Coastal Scents Creative Me 1 Palette--Swatches & Review

Coastal Scents is known for their eye shadow palettes, at least online. I've seen these palettes raved about, and I've seen them absolutely panned, no pun intended. They had a major sale in July (which they often do), plus I found a coupon code online, so I decided to try some for myself.  The first one that I'm sharing with you is their Creative Me 1 Palette.
*I purchased all of the products mentioned in this post with my own money.*

This palette called out to me because of it's vibrant shades, similar in feeling for me to the Sugarpill Burning Heart Palette ($34.00 for four shadows). The Creative Me 1 Palette regular retail price is $14.95 on the Coastal Scents Web site. I paid $9.72 and had free shipping at the time.

Isn't it pretty? The above photo is in the shade and below is in the sun. I did not, of course, expect the Sugarpill quality that I've seen online. However, I've read that Coastal Scents shadows are much like BHCosmetics in that they work really well as long as you use a good primer.

I've done arm swatches for you outdoors in partial sun, without any primer. I didn't do intense swipes, since I didn't want to oversell the pigmentation. I've done them in the same order that they appear in the palette.

As expected, not so pigmented without a primer. My whitey white skin does help the color to stand out, though. :) The texture felt fine to me; not buttery, but not chalky or too powdery. The yellows were awful, the pinks and purples were the best.

In the photo above and the closeup below, I played around with some of the purples and bright pinks over Urban Decay Primer Potion in Original, which is my personal favorite eye shadow primer. Hopefully you can see what I see, that the color pops quite a bit when used over primer. In fact, I had to try and used a very small amount of shadow so as not to overdo it.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my purchase. I think the Creative Me 1 Palette is tons of fun for the price of one non-drugstore shadow. The price and quantity gives me the freedom to experiment with bold colors that otherwise might be too risky of an investment for me. I also appreciate that there is a mirror inside. I'm thinking maybe a sunset eye shadow look is in my future with this palette.

What do you think? Do you own any Coastal Scents palettes that are love, hate, or "meh"?

*I purchased all of the products mentioned in this post with my own money.*