Anastasia Beverly Hills - Master Palette by Mario

I bought the Anastasia Beverly Hills Master Palette by Mario after waffling back and forth about it. I haven't purchased any palettes since the Nordstrom sale a few months ago, and to be honest, have been having a bit of palette fatigue (if that can be a thing). It just feels like every brand is making these huge palettes all the time now, and I am getting a bit tired of the constant barrage.

I was drawn to the Mario palette for a few reasons. It is a slightly more edited palette. There are twelve shades, but Lorac just released a palette that has 32 shades, so this does feel smaller in comparison to some of the others out there. I like that the collaboration is with a real professional, working makeup artist, Mario Dedivanovic. It seems like so many collaborations recently have been with Youtube sensations that hold themselves out to be makeup artists, but many really only do makeup on themselves. I may not really like some of Mario's clients, who shall remain nameless, but I do like his overall aesthetic and appreciate that the brand reached out to someone actually working in the industry. The more neutral color scheme was probably the biggest draw for me. The colors are ones that are actually wearable in real life. As much as I might think a palette with all sorts of bright colors is pretty, I will not get use from something like that.  

I have heard good things about the products from Anastasia Beverly Hills. Prior to this, I only have purchased one item from the brand, Brow Wiz. The shadows themselves are nicely pigmented. I have noticed that there is a lot of kickup in the pans when you place brushes in them. You really have to try to not move the brush around a ton because the powders are really soft. The only one that is problematic is Kim. When I went to swatch it with my finger, I sort of smashed the powder, even though I did not really push very hard (at all). The overall softness of the shadows isn't awful and is somewhat forgivable given how well the shades blend, but they really shouldn't crumble like that. Fortunately, that shade seemed to be the only one that is overly soft.

The brush that is included is decent. I like the fluffier side better and find that it works well for blending the shades into the crease. The colors are very blendable and lasted all day on me when tested. I got 6 hours of wear time without using primer and 13 hours using primer. Please keep in mind I have oily lids, so nothing lasts that very on me without primer. 

Swatches:

Top Row:



Bottom Row:



Other than some small issues with the softness of the shades, I really am very happy with this purchase. I like the neutral colors and the blendability of the shades. This does have me interested in other Anastasia Beverly Hills eyeshadows. I know you can build your own quads and that may be something that I try in the future. I purchased the palette from Anastasia's website (for some reason it is not showing up on their site now - not sure if it is sold out), but it is also now available at Sephora. The cost of the palette is $45.  The shadows are made in the US according to the package and the brand is cruelty-free. How do you feel about the deluge of palettes being released?