Why I Returned Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance

The Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette is by far the hottest palette on the market right now and has been holding steady at the top for months. It is currently sold out almost exclusively online, and most stores around the US haven't had it in stock for months. 

I bought this palette. And I returned it. 

There are countless positive reviews of this palette if that is what you are looking for. Modern Renaissance has quickly jumped to "Holy Grail status" for many people, and there is no shortage of people telling you that you need this palette and that it is truly special. 

And I can offer a different opinion if that's what you're after as well. 

Modern Renaissance came out at a time when I was first starting to get fatigue with all the makeup shopping I had been doing. I had (and still have) so many eyeshadow palettes, and I wasn't really looking to add to that. 

But Modern Renaissance is so different! people said. It's so refreshing to not see the same kind of palette!

Preliminary reviews came out, and everyone was saying the same thing. This palette was special. The quality was unmatched. The silkiness, the blendability, the color selection!

And I folded. Because I didn't want to have fear of missing out. I checked Sephora's store availability tool and saw that it was in stock at a Sephora close to me, in Times Square. 

So I went to Sephora with the intention of swatching the shadows, really seeing what I thought of the texture, and also evaluating the color selection. I get there, go to the Anastasia Beverly Hills display and do not see Modern Renaissance. I searched all the special end caps, and still, no Modern Renaissance. I finally asked a sales associate what the deal was, because the tool online said they had it in-store. 

Turns out, the shipment had arrived and they had it in stock, but they were not putting it out for people to buy yet. However, she said they could sell me one if I wanted it. But, I had to just buy it. I couldn't open one up to look at it and test it. 

I had unexpectedly put myself in a bad, awkward position. I felt bad. I had asked about the palette, said I was interested in buying it, and now they were making a special exception for me. But I couldn't look at the palette and actually decide if I wanted to buy it. And if I said no, that I wanted to look at it first before buying (a perfectly reasonable thing to say) I knew I would somehow feel guilty. (Thank you, social anxiety.)

So, I bought it. I figured I would take everyone on their word that this was really revolutionary and the best possible eyeshadows I could have. 

I took it home, made a look, and really didn't like it. The mattes were so soft and powdery. And I find that when shadows have a ton of powdery kickup, they are generally too soft for me and my skin type. It didn't matter how much or little I blended, or how many or few shades I used, the looks always came out muddy on me. So then I tried doing halo eyes and specifically followed online tutorials to see how other people used the palette. Same thing. Really, really muddy. 

This exact thing happened to me when I tried the Lorac Pro formula months before. Those palettes had been raved about for years, and I was excited when I finally bit the bullet and decided to try the Pro 2. And I was really disappointed. The shimmers were lovely, but the mattes were just too soft and powdery to really work for me. I ended up decluttering my Lorac Pro 2 because of this, and Modern Renaissance felt exactly the same. 

I was also really unimpressed with Modern Renaissance's color selection. There were just regular warm natural matte shades with some berries thrown in. I didn't get it. I didn't get the hype. At all. 

There are also only three shimmer shadows in the entire palette. And that's fine because my Tartelette in Bloom palette only has three shimmer shadows and I love that palette. But in the Tartelette palette, they are the three perfect shimmer shadows. They will complement all skin tones and can be the base of really diverse looks. That wasn't the case with Modern Renaissance. Two out of the three shimmers (light champagne) look really similar on my eyes, and the other shimmer (rust) looked almost matte on me. 

I like a shimmery color on my lid and then to build the rest of the look with matte shades. This has always been my favorite way to wear eyeshadow, and I don't think that will change, even when I am older. And I just did not like the shimmer colors in this palette. Two seemed like inner corner highlight colors only and the other was not that pretty on me. 

At that point, Modern Renaissance would have to become a companion palette for me, like my Viseart Neutral Mattes and my Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye. 

But here's the thing. I already owned Modern Renaissance. Because I owned the Lime Crime Venus palette and both the neutral matte palettes I just mentioned. 

Lime Crime Venus, which has been in my collection for a long time, takes care of most of the "unique" shades in Modern Renaissance. 

• Venus is like Love Letter
• Muse is like Venetian Red and Red Ochre 
• Divine is like Buon Fresco 
• Aura is like Vermeer and Primavera 
• Creation is like Realgar
• Icon is like Cyprus Umber

And if I'm going to be really honest, I like the quality of Venus better than Modern Renaissance. 

I also have Viseart Neutral Matte:

And Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye:

Any shadows in Modern Renaissance that aren't duped by Venus (Tempura, Golden Ochre, Raw Sienna, Burnt Orange, and Warm Taupe) are absolutely duped in these two palettes.

When I realized this, I felt really foolish. Not just because I already had what I considered better performing shadows of each shade in my collection, but also because the Venus palette is easily one of my least used palettes. I hardly ever wear berry colors on my eyes. When I do wear them, I love them and think they look so pretty and different, but they are absolutely not "everyday shades" for me. 

So, not only had I bought a palette that I already owned as well as a palette with a texture that didn't work for my skin, but I also bought a palette that I wouldn't use very often. Because of the lack of shimmers, Modern Renaissance would only be used as a companion palette for me, and since I already had Venus and the two neutral matte palettes and liked all of those better, I knew I wouldn't reach for it very often. 

And so, I returned Modern Renaissance.

This was a really important experience for me in learning how to be a smarter shopper. Maybe it's a feeling that goes back to being in elementary school where we just want to fit in and like the same things as everyone else. We want to like what's popular. But just because it's popular, doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone. And that's okay. 

Had I been given the opportunity to swatch Modern Renaissance, I like to think I wouldn't have purchased it. I like to think that I would have felt the texture and realized it was the same as one I don't really like. Or that I would have seen that the shimmer colors didn't impress me. Or that the other colors were the exact same as others in my collection. But there's still a strong chance that I would have purchased it nonetheless because everyone said it was so good. 

Since this experience, I have been a much more conscious and smart shopper, but resisting the hype can still be really challenging. 

There are enough positive reviews of Modern Renaissance that it's safe to say most people who buy it won't be disappointed. But it just wasn't a winning palette for me.