Beauty Spotlight - ft. Coastal Scents

Coastal Scents Prism Palette

As all of my friends (or anybody I've chitchatted with about makeup) knows...I am MADLY in love with Coastal Scents and their ever glorious, ever bright and ever various eyeshadow palettes! I have, well gracious, almost all of them. Soon, I will have all of them, and who knows what I'm going to do when that happens! That will be a bittersweet day. ::sigh::

If I had to pick one thing I'm crazy over, as far as makeup is concerned, it would be eyeshadow. I may have a gazillion colors, but show me a fabulous palette full of bright vibrant shades and I swoooooon. I can never have too many and I'm not afraid to jump out the box with any colors! 

So I've had some requests to start reviewing my palettes and show some swatches, so, howsabout an in-depth review? Hmmm? With every single color swatched? I think yes!

 Introducing the Coastal Scents Prism Palette!

Colors galore, yes? Love it, just love it. There are 88 colors in all (that is the usual amount for their palettes) and they range in shimmer, pearl and matte. 

I was playing around with picture angles for the palette and I took a particular picture that had me staring and drooling for much, much too long. I felt I must share this with you, prepare yourself...and be sure to close your jaw afterwards...

  
I KNOW, RIGHT? After I took it, even I was in shock...gracious, I love pigmented color. 

They aren't very large pans, about a dime size, but it doesn't take much at all to build a lot of pigmentation on your lids. These pans should last quite some time. Here is an adorable size comparison: 

I don't know why, but I think that picture is just the cutest thing ever. The little dime looks so happy!

It is a matte plastic case that snaps shut. I've heard people complain about that, saying that it breaks easily, but I haven't had any trouble at all with any of my cases. Albeit, I don't play rough with them, I'm careful with my makeup, but in my opinion, they certainly aren't cheap-tacky material that is bound to fall apart easily. Expensive? No. Still good quality? Yes! 

The lid has a generous size mirror attached to it with two dual-end eyeshadow applicators clipped in:

I really won't be using them, I've become a dedicated makeup brush/fingers eyeshadow applier, but it's still nice to have, just in case! (Just in case...it's a joke! Get it! IN CASE...they're in the case? No? Well fine, be that way...)

You ready for this? SWATCHES! I'll be starting from the left side of the palette and work my way across...and just to note, I did NOT use a primer, this went straight from the palette onto my bare skin with about 3-4 swipes each.


BROWNS

 

It's always good to have a variety of browns. Brown is such a flattering color on so many different skin-types and with this range, it's hard not to find a flattering color! I think the chocolate brown is my fav out of the bunch (2nd to the last on the right). 



BRONZES/GOLDS

These were so pretty! The set gold and bronze really shimmered in the light. The ones on the right side were definitely made to shine/shimmer and the ones on the left were more matte/pearl. I was very impressed with the gold, it only took two swipes for that coloring!



PURPLES

I would like to state the obvious....OH MY, THAT LILAC ON THE LEFT! As soon as I brushed in on my arm, I fell madly in love with it. It almost seems like it glows in the dark! It is so bright and vivid. This column has a great range from the lilac, to lavenders and mauves. 



BLUES

 
I'm such a sucker for blues. When I see a palette of multicolors, I immediately jump to the blues! I'm really quite pleased with these. Third from the left is a sensationally rich teal, and to it's right is a gorgeous sky blue. LOVE! All in all, the blues make this whole palette a must have for me! My goodness, just buy this palette for these!



GREENS 

Really quite a vast array of rich greens! From a mint on the left, to olive, forest, hunter, ivy, olive/gold to dark forest. Quite a selection, with a good mix of shimmer and matte. I believe the majority of these only took 2 swipes!



YELLOWS

 People normally state that yellows don't often show up and aren't as pigmented. Ladies, I give you exhibit A....or should it be exhibit CS! These are ridiculously pigmented! Keep in mind, I used NO primer...imagine if I had! On the right is a darker set of yellow-golds, that are great for using under actual golds if you want a little vibrancy! It helps to keep a gold from looking grungy. On the left are actual matte bright yellows starting with a lemon yellow on the end and ranging to a primary yellow. 



REDS/ORANGES

 These are so tropical looking to me, so colorsational! Gorgeous tangerines on the left to bright sunset oranges that blend into a red (with a hint of coral and orange). It was hard to pick a favorite with these, but those tangerines are just darling!
 


PINKS
 

Did your girly-girl side just totally leap and spin into the air with excitement? This is definitely some of the best pinks I've ever seen in a palette! Baby pink, soft pink, rosie pink, hot pink, muted pink. You can't go wrong with any of these! That hot pink is just making me a happy happy gal though!



PEACH/CORALS
 

I was super excited when I started swatching these. I love using peaches and corals to brighten my eyes up! Especially the few on the left, they are perfect for me for under my eyebrows or in my inner corners of my eyes. However, can't overlook the corals on the right, they're so fresh looking and fanstatic for the Spring season right now! These are about the colors you've been seeing on the runway for that glossy peach eye look (Louis Vuitton!).



CREAMS/TANS

It was a tad difficult to take a good picture of this swatch because the colors DO look similar when you look at the palette from further away and even in this picture the ones on the left look almost the same, but they are not! Each has a different tint to it, such as yellow, peach, pink, etc. These are great for highlighting and brightening! Or I'd even use these under other shadows to make those colors brighter and cancel out the coloring of your eyelid. 



BLACK/SILVER/WHITES
 

The last column! The black I only swiped twice, so it can easily be darkened to a completely onyx black and the silvers are AMAZING! Especially the third from the right, the blue/silver...it has, what seems to be, slight gold flecks in it as well that just pick up the light every way you turn it! On the left are whites that have slightly different tints to them (just like the creams above) and what really impressed me with them is that they go on quite smooth. I've dealt with some whites that crease/drag/blur or disappear when I apply them. I believe I swiped 3 times each for this. 


PURCHASE:

Coastal Scents' pricing is amazing! This palette's regular price is $19.95, but they are constantly having terrific sales, and I recently used their Spring Fling Sale of 30% off all single palettes, so I only paid $13.97! (Not counting shipping and handling). I've also bought similar palettes for around $9 during other sales! I'm so, so very pleased with their constant sales and specials. They have made me an absolute Coastal Scentsian (Scentser? Scentsity? Oh, you get my drift...). They also send, with EVERY purchase I've made, a free quad of eyeshadows and a super cute bumper sticker that says I <3 Makeup! 

Here is a picture of my Zpalette with a variety of my free quads that Coastal Scents sent me along with my orders. I've gotten duplicates of a few, but I love the variety I've received! I cut off the plastic lid and the sides so I could fit them in neater...

 They are the same size as the usual 88 palette pans (dime size). They are not magnetic, but I used the metal stickers that Zpalette provided and stuck them on the back of the quads. Worked like charm and I'm so glad to have them stored away where they wont get crushed!


FINALE

Well, of course I had to give you a look with the new palette! 

I know precisely what's going through your heads right now...WHY YELLOW? I had soooo many colors to chose from...WHY YELLOW? Well, I'll tell you...it's because of all complaints I've ever heard from a palette purchase (or a contemplative purchase), the most common one is "UGH! Yellow! I'll never use it. You can't use yellow, there's no way." I'm here to tell you that you CAN... and here is my reaction to those who complain about it...

 I know, dramatic...it needed to be done...

It's all about how you approach it! In my experience, the number one mistake that most people make when they use yellow is that they use it all over the lid. Most of the time (especially for an everyday look) that is just too much, and it gives your eyes a strange glaze and tone. You want your eyes to stay bright and let the yellow be a pop of color, not an all over tone. Also, I highly recommend staying away from black eyeliner (unless you're going for a 60's colorblock vibrant edgy look or a perhaps a bumblebee) but your best bet is to be subtle with the contrast and cool down the yellow with a grey eyeliner (more dove grey the fairer your skin is or dark grey for dark skin). It'll soften your eyes and blend well with the yellow. For fair skinned ladies, you could either go with a vibrant yellow, lemon yellow or muted yellow, for medium skinned it's a bit trickier but I'd go with darker dull yellow with a hint of gold, and for my dark skin gals, you can go full out neon bright yellow! Now if you aren't afraid to get a little fun and funky, you could totally work a yellow eyeshadow line on top (like I'm currently wearing) and an aquatic teal under your eye (lining your waterline) or even sassier, yellow on top and lavender on the bottom for a contrasting bright eye, which I might add is very stylish these days! 

For my look I used a light cream (yellow tinted) all over my lid and up to my eyebrow to brighten my whole eye (you want your eyelid to be lit up with yellow!), then I did an outer cat eye with a grey liner and brushed a silver/grey eyeshadow on top of it (YES that was in this palette too!), then I took an eyeliner brush and lined a yellow from my inner corners out to meet and blend with the grey eyeliner. I'd recommend staying away from heavy bronzers, orangey blushes and lipsticks and stick to pinker blushes (or even better, one that is a few shades darker than your skin so you can contour/blend instead of using a different color) and light plum/magenta lipglosses that tint your lips for a good daytime look!

Get this palette, play with the pretty colors, have fun....!

and of course,

Happy Makeuping!

Love, Cookie