One of the new fall products in the JoeFresh make-up line is a Five Minute Face Palette - a set containing blush, bronzer, lipstick, lipgloss and eyeshadows. For approximately $20 that's quite a bit of prettiness in one sleek, skinny palette!
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| Back of the palette with ingredient listings. |
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| Inside the palette. |
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| Face chart. |
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| Products with handy clear "lid" with labels. |
The palette contains four eyeshadows. a lipstick, a lipgloss, a blush and a bronzer. The eyeshadows are . To me, it seems that the top row is meant for a pretty, daytime look, while the bottom shades can be used for a more dramatic, evening look, or layered on top of the top row shades for more drama. The shades are mmostly pretty light so this palette is best for light or medium-toned skin. The bronzer, however is on the dark side, so best avoided by very fair skin.
Here's a rundown of the shades included:
Eyeshadows
Pale Pink: a light, near-fleshtone (on me) soft pink with shimmer. Good as an all-over eyeshadow or as a browbone highlighter.
Bronze: a medium, shimmery, slightly metallic brown (photos and review of it here)
Espresso: a chocolatey matte brown
Midnight: dark sparkly grey (photos and review of it here)
Lipgloss
Mauve: a sheer, light pink-purple with sparkle
Lipstick
Plum: a light red with some brown and purple to it. Creamy, on the sheer side
Blush
Pink: a bright pink with icy shimmer
Bronzer
Tan: JoeFresh's darkest bronzer, a warm medium orangey brown
I don't normally buy palettes that mix cream textures (lipstick, glosses, cream eyeshadows) with powders (blush, eyeshadows, highlighters) because inevitably powder will always travel into the creams. This palette attempts to avoid messiness by including a clear plastic sheet that is attached at the top and has the names of the products on it. The two cream products - the lipgloss and the lipstick - have an additional removable (and reusable) cover on top of them.
The face chart doesn't give instruction beyond where on your face to place two of the eyeshadows, the lipstick and the blush but it does give you a sense in terms of colour of where which eyeshadow goes on your eyes (pale pink on the brown bone, Midnight on the eyelid). For a palette that claims to give you a five minute face you'd think they'd give you specific instruction about how to acheive it, especially considering the variety of product included. What do you do with the other two eyeshadows? The lipgloss? The bronzer? Can you wear everything all at once?
This is an easy-to-carry palette you could take on vacation or to work with you.
Swatches (on NW20 skin)!
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| L-R: Eyeshadows - Pale Pink, Bronze, Espresso, Midnight Lipgloss - Mauve Lipstick - Plum Blush - Pink Bronzer - Tan |
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| L-R: Eyeshadows - Pale Pink, Bronze, Espresso, Midnight |
Note: Bronze and Espresso look quite similar swatched on my arm, but Bronze has quite a bit of shimmer to it and Espresso is matte, perfect for using smudged along your lashline.
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| L-R: Lipgloss - Mauve, Lipstick - Plum |
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| L-R: Blush - Pink, Bronzer - Tan |
Here's the look I did using the palette. My base is my usual Bare Escentuals Mineral Veil and foundation and MAC concealer. Side note: I actually have the JoeFresh Pink blush and the Bronze eyeshadow separately - both very pretty, easy to wear colours.
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| My Five Minute Face |
I used the Pale Pink eyeshadow all over my eye, from my lash line to my brow, then smudged Bronze eyshadow across my eyelids, concentrating in the outer corners. To intensify the look more, I smudged Espresso along my lashline.
I used Pink blush on my cheek and Plum lipstick on my lips, topped with a bit of the Mauve lipgloss. My mascara is Maybelline Great Lash in Black.
I look quite shiny in these photos, I believe it was a very humid day.
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| Close-up of my eye |
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| Close-up of my closed eye |
The colours go on fairly sheer and require a heavier application if you want to get any intensity out of them. Of course, my flash reduced the intensity of the look a bit, so in actuality these colours aren't as muted as they appear in these photos.
I'm definitely going to try to match the face on the palette and do this look using Midnight instead of Bronze and Espresso on my eyes.
C.