I caved to the Instagram ads for Jones Road and ended up discovering my favorite natural-look makeup brand

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I don't often fall for Instagram ads, especially not ones that promise me impossibly lustrous, glowing skin. As a former beauty editor, I know just how well makeup brands do at promising you an "even tone" or "instant glow" while featuring models whose skin is already basically perfect. It's not exactly helpful.

But Jones Road's ads felt different. They featured faces with wrinkles, crow's feet, uneven skin tones, freckles, and other very normal features. Bobbi Brown, the brand's founder, can be seen swiping on uncomplicated products with her fingers, showing just how easily they glide onto cheeks of all ages and textures. And isn't that what we deserve to see more of?

I don't want to know how your products look on someone's perfect skin. I want to know how they'll look on 34-year-old skin like mine, which is very dry, just beginning to wrinkle, uneven, and highly temperamental. I had been influenced by the targeted ads long enough, so I caved and bought several of its bestsellers.

The lightweight foundation is hydrating for dry skin with just enough coverage.

Most of Jones Road's products feature ingredients that are also common in skincare. The sheer-coverage foundation (called "What the Foundation") is basically a tinted moisturizer that comes in over 15 shades. It features humectants like sodium hyaluronate that keep my skin feeling plump and moisturized throughout the day.

The foundation is incredibly hydrating and unlike any other I've used. There's zero caking, it's easy to blend with your fingers or a brush, and it doesn't settle into wrinkles at all — it just makes skin look a little healthier and more even. It doesn't fully cover the redness caused by my rosacea, but it definitely helps to even things out.

I also bought the brand's "Everything Brush" thinking that I'd need it to get an even finish with this foundation, but it turns out that using my fingers and just gently patting it into my skin works just as well.

The gel bronzer is easy to apply and can be used for light contouring or general bronzing.

I don't do much contouring, but I love this formula for adding an all-over bronze glow to my skin. I apply it with the Everything Brush to the area under my cheeks and around the edges of my forehead. It's much more subtle than a contouring or bronzing stick, which I appreciate because my skin is ghost-pale.

Jones Road's hero product is its silky, creamy Miracle Balm, which swipes effortlessly onto your cheeks for a dewy effect.

Not quite blush and not quite highlighter, the Miracle Balm is an all-purpose product. The consistency is like a mix of cream blush and lip balm, with an almost buttery texture. My dry skin loves this stuff. It comes in a ton of colors, including cool and warm pinks, beige neutrals, and even colorless options, each with a bit of shimmer.

It can be applied with a brush, but I find it goes on smoother with a bit of warmth from my fingers. Once you break the seal on the surface of the balm, just pick up a small amount of product onto your finger and dab it across your cheeks. I love the gentle, natural glow it gives me while keeping my skin hydrated throughout the day.

The bottom line

I can't recommend Jones Road enough. Everything I've tried from the brand, I've loved. Each product feels as much like skincare as it does makeup — equal parts hydrating and lightly pigmented. If you were only going to pick one product, I'd say make it the Miracle Balm. But there are so many other products I can't wait to try soon, like the Shimmer Face Oil and all of the lip balms and tints.