH "Prism" Palette (natural lighting)

Prism, to me, is like an "addon" palette. It's like buying a video game expansion or DLC (downloadable content). You don't buy it to be the bread and butter of your collection, you buy it because you like the colors and can see it working well with other palettes or eye shadow singles in your collection. I have to throw in a little beef here, but I'm kind of exhausted of hearing everyone tear apart palettes because they don't "give you everything you need" in one product. If one palette gave me everything I needed, I wouldn't buy any other palettes! I buy palettes because I either a) view them as workhorse, staple products that I can depend on or b) expansion palettes, meaning I do not expect to get everything from them nor do I expect to use them every day. You decide what's important to you and how many you need of each, but the trend of picking apart every single damn palette because the balance between being "neutral" and "unique" isn't aligned with everyone's differing expectations is getting to be a bit overkill.

ABH "Prism" Palette (indoor lighting)

Now, onto how the product actually performs!

MR and SC really made an impact with their matte shades. SC might not have worked for everyone, but the mattes are what made each of those palettes real successes. Prism is more balanced in my opinion in that none of the shade formulas really steal the spotlight. The mattes are good, the satins are good, the glittery shades are good. The palette is diverse in range and really allow the user to stretch their imagination. There are lots of options here.

The mattes in Prism remind me of a tamer Subculture--rich in pigmentation without all the worry about excessive fallout.They are also much more workable in terms of shade range than Subculture. Lots of warm-toned options here, and you can work a more cool-toned theme in by using Lure and Unity. These are pretty safe shades to use in conjunction with the other warm-toned mattes in the palette.

The shimmer shades, Osiris and Throne look nice on the lid but you do need to pack them on a bit. I personally think these colors make for really nice liner shades so I use them mostly on the lower lashline. Be mindful and try not to drag the shadows on the lashline but rather try and pat them on as you apply just to avoid fallout. The other shimmer shades (Dimension, Pyramid, Eternal, Lucid) work well on the lid as they are more glitter based. I apply these with my finger to avoid fallout, or a wet brush will work as well. Sphinx, while more a shimmer formula than a glitter, I use as either a liner or a lid shade as I cannot resist a brown shimmer shade on my lids.

Hits: Mattes are easy to blend and perform well together. Glitter and shimmer shades perform well for me based on my application preferences. Vast range of coherent yet unique looks can be created with this product.

Misses: Obsidian is a sheer black and I think most makeup users, when they go to apply a black shade, they want a BLACK shade--a deep, opaque black, which this is not.

The packaging isn't like MR and SC--it's not the velvet that many complained about because of how easily it got dirty. It's more like that rubbery plastic, like NARS packaging. I have no issue with either the rubber or the velvet, but the velvet had a bit more character in my opinion. Both can get dirty so that isn't really avoided regardless.

This palette is Limited Edition so length of availability is unknown.

Thanks for reading!