These are the first items I’ve ever purchased from Coastal Scents. I’m not gonna lie – I hemmed and hawed for ages before placing my order! Their products are so affordable, I was convinced the quality was going to be sub-par. But at the same time I was intrigued: what if good cosmetics really did exist for a fraction of what I’d pay at Sephora?
Well, technically they already do in the form of drugstore brands. But a near-exact dupe of Urban Decay’s Naked 1 + 2 palettes for under $20? That was worth checking out.
When my order arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Revealed palette (and the Contour and Blush palette, which I’ll be reviewing soon) came in its own bubble wrap sleeve inside its box. Not a single pan had been damaged in shipping.
The Revealed palette was such a surprise. Firstly, I felt that the packaging looked as good as something you’d see from a much pricier brand. Despite it being cardboard, it was really well-made. Trust me on this – being in the paper goods business makes one super critical. In fact, I’d actually just ordered an Ammo palette from Urban Decay the week before and returned it immediately for being of horrifyingly poor quality. Oh, yes I did.
But back to the Revealed palette.The only downside to its packaging is that it lacks names for the colours, which can make referencing tricky. However, it’s an easy fix – all it takes is a white pen!
I pulled out my Naked 1 and 2 palettes for comparison, and found that the Revealed palette really was almost identical in terms of colours. As far as quality goes, the colours are very pigmented and apply as smoothly as the Urban Decay ones. Truth be told, I was expecting the shadows to be chalky or rough, but when I swatched them I realised there wasn’t a noticeable difference in texture to my Naked palettes.
Here is a colour dupe chart, compared to the Naked 1 and 2 palettes. Not all are exact dupes, but the ones that aren’t are very, very close.
In fact, they’re so close that I’m not actually sure I’d be able to tell the difference Revealed and the Naked palettes in a blind test. Here’s a comparison shot to prove my point – one eye done up with Naked 1’s Buck, Toasted, Hustle and Sin, and the other with Revealed’s number 7, 18, 17 and 3 respectively. Can you tell which is which?
Drumroll please…I used Naked on the left and Revealed on the right. Sorry for the iPhone photos today! Adam was busy today and I didn’t want to bother him for too many photos, but he did quickly snap my whole face before we left the house. I think I look pretty normal despite having used a different palette for each eye!
Aside from its similarity to my favourite palette, another thing I like about Revealed is how sleek and travel-friendly it is. I know the Naked palettes include a brush and mirror, but they are less of a priority for a frequent flier like me. Here’s how much space I’m saving in my suitcase:
Conclusion: this palette is UH-mazing and I recommend it even if you already own the original Naked palettes. To me, it’s an travel-sized version of my most used eyeshadows, and so inexpensive I can easily replace it if it gets lost or damaged during travel. I’m scoring it as a win for cheap cosmetics, and can’t wait to snap up Revealed 2 (a.k.a. the Naked 3 dupe) next!
