Review: Jesse's Girl Runway Eyeshadow Palettes in New York and Milan

Purchased by Me 

The new-for-2013 Jesse's Girl Runway Eye Shadow Trios landed at my local Rite Aid a few weeks ago in the Jesse's Girl permanent wall display (I know that some Rite Aids don't have a permanent Jesse's Girl display, but if yours does, these should probably be in the display now). You can also purchase these trios directly from the Jesse's Girl website, where they have everyday free shipping on all orders $20 and over.

When I saw this collection in person, I immediately gravitated toward these two trios:

 Jesse's Girl Runway Eyeshadow Palettes in New York and Milan

(retail: $3.99 each at Rite Aid and online, 0.09 oz)

There are six trios in this collection and you can view the other trios here.

These trios come in cute little rectangular compacts. Here's one next to a Wet n Wild trio just for size comparison:

Each trio has a little safety sticker over the opening. It's small, but it's heavy on adhesive and you can definitely tell if someone has peeled it open, which is great.

Let's start with the New York trio:

This trio comes with a matte cream, a shimmery bronze and a shimmery forest green. Here are these shadows swatched on bare skin:

on bare skin

As you can see, the pigmentation without primer is quite weak. But over primer they do become more intense:

over primer

Here are all three shades on my eye:

In these photos, I applied primer first, and when with an eyeshadow brush, I first applied the matte cream shade from lashline to brow. Then I applied the bronze shade to my lid, and the forest green shade to my outer "v" and also on my lower lash line.

While the pigmentation is decent over primer, these shadows work much better if you pack them on vs. sweep them on. The trick is to get them to stick to your eyeshadow primer before you blend. When I tried to layer the bronze shade on top of the matte cream shade, I could not get the bronze color to show up. If you look at my lid below, you'll see that you can't really see any bronze on my lids, even though I layered a lot of it on top of the cream colored shade.

Next, the Milan trio:

This trio contains three shimmers: a very light pinkish-gray, a mauve-y pink and a black.

on bare skin

The pigmentation of this trio without primer is quiet poor. But over primer, these shadows definitely come alive:

over primer

All three shades on my eye:

For this look, I applied the black to my lid and under my lower lash line, the mauve-y pink to my crease and light pinkish gray to my brow bone.

FINAL VERDICT: What first drew me to these trios was the cute packaging, and that's still my favorite thing about them. I don't think any of the colors here are unique, but I appreciate that they all work nicely together and the small size of these palettes makes them good for travel. Of the two trios I'm reviewing here today, Milan is my favorite. Overall, it's more pigmented than New York, and the colors apply and blend better (over primer, of course). You will most certainly need to apply eyeshadow primer before you use these shadows (pigmentation and staying power are basically nonexistent without primer) but with primer, you can create some nice, soft looks that can take you through the work day. The texture of these shadows is a little powdery, but the firmness is good (not too soft, not too hard). If you're looking for bright, bold colors, I would definitely suggest the Eye Dusts or Mineralized Baked Shadows over the Runway Eyeshadow Palettes. These trios are far more work-friendly and better for soft, natural looks. I probably wouldn't pay full price for these again, given that I favor stronger pigmentation overall, but I know that some of you like your eye colors soft and delicate. So if that's your style, these could be a nice match if you can get them on sale.

Do you own any Jesse's Girl Runway Eye Shadow Palettes? If so, I'd love to know which shades you own and how they're working for you!

The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.