Mario Dedivanovic, better known as @makeupbymario on Instagram and Kim Kardashian West’s go to glam man, has collaborated with Anastasia Beverly Hills to make the Master Palette. All of social media has been buzzing about this palette, so I thought I would share my thoughts on it too. ABH eyeshadow palettes sell out fast and as a proud owner of the Modern Renaissance Palette ($42/£41) I can attest to the gorgeous quality of their palette shadows. They are worth every pretty penny. The Master Palette releases tomorrow on the ABH website and from what I have heard it is apparently a US exclusive palette. So will not be sold in UK retailers, I am sure if you try hard enough and are willing to part with some extra cash you will be able to get your hands on it wherever you may live. But. . .is it worth all that extra hassle? Let’s take a closer look.
As expected, the palette contains 12 powder eyeshadows and they are all, for the most part, very neutral, wearable shades that would suit many skin tones. Judging by the photo above, my only concern is very pale people might struggle to wear some of these colours as the colour palate looks particularly suited to those with a tan/olive skin tone. Deeper skins may find a lot of these colours will disappear on their skin because of the thematic deep brown undertone that can be found in many of the shades, but this can easily be overcome by using a good eyeshadow primer/base.
What I find is that individually none of these shadows really wow me, but, and I think Anastasia and her team excel at this, the combination of these colours in a single palette raise the attractiveness of the individual shadows. It’s like an individual guy looks hotter in a group of fairly attractive boys than he would alone, I think Barney calls it the “cheerleader effect” in How I Met Your Mother (correct me if I am wrong). So although individually, the shadows, if broken down, are easily duped and I already know I have similar shades in my extensive shadow collection, you can’t deny how convenient and lovely it is to have all of these gorgeous colours in one palette. One important con I think is that I like all of the shadows equally, usually with palettes similar to this there are a few shades that immediately stick out to me, but with this palette they all inspire the same mellow reaction. Depending on your viewpoint, this might be a pro or a con. For a die-hard eyeshadow lover, such as myself, I consider it a con, I think I would get bored if I am completely honest.
In total, there are only 3 matte shades in this palette: Violeta (eggplant coloured matte), Isabel (my favourite of the 3, warm cinammon brown matte) and Lula (taupe brown/grey matte), I find this a tad disappointing. I would have liked more of a balance. The rest are shimmer, most, such as Paris, 5th Ave, Marina, Muse, Kim, NYC and Hollywood, are all in the shimmery gold/bronze/black family. Muse does have a beautiful rust tone and Marina looks very reflective, so would be gorgeous at catching light and adding shine. Out of all the shimmers Bronx and Claudia are by far the most interesting, to me. Bronx has a gorgeous olive appearance that will look so gorgeous on brown eyes and Claudia is the only shadow that looks even slightly odd in this line up, an almost teal shade. Again though, neither of these shadows are anything new so not too impressed. The names and colours are just too predictable for me. Overall, the palette looks okay and while I admit all the colours look stunning together as a palette and perhaps I am being unfair judging by photos alone but I don’t think I’ll be buying this palette. It’s just too neutral for me. Do I think it is beautiful? Yes. Does it excite me? No. Will I wait for Makeup Revolution to come through with a dupe? Probably.
Thank you for reading my quasi-review and first impressions of this new palette. I am eager to hear what you guys think of it, so share your opinion below. Will you buy it? Do you have anything similar? Do you completely disagree with my assessment? Let me know. I am going to be in London this weekend but I should still be posting, hope you all have a great day. Don’t forget to follow me on Bloglovin’, it is the easiest way to stay up to date with my posts and makes me happy so please do follow if you want to. I really appreciate it. You can find my other social media below. Take care.