Coastal Scents Eclipse Palette Review for skin tone correcting, concealing, highlighting, contouring

This review is requested by Beauty Blogger. Please do check her blog out she has been an inspiration to a newbie like me :)

Coastal Scents Eclipse Palette is my first and only product from Coastal Scents. For Now.  So I had no idea what to expect. I have read some reviews in Make Up Alley and other blogs and almost every had mixed opinions about the product. And after using it for 2-3 times, so do I.

Let me start with the basic first. Coastal Scents Eclipse Palette was fairly cheap. I got it from a 3^rd party ( A Facebook Page) so mine had extra import/tax and service charges and the whole thing added to 2300tk (a little less than $30) but it has been retailing for less than $15. So that is, less than $15 for 15 shades of concealer.  So before I judge the quality and coverage, I had to keep that in mind. It may not compete with my previous concealer palette (Hard Candy’s nobody’s perfect, which lasted a long but the date got expired so I threw it away, now kind of wishing I still had it, at least I could have shown the comparison between these two) but for that price, its doing a damn good job. Specially if you compare it with some concealer they are selling here in Bangladesh (the other day guys from Almas showed me some of Golden Rose!)

So anyway, the palette comes in a slim black case. Nothing fancy. No mirror or brush. Of course, do you ever use the brush or mirrors that come with these cases? I never really did lol. There are quite a lot of concealer for each shade, the circle are approximate of 1 inch diameter. Sorry cant say exactly how much concealer that is per shade, maybe .05 to .08 oz, can someone help me here?

Now I should confess, I didn’t really buy this palate to use the concealers. No, I bought this for its dark shades. I bought it for contouring. I have been searching for some decent contouring shades for months. All I could find locally are bronzers and they are with shimmer. The shines! That is so not the point of contouring. Almost all the videos I have seen all the experts explicitly mentioned to use a matte contourer so I grabbed this palette and I am glad that I did. More about that later…

 So this is your concealer palette. I have numbered them to help with the description. For my skin tone, The first 4 shades are correctors, then 5 and 6^th (and sometimes 1^st one) can be used as a highlighter and the next 8 shades are concealers and the last 3 are contourer. For my skin tone. I imagine Caucasian skintones can use shade 5 and 6 to conceal as well while African American skintones may use shade 13 or 14 to conceal depending on their skin tone.

So for the purpose of this review, I tested a concealer shade (Shade 8) first. I always use fingers to put my concealers and then use a concealer brush to blend. The moment I touched the concealer shade I knew it was to dry. And too thick. And because I have always used concealers which are in liquid form, it felt too weird.

But it wasn’t that bad. Took some effort but it was well blend-able. Because of the thickness it may look a bit cakey if not blended very well but provided a nice coverage after being blended. See the picture bellow where I blended really well on the bottom but not that well on the top thus the concealer is showing.

I will call it a medium coverage, as you can see my blue veins are still visible under the concealer. As I have blue dark circle, this concealer alone would not do the job for me.

Speaking of coverage, I also tried the correctors. And along with the help of them, the concealers may provide a full coverage. For example, I have cool undertone and blue dark circle, to counteract blue I need yellow (same way to counteract the redness of my face I’d use a blue corrector, which isn’t here only a light purple and cyan-ish tone) so I'll use shade 4.

On the left side of the next pic is where I put shade 4 on my bare skin and blended well, you can see its still not very blended. It does provide a nice highlighting affects though. I imagine all the other lights shades will do just fine.

Now I used the corrector (shade 4)) first then the concealer (shade 8) again and blend again, it totally covered the blue tints of my vein. So I suppose it will do a very good job for the under eye area as well.

So if you are looking to use it as a concealer, you really need to blend. I suggest use finger to blend first. Then use a concealer brush and blend again.  For best result use an eye-primer all around your eyes to start with.

Now for my most favorite part of the palate, the contourer shades. I loved loved absolutely loved them. Of course they did not need a lot of blending because these shades would be layered over foundation plus I like a little unblended look on the edges gives my check that chiseled cheekbone look.  Just look at how much definition it added.

 If I compare it to one of the bronzers I was using to contour before it, L’Oreal Glam bronze, you will see what I am talking about. L'Oreal one is not chiseled.  Lack of definitions. And of course shimmery and shiny, it made the contouring artificial and kind of dramatic while Coastal Scents provided a more natural looking contouring. See this pic where the Coastal Scents contouring was done on the line above and L'Oreal on the line bellow and check the difference for yourself!

So now for the skin compatibility. I have really oily skin and even though the consistency is very thick, it didn’t feel oily at all. So I don’t think it will create any problem for oily skin, specially if you start your make up with an oil control eye and face primer and end with a mattifying translucent powder. For Dry to Normal skin I suggest you use a good moisturizer first because people say this concealers are bit drying. 

So my verdict, since I love the concealers I already have, like L’Oreal visible Left, NYX concealer in a Jar or Maybelline Pure concealers, I will not be using coastal scents shades of concealers. But it is no reflection of the product quality, just my personal preferences. You may still buy this product for all its pros. For example:

Pros: 

1.  It is really cheap. Even if you pay extra (like I did) it is still cheap. 
2. It may seem a bit dry but isn’t really that dry just needs a good blending. 
3. Skin corrector, highlights, concealer and contourer all at once. 
4. It provides versatility, for example often you may not find the perfect shade for your concealer, and in this case you can mix two or more shades to get the one closest to your skin. 
5. Together with the corrector shades, it can provide a really good coverage. 
6. The dark shades provide amazing contouring.

Cons: 

1. If you don’t want to blend really well, specially the delicate under eye areas, this concealer palate is not for you. 
2. The texture is very thick so if you are into liquid concealers (like me) you will not be comfortable with it. 
3. Since its really cheap, I am skeptical about the ingredient quality. 

But you get what you pay right? So all things considered, I will recommend people to give this multipurpose palette a try. As for repurchasing factor, I only bought this palette because I couldn’t find any other contourer palette anywhere in Dhaka. If I can find them (I already ordered some online) I will not repurchase this product again. But if you are comfortable with blending and like the concealer shades, my guess is you would want to repurchase it specially with that price, quantity and coverage.

So have you used Coastal Scents Eclipse Palette? What are your thoughts on it?