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.*

Purple Smoke FOTD

Makeup is fun for me. I may not be the most skilled, but nevertheless I like to play with it. It's a hobby, and I do it primarily for myself. So sometimes I put on makeup even when I'm not going anywhere and nobody will really see me, except me. The 'Purple Smoke' look was a result of one of those times.

The lighter purple eyeshadow is Satellite Dreams by MAC.

The darker part of the eyeshadow is Black Tied by MAC, a perfect shade for this purpose. I used an angled  eyeliner brush to smudge a little of the Black Tied under my lower lashes.

To blend at the top and to highlight under my brow, I used a single eyeshadow called Brulee by Wet n Wild. (I should repurchase that shade; I dropped mine and shattered it. It was fabulous for blending.)

I took a lot of photos that day because I was in love with my new mascara at the time, Benefit Bad Gal Lash. I am always trying new mascaras (again, because it's fun for me), but Benefit Bad Gal Lash is in my top 5 so far. Okay, so I haven't decided on all of my top 5 mascaras, but it's in there. Maybelline Falsies is also fabulous. Curl and length and thickness, oh, my!

I'm sorry, I didn't take note of the shade name, but the lipstick is CoverGirl Outlast (the kind you pretty much paint on and it stays there for most of the day). Above is before adding gloss, and below is after.

The funny expression on my face above was because I was laughing at some kitty's antics going on in the neighborhood that I saw in my mirror.

So many freckles...this was before I made sure that there was SPF on my face every day, typically in the form of a BB cream (kind of like foundation, but ten times better, in my opinion; especially the ones from Korea and Japan).

What do you think? Do you prefer a smokey eye to be charcoal/black/grey, or would you branch out? My favorite shades for this type of look are purple, forest-ish green, or navy blue.

MAC Mega Metal Eyeshadow in Odalisque

I love teal, and I love eyeshadow. Typically, though, teal eyeshadows tend to be either too green or too blue on me. However, I found a teal eyeshadow that I LOVE. It's by MAC, and the shade is called Odalisque. The color is deep rather than bright. As you can see in the photos, there is a shimmer to Odalisque, but it is not overwhelming.

 

 

This is from MAC's Peacocky Collection, and it's one of their Mega Metal eyeshadows. The formula is fabulous, everything that eyeshadow addicts look for: Pigmented, soft and buttery, easy to blend. It's a much larger size than the usual eyeshadow pan, just over double the size of MAC's regular eyeshadows. It is not currently on sale, but MAC often re-promotes limited edition shades, so keep an eye out for that.