Coastal Scents 88 Palette!! First Look

Tonight my parents, boyfriend and I went out to dinner to celebrate my birthday before I leave tomorrow.  It took my boyfriend and I probably an hour to finally say goodbye- that was hard.  He just left a little while ago so I'm still sad about it, but my mom had me open up one of my gifts to help cheer me up (I knew it was the palette ;).  It really made me feel better- I've been wanting this for so long!  I know what I'm going to be doing in the car ride tomorrow.... swatching these and taking pictures!  Haha.

(I actually expected this to be huge- it's big, but not ridiculously big.  Which is good!)

(Without flash)

(With flash)

These are just some random swatches to show you the awesome pigmentation!

I know these palettes are talking about endlessly in the makeup blogging community- I've read both great things and horrible things about them- but I'm really glad I have my own now.  The pigmentation of a few I tried was just so-so, but all the others were nice.  I'm so excited to play around with different looks.  

I also love that there are a lot of cool-toned colors in this, and enough neutrals to balance out the crazy-bright colors.

What other Coastal Scents palettes should I try?  Do you guys like this palette if you own it?  I'd love to hear any thoughts/opinions you have.

Before I forget, here are some pictures from tonight- I had my mom be our photographer so I'd have some photos of just the two of us!  These make me happy to look at.

(Does anyone else notice that pictures uploaded on Blogger lose their quality a little?)

Have a good night everyone.  <33