Coastal Scents Mystery Box

Oh my, I didn't realize it's been a month since I've updating the blog.  I've bought a lot of makeup in the meantime and actually have quite a few posts scheduled, so don't fret!

I've recently been buying more Coastal Scents things because I know from experience that their eyeshadows are great (better than Elf's), but I've never actually tried anything else from them.  So imagine how happy I was when they came out with their mystery box promotion!

Apparently the promotion only comes about twice a year and it's a great deal.  You pay $20 for their mystery box in which they can throw anything in and its said to have over $50 worth of products.  So even if you have to pay for their shipping, which cost me about $8 something; I should still be expecting at least $20 of free stuff!  (Just to warn you, the mystery boxes are non-refundable and you shouldn't really complain to the company about getting something you didn't like since you are paying for the randomness and surprise.)

Any-who, I finally got the package after so much anticipation during the week, and here is what was inside!

Its a small box within a box!

The contents in their boxes

Contents unboxed

I was overall pretty happy with my things, especially since I calculated everything and the total came out to be over $65!  

What I got:

Sterling Divine Brush Set ($25)

Liquid Eyeliner in 'Shamrock' ($3)

3 Mineral Shadows in 'Ignite', 'Hi Light Blue', and Fiji Twist ($5 ea/ = $15)

5 Hot Pots in 'Peachy Pink', 'Peach', 'Vibrant Lime Green', 'Powder Pink', 'Aqua' ($2 ea/ = $10)

Passion Berry Lip Quad ($7)

Lip Gloss in 'Cosmic' ($3.75)

Single Go Pod ($2)

What I was most impressed with was the brush set.  The case looks like a beautiful silver snake-skin clutch, but when you open it you can see it has 6 brushes!  Coastal Scents has the bad habit of not putting the brush names on the handle so I can't tell you what they are.

I also had to find the names of each Hot Pot by myself because they're labeled with numbers on the back so I had to look up the corresponding names on the website.

However, I was also extremely impressed with their liquid liner.  It's a light green liner and I compared it to my Elf Liquid Eyeliner in 'Forest Green'.

Elf liner (left), Coastal Scents liner (right)

Elf (left), Coastal Scents (right)

After rubbing: Elf (left), CS (right)

As you can tell, the Elf liner is much darker, but it also took a few applications to saturate the color because it tends to erase itself if you go over the first line you drew.  The CS liner didn't have that problem; the first line I drew stuck to my skin and showed up as soon as I swatched it.

Also, the staying power of the CS liner is amazing.  I never knew how easily Elf liquid liners came off before, but this completely blew my mind.  The Elf liner came off with one rub of my finger, yet the CS liner didn't budge.  After a couple more rubs it still did not budge, and only came off a little bit after I started scratching at it.  So I would definitely recommend this liner for people who like their liners to stay on all day (who doesn't?)

Mineral Shadow Ignite - a soft, pastel pink

Mineral Shadows Hi Light Blue and Fiji Twist - pastel blue and pastel yellow

Swatches (left to right): Fiji Twist, Hi Light Blue, Ignite

Free Mineral Shadow sample from CS - Key Lime

Swatch of Key Lime (pastel green)

It seems like CS really wanted me to have pastel mineral shadows this time haha.  All the colors I got were very soft and were all in loose powder form so were quite messy.  In my swatches of Fiji Twist, Hi Light Blue, and Ignite, it seems like it went in order from pigmented to sheer.

Fiji Twist was the most pigmented, Hi Light Blue was semi-opaque, and Ignite came off as a little sheer as I had to swatch a couple of times to get the color to show up, but that may be because of my skin color.

Key Lime was also pretty sheer so I wouldn't really recommend these colors for anyone; I'd advise you to go for a darker color from the mineral shadows line.

Overall, I wasn't too disappointed with what I got, especially with the brushes with its amazing case ♥  If they are still in effect, I would definitely recommend you to get a mystery box!

- Jolie ♥