Friday, April 24, 2009

Joe Fresh Beauty: First impressions

This is for the Canadians :)

I had some time to kill today at a Loblaws Superstore (aka Great Canadian Superstore), so of course I had to check out their new makeup line, Joe Fresh Beauty :) Unfortunately I don't have pics of my own because I didn't have my camera with me, but here's what I thought of the stuff.

The products have a really nice clean look as most of them are packaged in either clear lucite or white packaging. Unfortunately, most of the items do not have testers (not in the store I visited) except for the lipsticks, and cheek tints so I didn't get to test out the other products.

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The eyeshadows come in singles or trios, and have a nice variety of colours, but colour selection is nothing too exciting if you're already into MAC. The finishes look rather blah, so I wouldn't expect anything frosty or intensely rich. I do like the look of their powder blushes though ($6). I was quite tempted to try the Pink and Rose shade but I'll wait a bit...been hauling too much from other stores lately.

The cheek tints sounded exciting and looked great on the promo model but I was a bit disappointed. The colours are sheer and pretty but I found the texture a bit too oily for my taste. The packaging is on the flimsy side and actually looks like ELF's:

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The lipsticks are the most exciting part in my opinion, for a drugstore brand they are seriously pigmented! They had cream, matte, and sheer lippies, but the cream and matte lines have awesome colour payoff, better than some of MAC's lippies. They have a super pigmented matte nude lipstick called Nude (lol), and one called Fuchscia and those two had so much colour with one swipe that I was impressed. I was almost going to buy the cream lipsticks in Coral and Strawberry...but I was being good :)

As Rae pointed out the cream lippies come in clear packaging that kinda looks like Shu Uemura lipsticks. However its rather flimsy when you see it in person. The inner plastic part holding the lipstick in all the testers felt loose when you wind up the lipstick, so its definitely not something you want to toss into your purse and carry around.

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For a new line they sure have a complete collection of products + brushes. They even have felt tip pen style liners...

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and felt tip lip stains!

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When my current Japanese liners run out I'm going to try their liners, its only $6 after all. I also noticed a new one from Revlon, its nice that drugstore brands here are finally catching on to the felt tip liner trend.

Their brushes have clear handles, which remind me of Clinique's brushes. The prices are cheap but I think they should be priced cheaper to compete with the more established drugstore brands. For example, their slanted eyeliner brush was $8 to Annabelle's slanted brush (my HG) that costs only $6+ in the same store. That brush clearly says its made in China too and doesn't look as soft as Annabelle's so I don't see a reason for the price difference.

Still most of these products are priced reasonably - $4 eyeshadows, $6 blushes / lipsticks, $8 brushes. I am wondering about their return policy though since they do not have testers available. Loblaws does stand by their store brands usually so I wonder if the satisfaction guarantee extends to their makeup as well?

14 comments:

Janice said...

the return policy should be like all the rest, within 14 days if it's not opened unless you've had allergic reactions then sometimes there are exceptions
the eyeshadows are pretty pigmented and the testers are like that in all stores, theres only lip and cheek stuff testers
just thought i'd let you know that (:
btw i work in the beauty sections at a loblaws thats how i know, hope it helped lol

watercoloursky said...

Oh thanks for letting me know :) That sucks that they don't have eyeshadow testers! I'm surprised they aren't even doing foundation testers?

AskMeWhats said...

that is something new again! wow..thanks for letting us know :)

Audrie said...

ooo this brand looks really interesting, I especially like the packaging!

Anonymous said...

ooh, the cheek stain also reminds me of the eyeko fat balm (i use it as a cheek stain sometimes). so i guess i can pass on that. i think i'll look into the lipsticks! i've been trying to involve lipstick a lot more in my makeup routine, but i don't have many colours - this will probably be a good starting point. and do let us know how the felt-tip liners go! i'm trying to find a new one that i'll love. thanks for the post!

Anonymous said...

kk~
i was gonna write about this too. and post crappy phone pictures that I took~ but forgot >_<

HEads up, next thursday they are doing demo's at the dundas square, at the eaton center.

you get a $5 card that you can use towards your future purchase of the joe fresh products :)

meowie said...

the felt tip lip stains look interesting!

jewels said...

hey thanks for doing a review on this. I was wondering about joe fresh products after seeing it in a magazine ad. Looks really "fresh" and simple.

Iyah Love said...

Ohhh Sounds like a great product! :)

YAY for dior lippies with discount! :)I got 24% all in all because of ebates :) I'm pretty happy about it :)

Carmen said...

Which location did you go to? I've been to a couple and most products are sold out!

watercoloursky said...

Carmen: I went to the Superstore opposite Scarborough Town Center, they had lots of stock there (except they were out of the felt tip black liners). Hope thats somewhat close to you?

♡ Nic Nic ♡ said...

ohh they look really cute and stylish for a drugstore brand! lucky you!

fuzkittie said...

Cool stuff, the lip stain looks really cute.

Nicky said...

oOo. yah. i'm still waiting to try their liner, but the two superstores i go to never have black ones only brown, still waiting. they have this Joe Fresh truck travelling across canada to promote the line. they swung by UBC and gave us 5 minute make overs. I got a whole face make over, and tried on a lot of their stuff (but the stores i went to carry testers too) and I then went out to buy two of their lip balms (with the balm in the middle and lipstick out the outside) very pigmented and moisturizing. i had my doubts because their packaging is so simple and the price is so inexpensive, so hope to try some of their products and hope they prove me wrong.

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