Coastal Scents Hot Pot Review and Swatch Island Breeze

Coastal Scents has a ton of shadows that can be purchased individually, for $1.95 each. They come in all shades and finishes. In my opinion their Hot Pots tend to be of a higher quality than the shadows included in the palettes. Hot Pots tend to have a smoother formula and are less likely to crease, from my experience.
I'll be reviewing and swatching a lot of these shadows as I try them.



Island Breeze

 

Island Breeze is a beautiful bright teal shade with a shimmery finish. It's a few shades darker than the photo on the Coastal Scents site (I know all computers are different, but it's something to keep in mind) This shadow applies like silk and is easy to blend. CS says it's semi-opaque, but it only just barely misses the opaque mark. In fact, I wouldn't be uncomfortable with giving it a fully opaque label, myself. You can sheer it out to a softer, and slightly lighter, finish and shade, but I wouldn't mess with it too much as you will lose some of its vibrancy.
Unfortunately the swatch above doesn't really do this shadow justice. It is much more bright and lively than I could capture on a cloudy day.

This shade will look good on most skin tones and will be especially good for those who have difficultly finding vibrant colors that will actually show up on their dark skin.




Coastal Scents Hot Pot Review and Swatch - Indigo Dream

Coastal Scents has a ton of shadows that can be purchased individually, for $1.95 each. They come in all shades and finishes. In my opinion their Hot Pots tend to be of a higher quality than the shadows included in the palettes. Hot Pots tend to have a smoother formula and are less likely to crease, from my experience.
I'll be reviewing and swatching a lot of these shadows as I try them.

Indigo Dream

 

Indigo Dream is a deep blue shade - It's darker than the picture on Coastal Scents' website - and is highly pigmented. "Indigo" is a good name for it, because it darn near dyes your skin! It's not difficult to remove with makeup remover but if I get any on my hands when I'm doing my makeup I can't just wipe it off on the nearest towel. It requires soap, water and some scrubbing. Needless to say the staying power of this shadow is great. You could probably wear it for days, although I haven't tried.

As for the finish, I really thought this was a matte shade. I didn't inspect the pot up close and once applied, it certainly looks matte to me, but then I saw that CS considers it a shimmer. So, upon further inspection I did notice a few very finely milled shimmers in there. They are only visible if the light hits the pot just right and  I have to put in quite a lot of effort to see any shimmer once I've applied it. The photo on the Coastal Scents site shows a considerable amount of shimmer, but it's barely there at all in my pot. Maybe I got a dud. I don't know, but I prefer this one without all that shimmer.

This blue is quite versatile. It goes on opaque but it's really easy to blend and sheer out to a lighter shade, that's just as vibrant. If you're a lover of blue shadows this is a must-have for your collection.



Coastal Scents Hot Pot Review and Swatch Miami Spice

Coastal Scents has a ton of shadows that can be purchased individually, for $1.95 each. They come in all shades and finishes. In my opinion their Hot Pots tend to be of a higher quality than the shadows included in the palettes. Hot Pots tend to have a smoother formula and are less likely to crease, from my experience.
I'll be reviewing and swatching a lot of these shadows as I try them.

Miami Spice

Miami Spice is a sheer, medium brown shade with blue shimmers. I don't really know what to make of the blue shimmers, to be honest. They almost seem like an after thought and they're not very noticeable, once applied, unless you go looking for them. I suppose they liven up what would otherwise be just another matte brown crease shade that you probably already have.

This shadow applies smoothly and is easily blended. I haven't had any issues with creasing, but I always wear Coastal Scents Step One Eye Primer underneath it.

It's hard for me to get excited about this shade, mostly because it's kind of a blah brown, but sometimes that exactly what you need.

Covergirl Flamed Out Shadow Pencil Reivew and Swatch

As soon as I heard about these jumbo eyeshadow pencils I knew I had to try them. I wasn't really expecting to be very impressed but I loved the idea of a drugstore shadow pencil and I was curious to see if they could deliver. So I grabbed one in Melted Caramel.

I love shadow pencils for their ease of application. I can get a much more precise application with these than I can with brushes.

These pencils come in 10 shades. None of them appear to be matte - they seem to range from shimmery to glittery depending on the shade. These are not twist up chubbies, but true pencils that you will have to sharpen. The formula is creamy - not as creamy as Laura Mercier Caviar sticks or Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Eyeshadow Sticks - but they are still easy to blend. The stick feels really cool on the lid which was unexpected and the wear time if fantastic! Without primer it still looked completely perfect, as if I had just applied it, after 6 hours and after 9 hours there was only the tiniest bit of creasing that you wouldn't even notice without a close inspection.

Melted Caramel

 

Melted Caramel is a beautiful chocolatey brown shade, with golden shimmers. It's basically the perfect shade for just about everyone. You can apply it with a light touch as a base shade or build it a bit for a beautiful crease. I like to use it alone or to create a neutral smokey eye. It does require a couple sweeps to get more than a sheer color, but it is easy to build so that doesn't bother me.

I will definitely be purchasing more shades as they are all really wearable and pairable with other shades to create depth and dimension. Overall I think these shadow pencils  are a great addition to drugstore offerings. 



Coastal Scents Warm 88 Palette Review Revisted

About 2 months ago, I reviewed the Coastal Scents Warm 88 Palette. The review was fairly positive, and while I still enjoy using several colors in this palette, after having used it for over 2 months now, my overall opinion has gone down a bit.

My chief complaints are these:

There are too many shades that are nearly identical. In the pot they look different enough, but once applied they look the exact same. Particularly the orangey/coral-esque shades, but also the shimmery blues, purples and whites. This palette could definitely be condensed and you wouldn't lose anything in terms of shade selection.

The quality of each pot is quite variable. Many are much more chalky than I'd like. Some have barely visible pigmentation and are very difficult to build. And several of the shades crease like crazy without a primer.

Having said all that, I do really love several of the shades in this palette. There are some really nice taupes, shimmery caramel type shades, and some deep browns and plums that are really fantastic to play with, especially for the Fall season. I just wish I could eliminate all those shimmery, silvery blues and replace with them golden .... well golden anything really.

In the future when I'm jonesing for some awesome shadows I'm going to stick with Coastal Scents' Hot Pots. You can pick and choose the individual shades that you want and the quality is WAY better than even the best shadow in a CS palette. The dud shades in these large palettes cry out "I am money wasted!" every time I open it up.

Coastal Scents Hot Pot Review and Swatches

Coastal Scents has a ton of shadows that can be purchased individually, for $1.95 each. They come in all shades and finishes. In my opinion their Hot Pots tend to be of a higher quality than the shadows included in the palettes. Hot Pots tend to have a smoother formula and are less likely to crease, from my experience.
I'll be reviewing and swatching a lot of these shadows in batches as I try them.

Today's review includes Ice Ballet, Bombay, Peachy Keen and Raisin Berry.

Ice Ballet -  A beautiful shade of frosty violet. It can go on sheer, leaving a satin finish, if applied with a light touch. Or you can build it up to a semi-opaque, shimmer finish. I lovely feminine shade for any skin tone, this shade brings Winter to mind and will be the perfect touch of color for those frosty days. Violets are also a beautiful shade for any bride!

Bombay - A total dud for me. This is a light, dusky grey, with a matte finish. Zombies come to mind with this shade, and it's hard for me to think of any good use for it or anything skin tone that this would compliment. I suppose it could be used when creating multi-depth smokey eye, but there are plenty of other, more versatile shades for that. The pot that I got looks nothing like the one shown on the CS website.

Raisin Berry - I LOVE this shadow! A wonderfully deep berry shade with warm undertones and a shimmer finish. This shadow is richly pigmented and goes on opaque even without a primer! Once applied, it takes on more of a brown tone than it appears in the pot (not quite as cranberry as I had expected.  It's almost identical to MAC's "Sweet Chestnut."
This shade is perfect for the Fall and Winter seasons.

Peachy Keen - A sweet peachy-pink shade with a flattering, satin finish.  Depending on the light, it can appear quite pink or peachy. Application is only  a little heavier than sheer, but it can be built up to semi-opaque.



(L to R) Rainsin Berry, Bombay, Ice Ballet, Peachy Keen

Coastal Scents Warm Palette

Coastal Scents has a really great array of eyeshadow palettes. I recently got the Warm 88 Palette and I'm really liking it.

This is a great palette for anyone who likes a natural look for the eye but still wants some color and variation from day to day. It's got plums, browns, blues, greens, greys, corals, yellows and various shades of white for highlighting. You get a wide range on light to dark tones as well as a mix of matte and shimmer shades, which I love! In other words, there are a ton of possibilities with this palette. I've been using this palette every day for weeks now.

Most of the shades are not super pigmented. (If you're looking for electric, vibrant colors Coastal Scents has a few other palettes that you might want to try). There are some dramatic darker colors, but for the most part this palette provides soft, more natural looks, while still giving you some color. Some of the shades are pretty much identical to each other once applied. The only shades that are duds for me are the more pink toned ones, but that's because pinks just don't work with my eyes/skin, so it's a personal issue. lol
If I don't use some kind of primer (and it doesn't even have to be a real primer. I've been using a stick concealer lately and it works great!) then some of the shades begin to crease after a few hours. But with a primer there is no creasing. All of the shades are easy to blend.

Final Verdict
It is really hard to make a mistake with this palette since they are all warm, soft colors, which makes this a great purchase for anyone from make-up experts to novices.



More Coastal Scents Reviews
Mineral Makeip Foundation
Lip Smacks