The Jessica

Ciate The Jessica 9 Shade Eyeshadow Palette ($39.00 for 0.48 oz.) is a new, limited edition palette that features nine shades with three mattes and six shimmers. There was not one shade that was good; decent would be a stretch for maybe one or two shades--it might even be kind to say it's mediocre rather than what it really is: a prettily packaged piece of garbage that Ciate should be ashamed to have put on the market, let alone marketed to add "va-va-voom" to one's look. That the formula is supposed to be "ultra-blendable and creamy," which couldn't be further from the truth.

The shimmer formula was firm, stiff, and densely-packed and difficult to pick up with a brush, even if I jabbed and prodded and tried to discover its secrets of any of the shimmer-based shades. There were dry, difficult to apply (even with fingertips!) as the product went on unevenly, caught on and emphasized texture on my skin (frankly, didn't realize I had so many dragon scales on my eyes), and had tons of fallout from attempting to apply/blend/build up the product. The three mattes were soft and blendable but very powdery and prone to sheering out, so they ended up being more like a veil of disappointment all over one's lid.

Oh, all the shimmers developed hard pan after two uses and needed to be roughed up with a paper towel to even be "usable" for third and fourth go-round over primer and with wet brushes, which I'm here to report didn't help in a meaningful way. They just got worse the more I used them--sheerer and drier in their pans (except the mattes, those didn't develop hard pan and remained the same in texture). The "look" shown took 45 minutes for one eye (I normally spend 10-15 minutes per eye) and represents packing and pressing of multiple layers, using fingertips to press into place, and then giving up as the more I tried to blend or build up color, the more it started to lift in places.