In the past, I've tried Jessie's Girl eyeshadow (the loose eyeshadow, to be precise) and was not impressed with the overall quality of the product. But I spotted these Backstage eyeshadow palettes at my local Rite Aid and, having been on the lookout for an affordable neutral eyeshadow palette, I decided to grab one. There are two palettes in the collection from what I could see: Natural Nudes (which is a nude palette) and Sounds of the City (which is more of a smoky palette). As much as I would like a nude eyeshadow palette, most of the shades were shimmery and/or looked too light to even show up. The Sounds of the City set had more variation in shades, as far as I'm concerned (has mostly warm tones, but a couple cooler greys too).

I paid $5.99 for this item, which is about half what I expected to pay for it, so the price is pretty good. As with all eye products, I applied eyelid primer prior to applying the eyeshadow and setting spray afterward. As far as quality, it's... alright. I didn't expect it to be spectacular given the price, but it's not bad.

The colors are pretty easy to blend into other colors as well as into the skin for a smoky effect, but it also can brush off skin really easily too, so be careful to not sweep your work off your face. The product itself is very powdery - you will pick up a lot of it on your brush, which sounds good, but it also means a higher chance of having excess powder flicked down onto your cheeks and across your eyelids. The lighter shades in the top row are relatively subtle, and I imagine they may not show up all that well on the average skin tone; I've got pretty fair skin, so the lighter browns were still noticeable for me. The lightest colors aren't incredibly bold either, and you may find that you need to layer this eyeshadow to make it stand out.

Oddly enough, the dark brown is actually the darkest color in the entire palette. I assumed the two grey shades on the far right would have been darkest, but they're actually not a whole lot darker than those two shades of brown in the middle of the bottom row. With the help of primer and setting spray, this eyeshadow did last me for about 10 hours (and survived a nap without smudging) before I noticed significant fading.

Overall, this is an okay palette for the cosmetics fan on a budget. It's not bad for the price, but don't expect anything exceptional from a six-dollar product. Jessie's Girl eyeshadows don't adhere to skin incredibly well, but you may find slightly better luck applying the eyeshadow with damp brushes. I definitely recommend primer and setting spray for use with this palette too (both of which I get from ELF Cosmetics) because it'll fade quickly without both.