Dupe or Dud | ABH Modern Renaissance vs Wet n Wild Rosé in the Air Palette

The buzz surrounding the new formulation and addition of matte shades in Wet n Wild’s popular Color Icon line hit an all-time high when we saw their Rosé in the Air palette. Last year the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette basically revolutionized the beauty community for it’s fantastic formula and warm-toned reds and oranges, so of course everyone immediately saw the similarities between these palettes. And considering the price difference, everyone has been asking….”is it a dupe for Modern Renaissance??” Well, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty!

Disclaimer: I am very picky when I do my dupe or dud posts. There are SO many videos, posts, and pins going around claiming that many drugstore products are dupes. Just because products look the same or have similar claims does NOT mean it’s a dupe in my eyes! I want the drugstore product to PERFORM and LAST just as well (or better!) as my high end product. Just because a drugstore foundation applies as well as a highend does NOT make it a dupe if the drugstore foundation breaks down one hour later and the highend can take you through a 14 hour day. 🙂 Let me know if you agree/disagree with my thoughts on what qualifies as a “dupe”.

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ABH Modern Renaissance vs Wet n Wild Rose In the Air

The Products

Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Eyeshadow Palette | Retail Price: $42 | Modern Renaissance is an essential eyeshadow collection with fourteen shades, including neutral and berry tones. Includes a double-ended shadow brush. Crease and fade resistant formula stays put for hours. Mirrored compact slides easily into your bag for on-the-go application.

Purchase at Ulta | Purchase at Sephora | Purchase at ABH

Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow 10 Pan Palette in Rosé in the Air Palette | Retail Price: $4.99 | Powerfully pigmented, buttery-soft, glides on like a dream. That’s what we dreamed up with our reformulated Color Icon eyeshadows. Our reformulated Color Icon hues come in a mix of coveted colors, from shimmery daytime hues to sultry shades for cocktail hours—including new matte transitional shades for impeccable blending.

Purchase at WnW | Purchase at Ulta

The Swatches

Anastasia Beverly Hills is on the top, Wet n Wild is on the bottom.

All swatches are done without primer, swirling my finger twice around in the pan, and swiping twice on my arm.

Left side of the Wet n Wild Rosé in the Air Palette, going downward

There are only two shimmers in the Rosé in the Air Palette and both are on this side. I find that all these shades show up — both in swatches and on the eyes –basically identical to the Modern Renaissance palette. If you are getting very picky, I feel like Tempera has a touch of pink in it whereas the browbone 2 shade in Rosé in the Air Palette has a touch of yellow. Using in an eye look, though, you really can’t see a difference. Primavera looks more of a light gold and 3 a bit deeper gold, but once again I could not tell a difference on the eyes.

Right Side of Rosé in the Air Palette, going downward

All matte shades, I felt like these were all pretty darn spot on. Love Letter and 8 are a touch different in tones…but it’s really hard to see that difference when they’re on the eyes (see example picture down below).

Transition Shades at the top and bottom of the Rosé in the Air Palette

Raw Sienna is a bit more cool tone than 10…and I almost swatched Burnt Orange from the Modern Renaissance as well — because it also appears similar (in the pan) to the 10 shade from Rosé in the Air. But when swatched, it’s much warmer. Even with the difference in finger swatches, on the eyes I really can’t tell a difference and Raw Sienna is the shade I used when trying out looks and comparing it to 10. As for Warm Taupe and 1, I feel like they look the same…but the quality/pigmentation in the Anastasia Beverly Hills palette is much better than the Wet n Wild shade.

The Similarities

Named/Number Shadows

While Wet n Wild just uses numbers to ‘name’ their shadows, I find it just as helpful and serves the same purpose as the names in the Anastasia Beverly Hills palette. So in my eyes, I found this aspect about the palette the same — it makes sharing tutorials/looks and explaining which shades you used SO much easier! The only ‘difference’ here is that the Wet n Wild numbers are on the back of the palette.

Shade Selections

I know that the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance has 4 extra shades, but ignoring that obvious difference, the shade selection in the Wet n Wild Rosé in the Air Palette are all 99.9% spot-on similar to the ones that can be found in the highend palette.

Pigmentation/Consistency

When swatching these palettes side by side, they both feel buttery soft and pigmented. The shimmers are also very smooth and I really can’t “feel” a difference between them. Pigmentation can be a touch softer in the Rosé in the Air palette, but an extra swipe will basically solve that issue…so yes, I personally think these are the same!

Looks You Can Create

I shared several looks on my Snapchat when I was comparing these two palettes, but this look (below) was my favorite.

Please excuse the quality — as you can see this was just taken with my front phone camera. But I think it shows you that the looks you can create with these two palettes are nearly identical. The vibrant shades in the Rosé in the Air palette take a few extra pats to build up the color…but for the price difference I really can’t fault the cheaper palette.

Longevity/Lasting Powder

If you are not aware, I have pretty oily eyelids, so lasting power for a palette is very important to me…and I have to admit I was very surprised and pleased to see that the eye I used the Rosé in the Air palette held up just as well as the eye I used my Modern Renessance palette on. The color might’ve been a touch fainter on the drugstore side…but seriously, that’s if I got SUPER up-close in a mirror and really nitpicked the mattes/shimmers. Overall, super impressed with the performance of the Rosé in the Air palette. Lasting power is usually where I struggle and see the most difference between my drugstore and highend palettes.

The Differences

Amount of Product

I was curious to see which palette gave you more product…and unless I’m reading the information wrong or did my math wrong…the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette has 0.02 oz of product per eyeshadow. (Since we are only comparing the 10 shades that you can find similar in the Wet n Wild palette,) the total amount of product is 0.20 oz. The Wet n Wild Rosé in the Air palette says it has 0.35 oz of product. Which is probably largely due to the fact that the two ‘transition’ shade pans are so large. But regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that you get more product in the drugstore palette than the highend one. 🙂

Packaging

Obviously…this one is different! The Modern Renaissance is larger and in a cardboard-type palette that is covered in a velvet-type finish. It includes a mirror inside as well as a double-ended eyeshadow brush. The Rosé in the Air, on the other hand, is just a plastic palette with a clear cover. No mirror, no brush. When you think about traveling, I do think the Anastasia Beverly Hills palette will hold up better — in my experience the Wet n Wild palettes tend to crack in my bag, potentially shattering the powders inside.

Color Vibrancy

I know I said the pigmentation was the same in both palettes…and while I do think that, I will say when you start blending the Modern Renaissance does a better job of keeping it’s intensity and vibrancy than the Rosé in the Air. But, as I already mentioned, I’ve found that just tapping the color back over it very lightly — after your all done blending — brings the vibrancy back to the shadows in the Rosé in the Air palette. The matte brown 9 in the Rosé in the Air palette is probably the most obvious when compared to the Cyprus Umber in the Modern Renaissance. I had to spend extra time building up that shade to match what I could get with Cyprus Umber (which is so pigmented and easy to blend, it legit takes like 5 seconds to work with that shade! 🙂 So good!)

Ease of Blending

This is probably the biggest difference that I felt I could tell between the palettes. As I just mentioned, the mattes in the Modern Renaissance (especially Cyprus Umber) takes almost no effort to lay down and blend out. Seriously, this is probably the first palette I think of when people say “mattes that almost blend themselves”. The mattes in the Rosé in the Air palette take a bit more work. Nothing serious — I didn’t notice any skipping patchiness, but I did have to spend a bit longer blending my Wet n Wild side if I wanted to make the eyes look identical. But, with some work — alternate blending and building up the intensity of the shade — you can get spot-on similar looks.

So, Is It a Dupe?

The big question! And I am going to say…YES!!!

If you have been longing to recreate tutorials that you’ve seen your favorite Youtubers creating using the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette but just don’t have the budget (or desire to spend) the $42 on this palette, you can absolutely go get the Wet n Wild Rosé in the Air palette and replicate the looks. No problem. (Provided they don’t use the 4 shades not included in the Wet n Wild palette, lol).

If you’ve been eyeing the Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance palette, but don’t create looks using reds and oranges enough to justify the high pricetag — the Wet n Wild Rosé in the Air palette is the answer to your prayers because at $4.99…that’s like the price of a Starbucks iced coffee. 😛

What do you think? After seeing all the swatches, reading the similarities and differences, and my eye look I created using both palettes…are they dupes in your eyes? Let me know if you own one or the other palette — or if you plan to pick up the dupe once it hits the drugstores!

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I purchased the ABH palette with my own money. The WnW palette was sent to me for editorial consideration. Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning I get a tiny payment if you click through my links. Any questions about my disclosure, read here. Thank you for your support!