Diving into Subculture

Until around a year ago, I believed there were people who loved makeup and those who didn’t. I believed that those who loved makeup had their own reasons why they enjoyed it, but that they were content to use what they liked and leave what they didn’t.

I was so wrong. The palette that showed me how wrong was Subculture.

It feels like this palette has never been uncontroversial. It started with the leaked photos, moved on to the formula problems, escalated to the brand bashing and it feels like only since Soft Glam has come out that people are forgiving Anastasia Beverly Hills.

My own take on all the drama is that Subculture was doomed to fail by Modern Renaissance. That palette was just so good that to better it would require massive innovation and bold moves. That’s what Norvina and the team went for, and unfortunately it seems like they went to far.

I’ll admit that it caught my eye almost as soon as I saw that first leaked grainy picture. It was so different to brown and pink. It had a range of super deep shades in the most unusual colours. I was enthralled.

But I also was afraid to spend the money. I didn’t own any ABH products and if they were not to my taste it would be a huge disappointment. I took the plunge with Modern Renaissance and when I loved that, I knew that I would love Subculture as well.

Too bad no one else seemed to agree.

I remember watching video after video of YouTube influencers talking about all the flaws in the palette – the excessive kickback, the terrible blending, the oxidisation. I was stunned. It was utterly disappointing that such a unique and inspiring palette could be so bad.

The only positive review I found was Stephanie Nicole. She enjoyed using the palette, but did mention that it required a very specific technique and was quite time consuming. More negatives – and damning ones. I may be a fan, but I’m very much an amateur. New techniques? No thank you. I spend 1/3 of my life at work and I’m not willing to sacrifice extra time on my eyeshadow just to make it work.

That should have been the end of it, but then I watched Lisa Stevens review. Without a doubt, she is one of the influencers I trust the most. She has not yet given a recommendation that has failed me. And she liked it! I noticed that both she and Stephanie Nicole (Nicole Renee Cutter also had a positive review under the same conditions) had used the palette for a few weeks before giving their reviews, while most of the bad ones came from first impressions. I started to wonder.

All of that meant nothing however when I first saw the palette. I walked into Sephora and it just drew me in. The vivid brights, the deep darks and the gorgeous duochromes were just too much. I took a moment to swatch a shade and then bought it. It was absolutely irresistible.

The first look I did with it, I prepared myself for disaster. I did my eyes before my face (unusual for me), I used my softest brushes, and I gave myself plenty of time to take it off, cry and start again. Turns out, I needed none of that. The look was light and beautiful and just effortless. I was in love.

I then made two mistakes – I didn’t swatch everything, and I decided this was going to be easy.

The next look I tried to do was meant to be a green with bronze accents. I used destiny, mercury and axis and ended up with a mess. It was unsalvageable. It was awful. I had to remove it and start again. Just disastrous.

So when I went for a third look, I was cautious again. And it came out quite well. It was a lovely purple toned look that was quintessentially me. I’m a huge fan of the smoky eye and this one was just great.

I have super hooded eyes and generally take pictures at the end of day. These are not the best.

I used the shadows for a full two weeks and had a very mixed experience. Every time I used the lighter shades or shimmers, I enjoyed it. Whenever I ventured into the darker half of the palette it just became a mess, no matter what I did. So I pulled in the other ABH palettes to try and help. I got quite a decent green look out of it with some shades forom both Prism and Modern Renaissance, but it was not the most inspiring combination.

So what’s the problem? Is it the formula? Perhaps.

These swatches of the top row are done with my fingers without primer. The colours are beautiful, but they are not true to what’s in the pan. They are more saturated.

The swatches in the bottom row show the other problem. The effect looks similar to a smear of cheap watercolor paint drying. Very deep centrally but in a halo of dull. And this translates to the eyes.

The colours blend away without remaining true to the shade. For the lighter colours that’s fine. It makes them forgiving and buildable. For the darker colours, it leaves shadows all over. It doesn’t play well with various shades. The smallest variation in shade from pan to eye is disastrous because the effect will be a mess. You cannot blend it out. You cannot add a lighter colour to soften because they don’t hold. It makes tiny mistakes far more serious.

So do I regret buying it? I’m still not sure. I’ve swopped it out without reattempting the green-bronze look that I was so keen on. Even though I know mercury would make for a gorgeous purple eye, I was too nervous to use it again. Which means I have essentially been creating looks I could have done with most of my other palettes.

And yet, I still see the potential in there. I still see the amazing looks that would be so unique.

I cannot in all honesty recommend anyone other than a truly passionate makeup lover buy this palette. It requires patience and a real desire to push your boundaries. But I’ve honestly not seen anything on the market that’s as inspired and different. It’s absolutely unique.

P R I S M – A Holiday Palette Review

Hi!

When Anastasia Beverly  Hills first put out pictures of their holiday collection for 2017, the only thing that caught my eye was the Prism palette. I love blush, but I am not a fan of blush or face palettes – I find that they are a waste because there’s always one shade that you don’t like or just don’t use. I’m also not a liquid lipstick fan. But the eyeshadows – oh, those beautiful eyeshadows. That palette called to me.

To be honest, I was ready to accept that I was never going to have it ( When ABH says limited edition they tend to mean it – RIP Master by Mario palette) when my friend Sarah was kind enough to volunteer to be a mule for me. I placed my Sephora order and have been using the palette ever since and I’m ready to review it.

Let’s start with the good stuff – these shades blend. I am extremely lazy and yet these shadows always look so much better than any other shadows because they are seamless without effort. Every single shade was super easy to use – even with a dry brush (I tend not to wet my brushes and not to use fingers; too much effort). I will say that the foiled shimmers work a lot better with a synthetic flat brush – I’m using a R20 one from Signature cosmetics.

The pigmentation was also definitely there – Eden was the lightest shade, almost too light for me but it showed up. The shades I was not a fan of were quite pigmented as well, it was a case of dip twice and blend once. I don’t really mind going back to add more, so they were fine for me.

The bad news is that the dark shades are quite chalky. The Modern Renaissance palette had beautiful dark shades that were super soft, but the Prism palette just does not have the same level of softness. This is a really minor difference but it is there and it is noticable.

The even worse news is that two of the shades are a bit sucky. The shade Sphere is meant to be a neon yellow. Mine is a lot more flat and green toned. It’s by no means a bad shadow, but it was disappointing not to get the bright yellow I’ve been seeing in everyone’s Instagrams. The shade Osiris was also quite disappointing – it looks like a dark blue foiled glitter shade, but is more deep chalky purple matte with lavender glitter. The first day I used it, it looked awful. It was mostly my fault for being late and not having time to build it up, but I usually don’t expect metallics to need that much work. I used it again as part of a purple smoky eye, and it was much better.

The final problem was glitter transfer. I know I have hooded eyes but it really sucks when your eyeshadow is a mess just three hours in…

Look, I know there’s lots of negatives in this post, but honestly I really love the Palette. The colour selection is amazingly creative and they are easy to use pigmented shadows. It is expensive (local resellers are pricing it around R1000) but it’s worth it for me.

I’d say if you’re into doing interesting and fun looks on your eye, and are an ABH fan, get the Palette if you can afford it. But if you like a neutral look, this is not for you. It was actually a bit difficult to put together a look that wasn’t glam with this. That’s not a complaint – just an observation. 😀😉

 

 

 

 

 

Sephora

Hi! 

So if you have been following me on Instagram (@mymedicalmakeup) you’ll know that I’ve been teasing about an order I placed. The products are finally here – so the big reveal : I placed a Sephora order.

My friend Sarah was going to the US and when she went the last time I was sad because she didn’t tell me early enough for me to give her a shopping list. This time, we worked out that if I placed an online order and had it delivered to her Air BNB she would cart it home for me. So that’s what we did. 

I stalked the Sephora website for weeks and went through all my emails for special gift codes. Just so you guys know, anyone with an email address can sign up to Sephora’s reward programme and recieve these. 

I was a bit concerned about paying for the items – on a few websites and blogs I read it was mentioned that Sephora does not accept international credit cards and that I would have to buy a gift card from a third party site and use that. It seemed like quite a schlep. 

It was clear that I was going to have to set a limit to the spending. Sephora gives away a free product when you spend $100, so I decided to go for that only.  I also thought really hard about the products that I wanted – I think my cart changed around three times.

Especially when you’re faced with sales or other promotions, I think it’s really important to be very specific about what, if anything, you buy. I like to make wishlists when I’m bored, especially on Amazon, and I give myself certain times to order only. When it comes down to it, I hardly ever want anything on the lists – it’s just not that exciting anymore.

I knew one thing I absolutely had to have – the Anastasia Beverly Hills Prism Palette. I’ve been loving the look of it, I know it’s limited edition, and I was unsure if any local retailers would be getting a hold of it. So that went into my cart.

The case has the classic velvet lining

It arrived looking exactly as it does in all those insta pics – beautiful, unique and vibrant! I’m so excited to try this out – I will do a full review once I’ve played with it. 

I’m most excited about sphere and dimension, but honestly, there’s not a shade in here I don’t like!

Fenty Beauty has so much hype around it, but I don’t use foundation enough to justify a collection. The eyeshadow palette looked pretty, but I’ve felt that most of the palettes being released recently are full of shades I already have. Also, pink is having a moment, and I really don’t like pink eyeshadow. So that was out. The lipsticks and glosses… I’ll admit to being very interested in the Universal Lip Luminizer. It looked like it could be perfect on anyone and I really love lipgloss. So I bought that.

The packaging is absolutely classic

This is the only product I’ve actually used so far – it has a really sweet scent when opened but I haven’t yet put my finger on what it is. It looks very natural on – a no-makeup kind of product. It feels quite comfortable on as well. Again, I’ll do a full review once I’ve used it a bit more, but my initial feeling is that this is a great product.

You can just about see the micro glitter – I may use this as a topper. Sorry about the bad pics – I’m too excited to wait for good lighting in the morning!

Sephora Favorites collections have always been tempting to me. I wanted them all. But the one that spoke to my heart was the hair mask collection. Honestly, I have so many problems with my hair that masks have helped resolve. I have been wanting to try amika and Briogio and Moroccan Aryan Oil products for a long time, and the price of this convinced me. 

Sarah had removed the packaging to use the bag for some of the items in transit

I needed one more thing to make $100 and initially I was going to buy a Laneige set. But after trying out the water sleeping mask I decided against it. So I browsed a bit and decided on a Becca highlighter set. Champagne Pop is a favorite of so many beauty bloggers that I decided it was worth it. 

Look. At. The. Glow.

The highlight powder is tiny. I’m a little upset over how much I paid for it, but that’s my own fault for buying these gift sets. Nevertheless, it looks absolutely beautiful and swatches amazingly. I’m looking forward to using it!

I was all ready with my promo codes and my cart loaded up. I was going to order the day Sarah arrived and pay for overnight shipping. But then something happened that has apparently not been done before – Sephora’s VIB sale included the Beauty Insider category! That means I got 15%off everything! 

It also meant that I had to buy one more thing to qualify for a point perk. I decided to buy a lipstick from a luxury brand, assuming it would be around the $20 I needed. I chose NARS because I don’t own anything from them and they had a set of 2 chubby lip sticks. I chose one with a shade I liked for my mom so that I could give her a gift as well. 

So stylish!

I have to say – NARS products just radiate luxury. The packaging just makes everything look expensive. These crayons are so soft and yet sharp. Based on the swatches, my mom may not get a present. 😋 I will get back to you guys on wearability.

Sephora didn’t have my point perk in stock (annoying) and they couldn’t give me a replacement. So now I have points to spend and no real way of spending them… I’ll be looking into this in the new year if I am employed.

They also messed up the samples I chose. But seeing as how there wasn’t anything super special there, I don’t mind. I had chosen the Benefit Pore-fessional, a Belief face wash and a Boscia scrub. But I’m not too disappointed with what I got – the lilah b cheek and lip stain is a great way for me to try out that kind of product, I can never say no to a tinted moisturiser, and an ordinary moisturiser is always handy for an overnight trip. 

From top down – Champagne Pop liquid, Champagne Pop pressed powder, Walkyrie, Damned, Sphere, Dimension

I’m really happy with all my products and I’m so excited to use them all! Obviously, that’s what I’m using this week for #makeupswitchup ! 

Follow me on Instagram for updates as the days go by! 

Modern Renaissance

The first time I saw this palette, I really was underwhelmed. Yes, it was pretty, but it also looked so pink. Pink eyeshadow makes me look washed out and I wasn’t keen.

But the internet begged to differ. No matter where it was mentioned – YouTube, blogs, Instagram – it was always a positive review. Everyone seemed to love it. And the looks created were all so different. So I became more interested and eventually decided I needed this palette in my life.

I’m sure I took a picture with the shadows all pristine and new, but I can’t find it 😐

I bought it from Samika store when they restocked it. There was definitely an element of “must buy now before they stock out” in the decision, and almost as soon as I paid, I regretted it. R1200 is a LOT of money. I could buy 15 Wet n Wild trios with that. I could buy Advanced Night Repair. 

Look, I was excited about it, the colours were pretty, it was allegedly more blendable than Wally, and it was all warm tones. But.. I had never bought anything from ABH before. I hadn’t touched it. What if I hated it?

When it arrived, I was ecstatic. My colleagues at work (where I have all my stuff delivered – it’s casualty, someone is there all the time) actually remarked on what a reaction I had. I’ll admit – out of the box it looked absolutely stunning and I was super eager to use it.

I did a full face that very night just to really see what the shadows could do. I was drawn to Love Letter – that’s just my colour. And holy smokes was that shadow amazing. I barely had to try! It was just wonderful.

I had high expectations and it surpassed them entirely. 

The biggest shock was really the colour scheme – all the pictures and videos I and seen made it look pinky -orange, but there is a predominance of neutrals. I’m not complaining about that but it was unexpected.

There is such an abundance of high quality swatches of this palette, so I went with something more creative

I put the shadows to the longevity test over my night shift weekend. On Friday, I put my makeup on around 12. At 4, just before I went to work, the shadow was perfect. At midnight – so 12 hours in – I had a break. My shadow was definitely still there – from a distance it looked fine. Up close there were some bare spots and the lighter colours had faded quite a bit, but it was still looking nice.

I ended my shift at 4. My shadows looked great, but there were definite bald spots. The fact remains though, I had a reasonable night. For most of the evening I was chatting and scrolling through Instagram. I didn’t nap or scratch at my eyes. I didn’t resuscitate. So although it lasted around 16 hours reasonably, it wasn’t stressed.

On Saturday, I only applied my makeup at 18h45. I used red ochre all over and dotted some antique bronze over the centre of the lid. This application method is one I like because it’s quick and yet looks so beautiful. It requires a shadow to blend though, and I didn’t have a problem with these. My eyes were great.

This call was stressful. It was busy when we arrived, we had 2 resus type situations and I had to insert an ICD (cue – all Bara Doctors laughing*). I got a break at 03h30 and was eager to see what happened. Sadly, there was creasing and a bald spot in my crease proper. It looked acceptable from a distance but up close – most disappointing.

I came home Sunday morning at 06h30 and looked at my eyes in my makeup mirror with natural light. The matte shade was all gone on my lid and the shimmer shade was just a mess. There was a nicely blended matte in the crease with shimmer transfer that looked weird. 

(I want to give Kudos though to my Woolworths eyeliner that was still perfect and the Essence Mosaic blush that was still there, even though faded.)

Sunday I was eager to try all the shades that I hadn’t yet dipped into. They were mostly the nude and brown tones, and so I did a nude eye that was smoked out with Cypress Umber and added some shimmer with Vermeer to the lid. This look was done for effect rather than colors and looked absolutely stunning at 16h30. 

This was the day that shadows got really put to the ultimate test – I didn’t prime. The pigmentation was still there, the blending was still super easy. It was the longevity that was in question.

I had a tough call. Not sick patients as such, but difficult ones. I got home at just before 3, but didn’t look in the mirror until 5 because Game of Thrones. My eyes still looked smoky, but the glittery pizzazz was all gone. It just looked like light shadow on the lids. There were also bald spots. Again, my eyeliner and blush were perfect. 

Overall, I’m satisfied with this palette. It has great shades and is easy to use. The looks I can create are special. But for the price, the longevity is lacking. For the record, I always compare longevity to my Wet n Wild trio, which lasted 30hours and cost me €2.99 (R45). 

I’ve used the shadows on a 24 hour call, and they performed well. That disappearing crease is still a problem, but because my eyes are so hooded it’s not noticible unless I close them. 

I’ve also since figured out how to clean the case (arguably the worst part of the palette). I use a cheap makeup sponge and some micellar water. Using the finest spray you can get your hands on, spritz a tiny amount onto the case and then it’s just using the sponge and moving outward.

You can see the fingermarks and dirt on the right of the palette. The black smudge of ?ink ?liner on the bottom left corner was impervious to my lazy scrub

*For those unfamiliar, “Bara” is Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, notoriously one of the biggest and busiest hospitals in the world. They see more trauma a day than I do in a week. 1 ICD is a wayyyy quiet night by those standards.

I’ve also just realized that most people won’t know what an ICD is. The full term is InterCostal Drain, and take it from me, you’re probably happier not knowing. Otherwise, there are some great YouTube videos showing exactly how to put one in. Here’s one that’s not too graphic.