Hi everyone and welcome back to The Coveted Lifestyle!
I’d never ordered or really heard about Coastal Scents before Black Friday. I’d heard a select few YouTubers talk about them but I’d not heard much about them. I mentioned it slightly in my Black Friday haul that I watched Nicole Cutler’s (Nicole Renee on YouTube) Black Friday must haves video and mentioned Coastal Scents as a place to definitely check out on Black Friday, so that’s exactly what I did. I’ll leave a link to the Coastal Scents website here – Coastal Scents Website.
In the video she specifically talked about their Hot Pot eyeshadows as what to get in the Black Friday sale. When I looked at them online there was such a massive range of shades with plenty of matte and shimmery options. The best thing about these eyeshadows, they only cost 98 cents. 98 CENTS!! That’s around 75p per eyeshadow. Usually they are $1.98 per shadow which is still amazing but 75p for an eyeshadow, there is obviously going to be an order place.
So here’s a little insight into my order and shipping for anybody who wants to order from them. I placed an order of 17 Hot Pot eyeshadows and their empty eyeshadow palette, the largest one they have. My order came to $22.68 which is around £17. The eyeshadow palette cost $6 and it usually costs $12 so it was half price. The shipping to the UK all depends on the weight of the package, mines was $15 which is quite average for shipping from the US. It did take a while to arrive to mine but I think it was all to do with Black Friday, the festive season and an issue that happened with my order which I’ll talk about later. My order arrived in 2 different parts (due to my issue), the first part arrived the Thursday before Christmas and the second part arrived after Christmas. I didn’t pay customs fees on any of the parcels, I’m hoping that I don’t get a surprise bill through later on in the month but I don’t think I will.
My issue with my order was the 4 of my shadows were sold out after I placed the order. They explained that as much as they try to keep their website up to date with what’s in stock and what’s out of stock some things can be oversold and result it in becoming out of stock for my order. They told me I could replace the shadows with other shadows as long as they were in stock on the website which I did but I then got an email saying they couldn’t replace the shadows after all and I’d get a refund for the out of stock shadows. I was so confused about the whole thing and then a few days I got another email from them, this time from a different advisor, that one of the shadows came back into stock so I could get it and that they could replace the shadows after all. It was all very confusing but I think it was just because again it was a massive Black Friday sale.
So now onto my review. I’ll start off with the empty eyeshadow palette. I really like how it has the clear top which means I can see all my shadows in it. It has got a weird mark on it that isn’t cleaning off, I have no idea what it is and it’s annoying me. Also my palette is actually broken, the clip that keeps the palette closed cracked when I first opened it. It still closes but I have to be careful when opening it now. I can tell it is quite cheaply made with it breaking on first use but I don’t mind as it’s not like I paid a lot for it.
The eyeshadows came in a little plastic casing, like a lot of other single pan eyeshadows on the market. Again I can tell it’s cheap as the packaging is very minimal, with just a sticker printed on the back with its name and ingredients compared to somewhere like Makeup Geek that gives your shadows in a little pretty envelope with the plastic case inside. The eyeshadows themselves are just typical magnetic eyeshadow pan, the match sizes with Anastasia Beverly Hills single shadows. I am going to be truly honest, I really thought these were going to be a flop. For 98 cents or $2 usually, I was expecting patchy, no pigment, no colour pay off eyeshadows but these have impressed me. When I swatched the first colour I was very surprised with the pigment that came out. Some shades don’t swatch as smoothly as others, they took a few times before they came out as good as the others.
I love the bright colours, they are extremely pigmented and the colours come off as bright as what they are in the pan. I did try these shadows on with and without an eyeshadow primer on the eyes and the mattes blend good together, no kick back in the pan and no fall out. They aren’t patchy at all, they pigmentation is good. The shimmers apply well both wet and dry, it does give more pigment when wet but majority of shimmers are like that. They look very metallic when applied wet. I mean can you get better quality out there, yes you can but I mean for the price of them I can’t complain as they are pigmented and do pay off on the eyes.
My overall verdict on Coastal Scents is that for 98 cents or $2 they are they are good eyeshadows for the price you pay. If you wanted slightly better quality shadows then there are others on the market like Makeup Geek but I’d totally recommend getting them if you want to start experimenting with brighter shades but don’t want to pay a lot for them as they are really pigmented and vibrant . Also I do really like the palette for the size of it but I just wish it was made better so it wouldn’t break straight away.
