Ulta and Coastal Scents makeup haul with swatches/reviews

Hello, beauties! Today I have a collective haul from brands that are new to me. I had never tried Coastal Scents or Ulta products before, so I'm glad I was able to play around with these and give you my opinion of the products.
I ordered the Coastal Scents eyeshadow in Kokomo Cafe along with a Go Pod for storage. I spent less than $4 for both items and was sent a sample quad with my order. Kokomo Cafe is a lovely matte shade that is great for creating dimension in the crease. My favorite out of the quad shades is Camel Taupe. The shadows are very pigmented, but also have a little fallout when applied (I place a tissue under my eye when I apply and that takes care of the issue). They also have nice staying power over a primer.
I received the Ulta items from a friend who received them as sample items with an order. The eyeshadows were not as pigmented as I though they would be and are very powdery when applied (the swatches below have two layers of product). The soft blue shade (Mosaic) is my favorite as the light pigmentation makes it more wearable for daytime. The lip gloss in Illusion is a lovely nude shade and is great applied over a nude lipstick. It applies nicely and is not too sticky. I was disappointed with the blush as it is not very pigmented. The shade is beautiful, but does not come off very well on my cheeks. This shade contains glitter particles. As for the nail polish, you can find my review here.

Coastal Scents eyeshdows in (left) Kokomo Cafe and (right from top) Berry Grey, Camel Taupe, Steel Grey, Wishy Washy

Ulta eyeshadows in (from top) Sahara Sand, Sunkissed, Mosaic and Glittering Sand; blush in Sweet Cheeks; polish in Fuchsiamania; lip gloss in Illusion

Coastal Scents swatches from left: Kokomo Cafe, Berry Grey, Camel Taupe, Steel Grey, Wishy Washy

Ulta eyeshadow swatches (from left): Sahara Sand, Sunkissed, Glittering Sand and Mosaic

Ulta blush in Sweet Cheeks

Ulta lip gloss in Illusion

Happy shopping and I hope these reviews help you in your next purchase from these brands.

The New mark. Eyeshadows with Swatches

Recently mark. sent me a set of samples I was very excited about. The samples were of the new wet/dry eyeshadows  that are launching tomorrow (8/10/12). mark. has reformulated the shades to make them more pigmented and has also added a larger selection of colors.These .08oz eyeshadows will retail for $7 for each.

The new collection includes 10 shimmer shades, 8 satin shades, 6 metallic shades and 4 matte shades. Below are swatches of the sample colors I have (I do not have them all). I'll give you my first impressions after the photos.

The first 4 photos are of the shadows swatched dry with no primer in natural sunlight. The last photo is some of the shadows swatched wet (one shadow from each category).

 Matte Shades in (L to R) Whisper, Storming and Nightly

Metallic Shades in (L to R) Sugar Sugar, Goldi Luxe, Jazzy and Lava

Satin Shades in (L to R) Minx, Luvstruck, Moss, Plum Velvet and Pewter

Shimmer Shades in (L to R) Puff, Fairy Dust, Luster and Empress

  Swatched Wet (L to R) Goldi Luxe, Empress, Luvstruck and Storming

I love the color variety of these new formulas. With 28 total colors available there will easily be something for everyone. I was pleased with the pigmentation of most of these shadows when swatched dry, except for the metallic shades. When swatched dry they do not have the same pop of color as the other shades. However, as you probably noticed above, when the metallic shades are swatched wet they look amazing. Swatching the shades wet brings out more of the color in the shadows. The exception would be the matte shades, which I feel look better dry. 

Also remember these shadows were swatched from samples. I anticipate the actual products will be even better than what you see above.