Coastal Scents Hot Pots: Swatches and First Impressions

Hello Pandas! 
Some quick updates before we get into this post:

• I have switched to using Disqus for my comments, so let me know if you experience any difficulties
• Impressionist Nails is being regularly updated again!
• I have a new life/style blog called Wit With My Tea on Wordpress. So far there are only TV posts, but it will include fashion, accessory, travel, book, and movie posts.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Pretty Panda Makeup :)
I have wanted to try Coastal Scents products for a long time. Even despite the low price range, I've heard great reviews about the quality. Their 'Hot Pots', which are single, magnetic eyeshadow pots that snap into empty palettes, seemed to be the best place to start.
The 12 pan palette is $5.95 and each hot pot is $1.99, but they will occasionally have sales where you can snag the hot pots for only $.99! 

Above is what my palette looked like when it was completely put together (which took all of five seconds to plop the pots into the pan). So pretty! And all for under $20 because of sales! Coastal Scents seems to always be having sales, so wait before you make a purchase.

The palette, even for being so cheap, is relatively sturdy and has a plastic lid. There are little indents to help you remove the hot pots for easy switching.

Now, I am going to go through swatches of all 12 pots I picked up:

Bungalow Gold is a fairly deep, bronze gold with a metallic finish. It applied smoothly and had a creamy feel on the skin, which was surprising. This was also very opaque.

Canary Gold is more of a bright citrus shimmer than a gold as almost leans slightly green. This is slightly patchy when applied to skin because the glitter is a bit chunkier in this formula.

Chamois Nude was the only matte hot pot that I picked, even though there is a whole range of mattes. The hot pots come in either matte, satin, or shimmer. This is a very basic light nude that I will use for blending and got it for that purpose. It is matte and creamy, but sheerer than I expected from the massive amount of reviews on the website.

Cherry Chocolate was a highly rated color on the Coastal Scents website, and I fell in love with the name and the chocolate color. When the light hits this right, there is a baby pink undertone to the brown, which is unexpected. It is slightly patchy and sheers out easily.

Elven Blue is in the shimmer category and has the texture of Canary Gold, with chunkier glitter, which is evident in the pan photo. This is a bright blue and very opaque.

Flesh Tone is a pinky nude shimmer that I plan to use as a highlight shade. It is creamy and really nice to apply.

Gypsy Blue has the satin formula, and I love that this is a grey-ish blue with a yellow shift, which is unexpected and beautiful, and very indicative of the name. This was one of the best shades as far as texture.

Mazarine Blue is a bit greener than Elven Blue, and a little less opaque. I'm not sure if I would really need both, but alas, I have both now!

Parisian Green is almost mint, almost spring green, but not quite either with a more pastel lean. It was gorgeous when applied.

Raisin Berry is a bit sheer at first swatch, but easily builds and has such a nice sheen to it with a deep plummy red base and lighter red and pink shimmer.

St. Topaz is a much truer gold than Bungalow Gold and almost has an orange undertone. 

Oddly, Victorian Pear does remind me of a brown pear, as it is a pinky/brown nude with a very subtle green shift. 

Those are all 12 shades of my new hot pots. Eye looks will be coming soon as well as some comparison swatching! So far, I am impressed with the color payoff and quality of these. Keep in mind that each hot pot is about the size of a quarter. I really like the satin finished shadows the best as well, but I will have to put them to a wear test! Stay tuned for more!

Do you like Coastal Scents? Which is your favorite Hot Pot?