Like the persistent, seasonal cough hovering around your office a la the black plague, viral beauty products have a way of following you around. They get into your brain and Instagram feed, and it’s only a matter of time before you find yourself stumbling feverishly into Sephora, desperate for the latest inescapable, must-have “it” makeup. Sometimes, the hype turns out to be totally true (see Rituel de Fille’s black highlighter and anything with the word Fenty on it) and you float through life knowing you’re glowing with the light of a thousand likes. Other times, the results are less than magical. Spend enough time slapping trending makeup onto your face and you learn to spot the duds before it’s too late, which is why I immediately volunteered as tribute to test the new Farsali Jelly Beam highlighter. I had a gut feeling it was going to be amazing. (Fine, that’s a lie. I just really wanted to play with this hyped up shiny jelly and you can’t even blame me.) Just look at the hype storm that’s been brewing:
https://twitter.com/chasitynpowers/status/923327892926300160
Aside from repeating I don’t think I’m ready for this jelly in my head to the point of annoying myself almost to death, the application process was pretty dreamy and foolproof. There’s none of the guesswork that comes with using a highlighter brush—I don’t care how precise your makeup brushes are, you can’t control how a powder deposits the same way you can control a cream or, in this case, a jelly—which made me feel bold enough to experiment with the kind of highlighting I normally shy away from.
I like my cheekbones, but I’ve always been nervous about forcing passersby to shield their eyes from my uneven highlight. A good glow basically recreates a dying sun on your face. Imagine two dying suns in slightly different positions on your cheeks: it’s hopelessly unsymmetrical. But because this jelly goes on like a magnet and stays where you put it, I felt confident about amping up my glow game.
PHOTO: Jen Mulrow
Jelly Beam also means what it says when it says “buildable” as in please start small and then build your way up, otherwise you’ll blind your co-workers, friends, and family. As my own experience and these Instagram posts prove, this jelly is not here to play.
Like many salivating beauty bloggers have pointed out, the Farsali Jelly Beam really does dry down from jelly—it only looks gelatinous in the jar and goes onto your skin like a gel—to powder. It gave my skin a soft, powdery, but not cakey finish that I am entirely into. Plus, unlike liquid or cream highlighters that soften as you blend, the highlighter keeps up an amplified wattage no matter how much you rub. Don’t get me wrong, this is entirely a good thing because it gives you next level control, but just take the high beam shine seriously all right? Price-wise, it’s around the same as what you’d spend on a quad of nearly identical highlighter shades, is way more fun to play with, and, again, that glow is not playing around. With great jelly comes great responsibility. Apply it wisely.
Farsali Jelly Beam, $40, launches on November 1st at 1pm EST, exclusively on Farsali.com.
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