Anastasia PRISM Palette Review

​Anastasia is always surprising us with launches out of nowhere. It's part of the reason I love them so much. For the holidays they released several things but one of those being PRISM palette. I seen it and fell in love with it because I just thought it was so different. It's been an interesting journey so far, this is going to be long.

First up I want to talk about the major thing that I notice from this palette. There is really good consistency through out, with the exception of 2 shades that I don't really care for the texture of. I actually really love how versatile the whole palette is as far as what you can do with looks in this palette. It varies from neutral to dramatic and festive. I think it's actually quite brilliant color scheme wise as a holiday palette because it has a lot of options for very cool New Years Eve party looks and not just your typical Green and Red Christmas shades. So I'm loving the colors they chose.  This is a powdery palette just like the others. The above palette is after about 6 uses and some swatches I didn't really clean it up for this because I wanted you to see that this is what it will inevitably look like.

I feel like the formula of this is more like Modern Renaissance than Subculture. Subculture required more patience and was so pigmented that you needed just a little bit to get a look done. It was very easy to over do it with the colors in that palette. Don't get me wrong all three palettes are powdery in the matte category. As I said before that doesn't bother me and as far as fall out goes I always do my eye makeup first so again, doesn't bother me, not that I've noticed a lot.  

I will say there are a lot of shades in this palette that are very similar to Subculture and even Modern Renissance and the Artist Palette. However, each palette has a 6 month shelf life and expiration date. So you may want to keep that in mind. Plus the formula has been changed through out palettes so the same shade may not mean the same formula. So it's really up to you if that's a problem or not. What I'm saying is I understand why these are in here, because they're necessary for the look and the transitions and for those who DO get rid of palettes after so long or after their expiration, then I completely understand having similar shades in rotation for palettes as kind of like a stand by or a "need". If you have the 2 previous palettes (Subculture and MR) and don't have an issue with them, then you may not see this palette as something you need unless you just are in love with the brighter or more colorful shades in it. If you had an issue with Subculture and can't really use it or don't find that you use it much then I think Prism would be a nice buy for you. Or you may be like me and having all 3 gives you basically everything you would need for holidays or anytime. 

I love the packaging of this, normally that doesn't matter to me. This is the same velvet/suede feel as the previous ones but it's a beautiful black with gold detail. I love it. That being said, it's going to get so dirty if you travel with it or put it in a makeup bag, which is a bummer.

Above I have swatches on the left collage of Prism, Sub, and MR similari​ties. Top left is Cube and Lucid one is pink and the other golden. They are the same texture and a sheer wash of color. Which I don't care for. Top Right is Saturn and Realgar from MR and then Lure and Buon Fresco from MR. Bottom left is Adorn from Sub and Sphinx from Prism. Bottom Right is: Eden and then Roxy from Sub, Unity and the Golden Ochre from MR and Dawn from Sub. The last three are Parallel from Prism, Fudge from Sub, and Cypress Umber from MR.

The picture on the right is the similar shades between PRISM and The Artist Palette.
Lure and Dusty Rose
Eternal and Orange You Fancy
Obsidian and Coal 

So the shades that are the most similar to some other shades are:

Eden: It's very similar to Roxy from Subculture
Unity: very similar to Golden Ochre from Modern Renissance and then Dawn in Subculture.
Sphinx: is similar to Adorn in Subculture 
Parallel:  very similar to Fudge in Subculture and somewhat similar to Cypres Umber in MR.
Saturn: very similar to Realgar in MR 
Lure: somewhat similar to Buon Fresco in MR

Texture wise, Lucid feels the same as Cube does from Subculture and it's one of the shades I really don't like because it's a sheer wash of gold shift where Cube was pink. I don't like the sheer wash, I find it doesn't show up for me unless I try very, very hard. 

Pyramid is a bit of a chunkier foiled shade and it could almost due with a glitter glue underneath but I've wore it without one and it didn't flake through out the day.  Dimension is the only other true "foiled" or "metal" shade there is. Sphinx is not the same texture and doesn't go on as thick. Nor does it show up as "foiled".  Eternal is similar to Lucid in texture but only with a little more pigment payoff and a slight color shift to it.

Throne is the star of the show that everyone is talking about. It's the most perfect green. It's not so dark that it looks like black on the lid. It doesn't really require a base to get the intensity that it shows in the pan and it has a slight duo chrome shift to it but I only notice that when it's swatched. It's by far my favorite.

Osiris looks beautiful but I have to build that up to get an even amount of pigment sometimes. It's not overly sparkly. I find it somewhat patchy for me. It's definitely beautiful in the pan and has great potential but it's not one of my favorite shades. Dimension as I mentioned earlier is what I would classify as foiled and it is such a unique color. It's almost like a periwinkle to grey base with a golden and pink sparkle over it. Not glittery just a subtle hint of those colors when they catch the light. I love that shade. 

Sphere is a "highlighter yellow" matte shade that has great pigment and holds the pigment through out the day for me. It's funky, it's fun and you can actually do a lot with it. Especially with mixing it with different colors. Norvina said she created it with darker skin tones in mind so that it would really pop and be yellow on their skin. I think she did just that.

Obsidian is a fantastic matte black and I'm so glad they included a black in this palette.  

Eden and Saturn are in the peach and orange families with dupes in the other palettes. Still they are very needful for transition and blending shades so I do understand why they're in this. They didn't have any blending issues or pigment problems. They were a dream.

The shades that had some similar colors or dupes in the artist palette were:
Lure and Dusty Rose (Artist Palette)
Eternal and Orange You Fancy (Artist Palette) are pretty similar but Eternal is more foiled and has a shift .
Obsidian and Coal (Artist Palette) Coal has a much more dry texture in the Artist Palette than Obsidian does and Obsidian is easier to blend while keeping the black intensity. 

Keep in mind the Artist Palette is definitely past the 6 month mark and the formula in the new palettes are definitely better.

Here are all three palettes lined up so that you can see that yes they are all powdery, again that doesn't bother me. It also helps to look at them side by side to really see if they're similar or not or if this last one can add something to your collection that you don't have. Top to bottom it's Modern Renaissance, Subculture, and Prism.

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So my final thoughts are, although I see some similarities in colors, I understand why they're still in the palette. I think this is a great palette for the Holidays and I feel like it's a more night time "go to" palette although you could absolutely do some neutral everyday looks with it. The looks I done stayed very well and kept their intensity and color better than Subculture. I don't care for Lucid and I'm not the biggest fan of Osiris, it is harder for me to work with. You can totally get there but mine is a bit dry and harder to get the pay off I want for sure. 

Saying all that, I think it's a very good buy regardless. It's $42 for 14 shades. Friends and Family sale is coming up so you can get %20 off of your purchase if you want it. This palette is not going to be for everyone and that's totally fine. I'll leave some looks below of what I've done with it.