Colours of the World

As mentioned in my latest Sephora haul, the Anastasia Beverly Hills Shadow Couture World Traveler Palette was the only eyeshadow palette I bought in the US. I've been testing it out for a good few weeks now and have mixed thoughts. I did see a stack of the palettes at the Sydney Sephora at the weekend (the palette is priced at $51 if I recall correctly), so it's readily available locally at largely the same price as what I paid in America. Overall, there are some standout shades and it's a palette I have been reaching for frequently, but some colours aren't that useful to me (or I'll never touch), and most disappointingly, there are shadows with unexpected texture and application issues.

There are 12 shades altogether, each 0.72g. Like the Urban Decay Naked palettes, it comes with a synthetic double-ended eyeshadow brush. One side is stiffer and flatter (though overall still quite rounded), presumably designed for packing colour onto the lid. The other side is softer and fluffier, with longer, less tightly packed bristles, presumably for blending out the edges of shadows or crease work. Also like the Naked palettes, I've never used the included brush and don't feel any particular desire to. I'm not saying it's a bad brush (I can't really make any judgement since it's still pristine), I just prefer to use my existing brushes and always forget it even exists.

There's four mattes (Soft Peach, Morocco, Fudge and Noir). The rest are a bit more difficult to categorise. I'd say four shades (Bellini, Azure, Intense Gaze and Metallic) are metallic finish and generally nicely pigmented and smooth. Heirloom and Spoiled are primarily glittery shades with a weak base colour (purple and peach respectively). The remaining two shades, Pink Champagne and Chic, are just glitter (i.e. with no base colour), though they can be built up in intensity to form their own colour. Pink Champagne in particular I would define more as a glitter top coat than an actual eyeshadow.

l-r (top row, then bottom row): Soft Peach, Morocco, Heirloom, Bellini, Pink Champagne, Chic, Spoiled, Fudge, Azure, Intense Gaze, Metallic, Noir

Soft Peach is pretty self-explanatory. A pale, pastel matte peach. For me, I rarely get any use out of these kinds of colours as my eyeshadow "looks" just aren't that complex to entail the need for a barely visible "blending out" or base colour.

Morocco is a rich, reddish matte brown. It instantly reminded me of Salted Caramel or Peanut Butter from the Too Faced Chocolate Bar and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Bar eyeshadow palettes. This shade is very pigmented and one of my favourites from the palette, though it can be overly intense if not used sparingly and blended out well.

Heirloom is a dark eggplant with pink and gold sparkles. The purple needs to be built up to achieve adequate colour payoff. The base colour is very similar to black and and is more of an inky navy when built up than the royal purple it appears in the pan.

Bellini is a light, peachy bronze. For me, not dark enough to provide the definition I need as an all-over lid colour. It's also not the most unique shade. I feel I have variants of it in countless palettes.

Pink Champagne is an extremely frosted, pink-toned taupe comprised primarily of silver sparkles. Way too much/borderline gritty if applied like an eyeshadow, but striking and very pretty if used as a glitter top coat. I like dabbing it on the centre of my lids as a finishing touch with my finger for added dimension and festivity to any eyeshadow look. Despite its limited use, it is one of my favourite (and most used!) shades in the palette.

Chic is a pale, slightly greeny-gold silver. Like Pink Champagne, it seems to lack any base colour and is mainly just glitter. I tried it as a silvery eyeshadow and found it to be very chunky, almost gritty, and uneven in application. Not a fan. It's probably better as a glitter top coat like Pink Champagne, but for my skin tone and preferences, it's too frosty/silvery/white to be flattering.

Spoiled is like a darker, more brown Soft Peach, but with gold shimmer. It's lighter than Bellini, which is bronzier and more orange in tone. Both Spoiled and Bellini are a bit too light for me to be effective lid colours. A letdown given they seemed promising as possible new staples.

Fudge is a warm, deep cocoa matte. Not a revolutionary colour, but it's well executed and completely necessary in a palette like this. I use it all the time, often mixing it with a bit of Noir to add extra definition to the outer corner or to smoke out the upper lash line.

Azure is a dark but bright metallic blue. Despite how vibrant it looks in the pan, it needs to be layered multiple times to achieve full opacity. I'm quite confident I already have very similar, probably superior blues (Sleek Simbad's Seas from the Arabian Nights i-Divine Eyeshadow Palette comes to mind), which still doesn't change the fact I wear none of them.

Intense Gaze is a shimmery sunset reddish orange. Very smooth and pigmented. It's a bit lighter and on the pinkier side than comparable shades like Makeup Geek Roulette, the middle shade in Rimmel Brixton Brown or Morphe Brushes Mysterious. It's also not as chocolate/bronze as the 'Enhance' shade in the Charlotte Tilbury Dolce Vita quad. Colourpop Sequin is a lot blingier with blinding silver sparkles, but similar in base colour (Sequin is a touch more brown).

Metallic is a metallic finish chartreuse. Bit chunky, dry and difficult to apply evenly, but nowhere near as bad as Chic. Still, undeniable texture and application issues which were surprising, given we seem to just expect shimmery shades to be well-formulated compared with trickier mattes.

Noir is an excellent matte black. One of the best I've encountered, especially as some fall out does happen, but nothing too problematic.

Overall, I like the Anastasia Beverly Hills Shadow Couture World Traveler Palette, but it's a long way from faultless. I think I'm at a stage where because I have so many eyeshadows, I judge new additions to a higher standard. The only truly unique shades to me were Pink Champagne and Metallic. The paler neutrals were generally too light, the more colourful picks I have minimal interest in using and didn't blow me away in terms of quality, Chic was a true dud. Surprisingly, the mattes impressed me the most, though they didn't offer anything new in terms of colour selection. The new Self-Made palette from the brand looks to be more up my alley in terms of the shades. I'm a sucker for pretty colours even if they might be abysmal when applied (Too Faced Naked Eye, anyone?). Hoping it lands at Sephora in Sydney so I can swatch it in person before making up my mind.