Anastasia Beverly Hills ‘Sultry’ Holiday Palette: Tutorial, Swatches, Opinion

HAPPY #BEAUTYMONDAY, EVERYONE! Last week, I had you guys vote on the TooFaced Gingerbread Spice palette OR the ABH Sultry palette as the first tutorial of the season – and Gingerbread Spice won by a TINY hair. Don’t worry, though, because I have the Sultry review, swatches + tutorial here and ready to go this week! This might take the cake as my favorite ABH palette I’ve ever purchased because of how well the shadows performed for me (the shimmers specifically). I loved how easy the palette was to use and how effortless the palette colors went together. So, let’s dive into this.

Anastasia Beverly Hills ‘Sultry’ Holiday Palette: Tutorial, Swatches, Opinion

SHOP THIS PALETTE:

TUTORIAL:

SWATCHES:

REVIEW & OPINION:

I was really pleasantly surprised with how much I liked this palette. I love all my ABH palettes so I wasn’t concerned with the quality or color selection – I was more concerned with how the mattes would perform on the eye because the swatches felt a bit chalky. Luckily, they performed beautifully, and it just goes to show that swatches do not always give a true indication of the actual color and performance pay off. I was really excited because I don’t have an abundance of cool toned browns, so it was amazing to be able to dip into so many browns on the cool spectrum of the color scale. I love that they all work together without looking muddy, and that the bottom row browns all have matching shimmer counter parts. Easy of the tip row shimmers were STUNNING in person, and honestly pictures and videos don’t do it justice. They were creamy, blendable and applied well with both a brush and with my finger. The only disappointment I had was with the shade “bloom”. I applied several layers of this matte, but it still didn’t “pop” as much as I wanted it to. I would have liked it to show up just a little brighter than it did. Eventually, even after several swipes, it just still looked more like a light wash of coral than pigmented shade of coral. Still, I would definitely still recommend this eyeshadow palette if you are looking for something that would be perfect for the holidays but still unique enough to make a statement.

INGREDIENTS:

AS USUAL – the most common two ingredients all of the shadows share is mica and talc. Mica is used for shimmer shades and Talc is used for matte shades (with some using a combination of both). These are filler ingredients, which means almost all eyeshadows are going to contain these ingredients. They are not known to be particularly harmful but I do know that some of you have mica allergies, so if that is the case, I’d obviously avoid these completely. Every eyeshadow also uses dimethicone. I don’t love this ingredient as something to be using in daily skincare simply because like petroleum products, Dimethicone can occasionally make dry skin worse over time so if you struggle with dry eyelids, this may not be a great product for you. If you aren’t using it every day however, it’s usually just fine. Just keep that in mind! The next ingredient I want to cover is boron nitride. Boron nitride is reported to function in cosmetics as a slip modifier. This means it helps product slide over the skin and penetrate it. It’s extremely safe and many products containing boron nitride are reported to be used on baby skin (in a lotion, oil, powder, or cream), and may even be applied to the eye area or mucous membranes. After that comes two ingredients shared by all of our shimmer shadows: Synthetic Fluorphlogopite and octyldodecyl stearoyl stearate. Synthetic Fluorphlogopite is a bulking and viscosity increasing agent. There aren’t any big red flags with this ingredient, which is great. Octyldodecyl stearoyl stearate is a lipid-based synthetic skin conditioning agent, which means it’s great for keeping shadows from being super dry and cake-y. A lot of times with matte shadows in particular you will hear the word “chalky” thrown around and  that is what they are avoiding with this ingredient. Zinc Stearate is next on the list. Zinc Stearate is an anticaking agent, a slip modifier, and a viscosity increasing agent. Again, this ingredient is going to help keep the shadows blendable and easy to use. Unfortunately, this is an ingredient that gives me pause because one or more animal studies show classified as toxic effects at moderate doses and is suspected to be an environmental toxin. I like to avoid this when possible because we can’t verify the exact amount (low vs moderate dose) that is used in the product. Following that, we have two other ingredients shared by ALL of the shadows Polymethylsilsesquioxane and Hydrogenated Lecithin. Polymethylsilsesquioxane is a silicone ingredient that is most know for it’s water-repelling qualities. A lot of people are scared of this ingredient because it is a silicone and although a large amount of research has connected silicones to cancer and organ failure, it is generally ONLY considered to be a hazardous ingredient when injected into the skin or body, but not when applied topically. If it still bothers you, however, I’d avoid it. Hydrogenated Lecithin is next up and is Lecithin with the addition of hydrogen. Lecithin is a natural emulsifying agent and one of the most important components of cells, but isn’t used in cosmetics anymore because of the oxidation and instability against heat. Luckily, Hydrogenated Lecithin has all of the great qualities of natural Lecithin, with much greater stability. The FDA has classified this ingredient as very safe to use. The rest of the ingredients are basically combinations of fillers and dyes. I didn’t see any dyes that cause any alarm here in terms of allergies or anything that has a history of irritation around the eyes commonly EXCEPT in the shade Bloom. There is a red dye (carmine) which is made from bugs. That means it is NOT vegan. Companies tend to use Carmine so they can avoid synthetic red, pink, purple and lake dyes. It is often used to add vibrancy is red shades, long wearing consistency and intensity in the shades.This all sounds great and fine but Carmine unfortunately is an ingredient that is popular for allergies. A typical reaction to Carmine could be slight itching, or watery eyes OR worse, it could turn into swollen shut eyelids, anaphylaxis or a complete swelling of the throat. Please use this color with caution.

PIN THIS FOR LATER

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial and review! I really did love this palette and it was super easy to use. I like that this holiday palette utilized a coral as a holiday color because somehow it WORKS even though it isn’t something that I typically go for (for me, holiday typically means a true red). 

Have you tried this palette yet?! Let me know what you think in the comments below!