The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - 88 Palettes

Left to right: 88 ultra shimmer palette, 88 original matte/satin palette

It was about a year ago when the Coastal Scents 88 Palettes were discovered, and ever since then they've been hyped up as a must have for your collection. With 88 colours, can you really go wrong? So back in March, my sister and I decided to order the palette online from Coastal Scents, the 88 original matte/satin palette for myself, and the 88 ultra shimmer palette for my sister based on raving reviews online.

After having the palettes for a good couple of months, here's what I really think about them..

The Good:
- 88 colours! You can't really go wrong.

- Most of the colours are pretty pigmented.

- Can be an asset to someone just starting out in make-up (or maybe not.. but more on this later!).

- The palettes are pretty small, so they can be good for travel, just be careful with them.


The Bad:
- You definitely need a good base. I honestly don't think you can go without one with these shadows. So for someone just starting out, a good eye primer like UDPP or TFSI or a MAC paint pot is definitely something you need to invest in.

- I ordered my palettes off of Coastal Scents, and it took 2 weeks to get to me, and on top of that I payed around $20 for shipping and then another $12 when I went to pick it up from the post office. That was more than the cost of one palette itsself. A lot of places on ebay sell these palettes which are really the same thing and there's probably a lower shipping cost.

- AND, on top of that, when my sister recieved the 88 ultra shimmer palette, the little pans of eyeshadow kept falling out. It was no biggie because my sister just used regular white glue to glue them back in, but I contacted Coastal Scents and let them know, and they shipped out another palette to us for free - but, the 2nd palette had the same problem.

- The pans of eyeshadow are pretty small, about the size of a dime.

- Most of the shadows in the 88 original matte/satin palette are chalky.

- The hinges on my palette attaching the cover and the shadow part isn't put well together, so now on both my palettes the top part detaches whenever I open them.

The Ugly:
- Honestly, I've had these 2 palettes for a couple of months now, and I hardly reach for them, it seems like I can't do a complete look using JUST the palette, and even then, most tutorials on YouTube or online are using just one or two eyeshadows from the palette and the rest of the look is made up from products from other brands.

- The 88 ultra shimmer palette is complete rubbish. You can't use the shadows dry, you have to foil them to get a good colour pay off.

- The 88 ultra shimmer palette shadows are very soft, so they crumble and make a mess easily.

- For both palettes you really need to PACK the colours on to get the colour in the pan, otherwise, when you apply them with a brush, the pay off is very sheer. Also, as soon as you blend the colours get washed out and disappear, so you have to keep going back and forth to build up the colour.

- Since you really have to pack the colours on, after doing one-two looks you already start seeing the pan on the bottom of the shadow. So if there's a favourite colour you use frequently, it won't last very long.


All in all, if someome asked for my opinon on purchasing these palettes, I would say skip out on these. The 88 original matte/satin palette is just medicore for those random shadows that you probably wouldn't use often. And the 88 ultra shimmer palette is useless, I honestly feel like you can find similar shadows or even better shadows at the dollar store.

Here are some swatches to give you an idea about the payoff with these palettes. All of the swatches are with no base.

This a blue from the 88 ultra shimmer palette. Most of the swatches you see online are swatches like this, and honestly, I don't trust swatches like these. Yeah they are pigmented when you swatch it with your finger because you have the smooth skin of your finger and the amount of pressure you use to pick up the shadow makes it look really pigmented.

This is the same blue as above from the 88 ultra shimmer palette. The swatch on the left is applied with a brush dry - and you can really see how sheer and barely there it is here. The swatch on the right is applied wet with water, and the payoff is a little better than the swatch on the right, but you'll definitely need to go over it repeatedly to get a really good payoff.

A black from the 88 ultra shimmer palette, you can also see on the left of my finger a missing pan.

Here's the same black eyeshadow from the 88 ultra shimmer palette swiped with my finger on the left, and swatched with a brush on the right. The black is one of the few pigmented shadows out of the bunch. You can kind of see the shadow fall out on the left swatch.

A finger swatch of a blue from the 88 original matte/satin palette.

The same blue as above from the 88 matte/satin platte swatches with a brush on the left and with my finger on the right. You can kind of see how both swatches are patchy and sheer. You definetly have to go over and over to get a good solid swatch. But here I just swatched it once.

Most of the reviews are online rave about both of these palettes, and I just wanted put in my two cents. These palettes just sit around in my collection and I thought maybe I should review them and shed some light on what I really think about them.

Till later guys! (: