Anastasia Beverly Hills Subculture Eyeshadow Palette

Last month, Anastasia Beverly Hills launched a new eyeshadow palette called Subculture, "an essential eyeshadow collection with fourteen shades featuring grungy mattes and bold metallics with an underground edge." Subculture will be Anastasia's second permanent eyeshadow palette. It is housed in a rectangular magnetic case with a dusty peacock blue velvet exterior (exactly the same size and material as Modern Renaissance). There is a mirror spanning the inside of the lid, and it also comes with a double-ended eyeshadow brush. Each Subculture palette comes with a total of 9.8 grams of product, and retails for $55. It is available in-stores and online at Sephora, as well as Anastasia's website.
Cube, Dawn, Destiny, Adorn, and All Star

Cube is a pale cool icy white with a lavender to orange-pink shift in a duochrome finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, but powdery texture, and goes on patchy and unevenly. It has low pigmentation and sheer to semi-sheer colour pay-off. Due to the texture, it can be hard to layer and blend out. It is warmer with more of a duochrome shift than MAC Ready to Party, sheerer and less reflective than Makeup Geek Prism, and lighter with more of a sheerer with more of a duochrome shift than NARS Cassiopeia.

Dawn is a medium warm peachy brown in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and peachier than Anastasia Beverly Hills Raw Sienna (Modern Renaissance), lighter than MAC Soft Brown, and more brown than Jeffree Star Courtney (Beauty Killer).

Destiny is a medium-dark warm olive green in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is slightly lighter than Makeup Geek Dirty Martini, darker and cooler than Jeffree Star Military (Androgyny), and darker than Make Up For Ever M322 Khaki.

Adorn is a medium warm copper bronze in a metallic finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker and more bronze than MAC Amber Lights, lighter than Makeup Geek Legend, and darker than Ardency Inn Copper.

All Star is a medium-deep warm burgundy plum in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is slightly lighter than MAC I'm Into It, similar to MAC Deep Damson, and slightly cooler than Makeup Geek Cherry Cola.

Mercury, Axis, Roxy, Electric, and Fudge

Mercury is a medium-deep neutral taupe brown in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker and cooler than Anastasia Beverly Hills Warm Taupe (Modern Renaissance), warmer than MAC Concrete, and darker and cooler than MAC Charcoal Brown.

Axis is a dark cool teal blue in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker than MAC Plumage, darker than Jeffree Star Poison (Androgyny), and darker and more teal than Jeffree Star Swallow (Androgyny).

Roxy is a medium warm brightened peach-orange in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and brighter than Anastasia Beverly Hills Burnt Orange, lighter than MAC Rule, and lighter and more muted than Violet Voss Hash Tag (Holy Grail).

Electric is a light-medium cool yellow gold with a gold to green shift in a duochrome finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium pigmentation and semi-sheer to semi-opaque buildable colour pay-off. Due to the texture, it can be layered easily but difficult to blend out. It is more muted and less sparkly than MAC I Like 2 Watch, lighter than Makeup Geek Karma, and more green than Makeup Geek Voltage.

Fudge is a medium-deep warm chocolate brown in a matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is warmer than MAC Espresso, less red than Violet Voss Tender (Matte About You), and similar to Jeffree Star Dominatrix (Androgyny).

New Wave, Untamed, Edge, and Rowdy

New Wave is a medium warm marigold orange in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is brighter and more yellow than MAC Up at Dawn, slightly darker and more muted than Makeup Geek Chickadee, and more yellow than Jeffree Star Charm.

Untamed is a medium-dark cool muted teal green in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more green than MAC Plumage, more green and more muted than Jeffree Star Poison, and lighter and more muted than Makeup Geek Time Travel.

Edge is a light-medium warm sunflower yellow in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and more yellow than Anastasia Beverly Hills New Wave (Subculture), darker and warmer than MAC Yellow Chrome, and darker and warmer than Makeup Geek Lemon Drop.

Rowdy is a deep-dark neutral-warm blackened plum in a matte finish. This is a new and permanent shade. It has a soft, finely-milled texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker than Anastasia Beverly Hills Deep Plum, warmer than MAC Shadowy Lady, and slightly cooler than Makeup Geek Taboo.

There's been a whole lot of controversy and backlash with this palette over the past few weeks through social media (mostly YouTube), saying that the shadows here are far too powdery, kick up too much excess product, are hard to blend out, and oxidize on the lid. First of all, I gotta say, these social media "influencers" or "gurus" or whatever you wanna call them are just being overdramatic, almost ridiculously so (the critic in me wants to say it's because drama = more views). I've seen a lot of these people trying out this palette on camera, and nearly all of them use this palette in a way that is unrealistic or overemphasized. First of all, whether or not you are going to use an eye primer, you want to set your lids using a powder. Why? Because matte shades will darken and oxidize over bare skin or any porous surface where natural oils or moisture occurs. People that are freaking out because that matte colour turned darker or ashier on their slick/sticky eyelid? Sorry, they're just not using common sense. They're acting like they've never used eyeshadow before. 
Secondly, these powders (with the exception of Cube and Electric, which are the duochromes) are intensely pigmented. So you do not need to excessively swirl your brush into them. A couple dabs will do. Almost every single video review I've seen of this palette features the "influencer" swirling their brush into the shadows over and over again, and then tapping off their excess shadows against the palette or on a hard surface to showcase just how "powdery" the eyeshadows are. No, no, no, no, no. If you keep swirling your brush into a powder eyeshadow, yes, it will loosen the powder and kick it up. Again, this is common sense. Also, if there's excess pigment on your brush, dab it on to a towel or paper towel. Tapping shadows off your brush on a hard surface is a) going to make the powder fly everywhere thereby causing a mess, and b) damage the ferrule of your brush over time. Subculture is not more or less powdery than Modern Renaissance, which only got rave reviews — you just didn't see people testing out that palette the same way as this one, and it's a totally unfair assessment. Thirdly, use common sense when choosing which colours to use together. If you're going to try to blend an orange with a dark blue, or that teal green with burgundy, then yeah, it's gonna look like a hot mess. It's not going to look good, and it's futile to make them work together. This is basic colour theory.
Okay, now that my rant is over, I will get to my conclusion. This palette features 11 ultra-matte shades, one metallic shade, and two duochrome shades. The ultra-mattes are extremely pigmented, give off full colour pay-off with the tiniest amount, apply smoothly and evenly, and are easy to blend out. A light dab of a brush into any of the mattes is enough to get full saturated colour pay-off even without primer, and there is little-to-no fall-out, even from the darkest shade (Rowdy). I didn't experience any skipping or patchiness, either — but again, I always set my eyelids with a transparent powder before going in with eyeshadow so the powder doesn't cling on to any moisture (I find this step to be essential for flawless blending, whether on myself or others). The metallic shade (Adorn) is absolutely incredible, giving off rich colour pay-off with the smoothest, most buttery texture. I really wish they had included a couple more shades in this finish. My biggest issue with Subculture is with the duochrome shades (Cube and Electric), which go on sheer and patchy, regardless of using them dry or wet. Their surfaces also harden over time, making it hard to get a hold of the pigment. Electric gives off more colour pay-off and is marginally smoother than Cube, which is just atrocious. It's not impossible to use, but it's a pain in the ass. A real shame, because ABH typically does shimmery shades really well.
This palette isn't for everybody and it's going to intimidate some — it's called Subculture for a reason. It's designed for experienced makeup wearers — that is, someone who knows how to use product with different finishes and how to manipulate textures on skin — and people who want to wear colours that aren't neutral, everyday, or conservative. Upon first glance, it doesn't even look like a very cohesive palette, with muted jewel tones ranging from warm to cool and bright to deep dark scattered throughout, seemingly without much thought. But these shades can create some absolutely stunning looks from fiery and sultry to cool and smoky — so long as you're willing to put in the work.