Makeup Review: Jesse's Girl
Not only did Rick Springfield make it famous in his hit 1981 song, but Tess and I have both recently discovered the joys of Jesse's Girl as makeup as well. We took to the stores in an effort to find reasonbly-priced makeup and stumbled upon this find, which I'm now thankful for.
Their official site says it all when they claim Jesse's Girl "provides fashion-forward beauty for any budget, because a beautiful face shouldn't cost an arm and a leg". I loved this mission statement, for a few reasons: a) They're absolutely right. I never understood the allure of buying over-priced makeup, when for the same cost, you could buy triple, maybe even quadruple as many products. b) they don't refer to their products as "drugstore makeup", a term that I despise. Makeup is makeup, and if it works, whether or not you bought it in a salon or a drugstore should be the last thing mentioned in praise. Lastly, c) they cater to the every-person, and even though it's a good sales pitch, they're confident enough to assume everyone who uses their products has a "beautiful face", which is a unique statement. So already, they're off to a good start.
Jesse's Girl has been around since 2005, and it's no shock that they're still around today. Out of all of the products I bought, I don't think any broke the bank, at the most expensive being roughly $5. The cosmetics themselves remind me a lot of E.L.F. (another one of my absolute favorites, my go-to makeup), and I tested out their lip liner in Melon, their eye shadow palette in Tickled Pink, their lipstick in Cruise Control, and Tess has been using their eyeshadows for some time now: eye dust in Pixie Dust and Secret Weapon.
They do offer eye shadow primer, however I did not see it in the store and will have to order it online later, but I used NYC eyelid primer (a primer I'm growing to love, but for another blog), before using Jesse's Girl eyeshadow palette. The 9-pan eyeshadow palette has light creamy pink, rose, light gray-violet, a pink rust, a bronze rust, dark bronze, a less vibrant brown bronze, and a gray bronze (those are my best color descriptions, I'm not an artist). All colors have either a shiny, metallic quality or a visible shine & sparkle to them, which is always attractive in eye shadows, and the vibrancy and variation of these colors made me hopeful.
 |
| Tickled Pink Compact, $3.99 |
For the record, I didn't use the makeup swabs that come with the makeup palette--I used my own (essential beauty) brushes, so that's the one thing I can't review. Before I get into what the eyeshadow was like, I just have to say how impressed I was with the fact that the ingredients for the makeup were all listed on the back of all of heir eyeshadows. I was impressed with this because even though I'm unsure of half of the things in my makeup products, it shows good faith that they have nothing to hide and if anyone had an allergy, they would know it without even needing to buy the product and open it up. Points for that one. Now about the actual eyeshadow itself: I was initially nervous. I used pans 1, 5, 6, and 7. Five for my lid, 6 & 7 for my crease, and 1 for highlighting towards my teardrop and my eyebrows. I really love that there are 9 different options in this palette, all of reasonably sane color choices that go together predictably well. When I first put the eyeshadow on, it seemed a bit light. I chalked it up to the fact that I had used the second lightest color in the palette and continued on with pans 6 and 7, which proved my thinking right--these colors came out just the way I'd hoped they would. Not too dark, and it left room for a beginner to fix any mistakes when using a darker color. To bold the color even more, I just went over it a few times, and it darkened immediately. Understandably, you need patience--but I figure if you're going to do your makeup right, you should have patience regardless. The first thought that came to mind with my finished look was "natural". This palette is the perfect addition to any natural-color loving makeup person's, as it has natural,
light colors, just brightened up and shined up a little bit. I'm excited to try the other colors.
 |
| Without flash |
 |
| With flash and ignore my unbrushed eyebrows |
 |
| With flash |
So needless to say, for a light eyeshadow day, I was thoroughly impressed with this palette. Tess had nothing but good things to say about their eye dust, which is very reminiscent of E.L.F.'s eye dust pots, even down to the shimmery opalescence. What I found unique was that even though the two eye dust colors seemed very similar,
Secret Weapon had such strong pearlescent qualities about it, while
Pixie Dust had so much sparkle it resembled a ground-up diamond. They were appropriately named to say the least, and these will definitely have you cooing "my preciouuuus" in no time.
 |
| Pixie Dust on the left, Secret Weapon on the right; $4.99 |
We're nearing the home stretch, so lastly, I decided to try their lip products. Upon first inspection, I simply adored the fact that the Melon eyeliner came with its own portable sharpener--on the cap. Seriously, how cool is that? That was a plus. The lipliner itself appears to be just like any other normal pencil liner, which I often opt for as opposed to the glide-on, twist-up lipliners. A pencil leads me to believe that I have more control over where I'm outlining, as well as the ability to shade without breaking the tip of the pencil. The color I used was Melon, to appropriately go with my Cruise Control Jesse's Girl lipstick. The only thing I noted about the lipliner was that it was somewhat sticky, obviously a minor note, since that problem completely disappears and ceases to matter once you have your lipstick layered on top. All in all, I was satisfied with the color and loved the fact that sticky as it was, it didn't feel like it was going anywhere, and the color was not only identical to the liner, but was sealed in fairly well. It was comfortable to use and easy to line my lips.
 |
Liplined lips
Then, I got to my lipstick. The one thing I have to say about this--it smells like your grandmother's lipstick. I loved my grandma, so in a twisted way it wasn't awful, but not something that you normally look for in a lipstick. You definitely want to line your lips before using this, because it is a thick lipstick. It's not a smooth, fruity lipstick like Wet n' Wild or NYC would be, but the color of this is solid and you know it's going to stay on. The liner is what really impressed me the most--even after I'd wiped off this lipstick, the liner had still stayed intact underneath, which helped when I put a different lipstick on over it. So that was neat. I didn't wear the lipstick for any sustainable length of time, but judging by the thickness and the liner, I don't think this lipstick would be prone to much feathering or bleeding, another plus.
|
 |
| Melon lipliner with sharpener cap, $1.99 |
 |
Lipsticked lips with Cruise Control, $3.99. the color is bold and bright!
|
After using Jesse's Girl from forehead to chin, I would recommend it. I tend to lean towards NYC and E.L.F lip products, but as far as eyeshadows and lipliners go, Jesse's Girl stood up to the test, and rocked it in a slightly coral, pinkish way. Another brand to be added to the list of loves!
0 comments:
Post a Comment