Jay Manuel Beauty

I know that I shouldn’t have preconceived ideas about a brand just because of the founder, but the last time I saw Jay Manuel (not strictly true because I saw him yesterday from afar) was when he was encouraging beautiful people to do terrible schmizing with Tyra on America’s Next Top Model. If you don’t know what a schmize is.. it’s a smile.. with your eyes. Apparently a model essential. Without it you won’t walk that cat. I think I expected a more gimmicky range but I’m genuinely impressed with it. It’s all quality.

Kicking off with this buttery formula palette, in Ego, it’s an elevated nude quad – elevated because the colour depths are beautiful in shimmering shades that are versatile and wearable. There’s a coppery shade in this that if you have blue eyes should be compulsory.

I’ve swatched it here along with the blush in Tease (a generously pigmented raspberry) and his Light Filter Foundation in shade 4 which I am told is very good for combination skin.

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The Ultimate Lipsticks are light on sheen – almost matte (in fact, I thought they were matte to start with), but with enough moisture that your lips still look smooth and hydrated and wow… they pack a punch. I’m also super impressed with The Ultimate Gloss.

This shade, Strip, on first sight, is way too pale for me and yet on the lip, I love it. It’s a milky wash of beige that allows enough of your lip colour to show through so you don’t get corpse lips, and has a high sheen too, so it’s a lightful, flattering hit of a shade that should in any other format make you look – er, ill, at the very least. The only thing I don’t love is the wand – it’s a kind of spatula formula and although a doe’s foot is dull, it does the job at least. I actually found it quite hard to keep to my lip line with Jay’s version.

See! These are lush. The two lipstick shades are Shame (pink) and Thrust (red) and I’m not going to say anything about the names.. other than, the Q VC audience has a relatively high percentage of shoppers over a certain age and I’m not sure they’re ready for a lip colour called Shame. But you can pull off the sticky label at the bottom and call them whatever you like (Fuchsia is in the safe zone!!). (In fact, I have just heard that they are being re-named so these names might not match up when you see it on air – I guess Q VC thought the same about the names.)

Anyway, the Jay Manuel Beauty collection launches onto Q VC online today HERE and on air 7th September – and it’s more than worth a second look (as is Mr Jay – he is very glowy). Prices range from £25 for an eye quad to £37 for foundation.