Coastal scents is famous for the makeup palettes it stocks. I recently placed an order to purchase some palettes, brushes and gel eyeliners.



The brushes - Silver Duo Fiber Stippling Brush, Foundation Concealer Brush Large, Synthetic Shadow Brush and Synthetic Concealer Shading Brush.



The Silver Duo Fiber Stippling Brush. This is a lovely large brush and the bristles are incredibly soft. It is perfect for applying blush but too soft for foundation.



The Foundation Concealer Brush Large. This brush is firm enough to apply liquid foundation and again is a substantial size.



The Synthetic Shadow Brush and Synthetic Concealer Shading Brush. Good sized brushes and firm synthetic bristles.



The gel liners in Turquoise, Platinum and Deep Plum. I've already dipped into these so did not take a picture with the lids off.



The famous 88 normal palette! This is gorgeous.



The contour palette, with highlight, contouring and blush colours.

I really love the items I received in this order. They were packed very securely to ensure no breakage of the makeup in the palettes and they were shipped nice and fast. However, I am very annoyed at how much I paid to ship these palettes.

When I was planning my order and placing the items into the cart, I was shocked at the estimated price of shipping. I had an extra palette in the order and it was stating that the order was over 4 pounds and couldn't be shipped by international first class mail, which I knew couldn't be right for these items. It's just makeup, not heavy body products.

So I emailed Coastal Scents and asked them some questions: Was their cart accurate with the shipping? Why couldn't my order be shipped via first class because surely it was under 4 pounds? Could they ship it in a flat rate global priority box for me, etc etc. They replied and only told me to remove a palette from the cart, not answering the other questions.

So I went ahead and removed the neutral palette from the order, and the shipping was $30.65 for first class international. I thought this was a very high cost for shipping makeup and brushes, because I've had heavy boxes full of bath and body products shipped for those prices. I went ahead and placed the order without doing further research.

When the box reached me, I knew from the time I picked up the box that I had been duped. It was light as a fucking feather, it couldn't even weigh 1 kilogram. So, I weighed the items and the weight added up to 850grams, which is 1.88 pounds. Grr, I knew it! I rounded it up to 1kg, which is 2.2 pounds to account for packaging and headed to the USPS website. I should have been charged $18.55 instead of the $30.65 that I paid. That $12.10 is almost $20 for me in AUD and is a very frustrating amount to be overcharged.

Since then, I've found out that the palettes are sold on Ebay at much less expensive prices and shipping. I ordered a Neutral 28 palette and brushes from an ebay seller, who charges half the price for the palette. In fact, the cost of the palette and shipping equaled the price that Coastal Scents charges for the palette alone. She also shipped within 2 days, wrapped the palette very securely and provided great customer service. I will provide more information on this seller when I post about that order.

So, internationals - DO NOT order palettes from Coastal Scents. They make more profit off us by inflating the shipping cost. Order the lighter items as the postage ripoff is on a much smaller scale. I placed another order with them for some silicon powder and a few more brushes and was still shaking my head at the shipping cost, but as it came in under $7 I went ahead with the order. I actually tried to add a 10gram size sifter jar to the order, which would weigh next to nothing - maybe 1gram? And took it back off because it raised the shipping cost by $1...outrageous. Order the palettes from Ebay instead!