Coastal Scents SMOKEYPalette

Since I've had this palette I've never picked it up and I don't know why. Not a single time. This is my first time swatching it all.. Sorry it's a bit confusing!!

Unfortunately the one I ordered came with two busted eye shadows. I was super pissed! Pretty much every single thing in the box was covered in a fine dusting of green eye shadows. It made a really big mess until I figured out what was going on. I e-mailed to their customer service department stating that I could send it back or show a picture for proof if they needed, and they sent me a brand new one on my word! I could have been lying and they sent me a new one anyways, which was super nice of them. I totally wasn't expecting that at all. Now technically I have two of them, but one of them has two of the eye shadows completely busted out. The other 34 colors are beautiful and fine, though :) I'm not really sure how they got busted as this package had more bubble wrap then anything I've ever seen in my entire life.

I got this for $22.95, which is totally worth it. 

I swatched this on a day that I had swatched maybe five or six other palettes - so my hand was done, finito. It was NOT happy and refused to have swatches anymore, so I used my arm. The only thing I don't like about this palette is if you run out of a color, you can't order another small, individual hot pot. You just have to buy an entire other palette. Good thing I already have a backup, yes? :)

I really like the idea of smaller pots but more colors. I'm not sure why I haven't bought an 88 or 120 palette yet since I'm SO into having all these colors at the tip of your fingers, without having to dig or have eighteen eye shadows open at once. Also I never, ever finish an eye shadow. This way the colors are way smaller and take up much less space, it's not like I NEED full size eye shadows. If I finish a color and find that I HAVE TO HAVE IT and I don't already have something like it, I can just buy the full size hot pot. Win all around!

The eye shadows, at first glace, look thrown together. I took a look at the website and noticed that they were in blocks of 6 colors at a time - giving you a guideline of how to make six separate, colorful smokey eyes. 

this image was taken from the Coastal Scents website, located here.

I absolutely LOVE this idea! I'm still in the beginning stages of making my own makeup looks - I take a lot of inspiration from looks done by other bloggers or youtube gurus - so this is totally helpful.

Alright - I need to explain my swatches. I did each set of six individually. I swatched them first without primer, then with the mark. cosmetics primer. I numbered them so you would know which one was which.

For some reason I only snapped a picture of this with primer.. I don't know where my without primer picture went or if I even took one. Whoops! :( Sorry. Just know it was much better with primer :)

The only ones I don't see making a good smokey are the green and yellow ones.. just not dark enough to be a real 'smokey eye.' I guess you could darken it up with some black or something, but in my opinion it probably wouldn't work right. It would be amazing for a really bold green and yellow look, but not at all dark.

A few of these shadows really impressed me. Some of them didn't show up well for swatching but would be amazing for a highlight. The ones I was most impressed with were the 3 from the blues and 5 from the purples. SO BEAUTIFUL! They were really light and nearly duochromey. I was pleasantly surprised :)

Overall I would definitely suggest this palette to anyone. It's beautiful, the colors are rather pigmented and not too hard or too soft. The only bad thing I can think of is the blues were kind of streaky without a primer underneath.

What do you guys think?