We love a bit of self-care and all this time at home has really given us an excuse to look after ourselves inside and out. Each week, we'll be asking the celeb lot to share their Sunday self-care routines, because taking care of yourself is more important than ever.
This week it's all about Jessika Power, the unapologetic firecracker on Married At First Sight Australiaseason six. Despite being a self-proclaimed 'shit-stirrer' on the show, on our WhatsApp call, she's funny, honest and incredibly articulate.
The show is what everyone is talking about here in the UK, despite it initially being filmed and airing in Australia two years ago.
"It’s been crazy, it’s like it’s 2019 all over again and it’s Groundhog Day." Jessika exclusively tells heat, "It’s so strange because over here we’ve already filmed and aired our reunion, which was everyone coming back after two years and showing their personal growth. So it’s very strange to have the Australian public going ‘oh wow, you’ve really grown’ and then the UK public going, 'you’re such a nasty, selfish bitch!' It’s just weird."
Jess opens up about her mental health after Dan 'dumped her' on live television, what really happens during those dramatic dinner parties and her very fancy self-care routine...
On mental health
Jess admits that although her mental health remained 'really strong' after leaving the experiment, things went downhill after fellow co-star and boyfriend Dan Webb left her during a live TV interview following the ongoing trust issues surrounding Nic Jovanovic.
"The only time I guess I suffered mentally was when Dan and I had our very public break-up on live TV and I was not only under public scrutiny from the Australian public for being a cheater. I was then copied into messages that were like, ‘you deserve this’ and ‘this is karma’, she explained.
"For a girl who’s just fallen in love with a guy and moved states for him, given up her whole world and gone in with complete rose coloured glasses, it was heartbreaking and also very hard to take on and accept that, like did I deserve it? Is this karma? It was just really hard to navigate."
Jess bravely admits that she battled a substance addiction when she was at her lowest.
"It was widelybroadcasted that I did fall into a bad Xanax addiction for about three months and it took me a long time to pull myself out of it. But, I’ve been through so much more in my life that I didn’t want to let that beat me and I didn’t want to let the trolls be right."
On reality tv sexism
Jess shares how she feels the show's editing was sexist and that she was made to appear the series 'villain' in the whole Dan, Tamara and Mick 'love square thingy', when actually, she was just someone who had found genuine love in the experiment.
"It was very evident in a lot of these TV shows that the narrative is that the female is more of the villain and I feel like it’s so backwards. I think because a lot of these reality TV shows are watched by women.
We as women talk about building each other up and the sisterhood, but we are so quick to drag each other down and so quick to judge. A lot of people have a preconceived idea of who I am from a reality show but they have no idea what’s going on behind closed doors. There’s no camera there to catch all of that to understand maybe why I made the decisions that I made or why I sometimes behave the way that I do.
So it was really sad to see and also not to see Dan not take as much ownership for it or to back me, even though we had split, I never really saw any reports of him being that supportive partner that I believe he should have been or anyone should have been. You want your boyfriend or husband to support you and I never really got that, that was really hard. It was a really hard time of my life and really confusing too.
I thought as women people would understand that love isn’t always black and white, it has grey areas."
On explosive show secrets
Jess explains that most of what you see is real and because of her big personality, the 'producers didn't need to tell her to say or do anything'. Editing-wise, that's a whole 'nother story.
"There’s hours and hours and hours of filming. You know the parties and commitment ceremonies? They go for about 14 hours! So you start sometimes in the morning from 9 or 10 o’clock in the morning, depending on how big your storyline was. My storyline was quite big, so I’d sometimes start filming at 9 and sometimes they wouldn’t stop finishing filming those dinner parties until 3 or 4am. You go home, you go to bed drunk, so you’re hungover the next day, you’re tired because you have to get up again at 9 o’clock to film the commitment ceremony and those also go until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning.
So you’re emotionally drained, physically drained, you are just shattered. You’re fried and you just don’t know what to say. That’s why they get that raw emotion across, I guess.
There was some tricky editing that I’ve seen on the first night of Dan and I, when we first meet at the dinner party, the experts are talking and John Aiken says ‘how about some boundaries’ and it says ‘Jess’ but if you slow it down he actually says ‘Dan’ and they put ‘Jess’ over it. It’s on YouTube, it's when I’m sat next to him for the first time and I was quite flirtatious and it’s because Dan was originally the flirtatious one. They wanted to make it look like I was the one who was chasing it completely.
There’s some scenes where they make out like it’s the same day but on the same day I’ve got three different nail colours."
OH, THE TEA ☕️.
On making amends
Despite falling out with almost all her other co-stars on the show, Jess is proud to say that all of the drama is in the past.
"I’m still friends with Mike, Nic... Martha and I are still friends. Tamara and I are friends, Dan and I are really good friends. Mick and I made up not long after it had finished airing here in Australia. We don’t talk anymore, but it was really nice to bury that hatchet.
I don’t think he’s even unblocked Dan yet from that night, so yeah, I feel like I pretty much have made amends with everyone that I had hurt and people can just see now, like I can put it down to my age or a lot of things, but it’s more about my growth and realising my actions and learning from it."
On watching herself back on TV
"We had to watch ourselves back every night because it’s very highly edited and not in a sense that they make you say things or do things, but just edited. Things are cut out, days are changed around, wordings are changed, everything like that sort of editing on a reality show like this. You had to watch it because we do press the next day, so I’d sit there and just cringe and go ‘why don’t you just put the glass of wine down and shut up!’
But watching myself back really helped me to actually see the points of my personality and my core values that were very poor. It helped me to pinpoint those and to learn about myself a little bit more and to go ‘okay, these are the things that I need to fix”. Not just people saying, ‘oh you’re a horrible person’ but ‘yeh, you need to be more of an empathetic person, Jess, you need to learn that, you can’t just do whatever you want without any consequences and you need to understand your words do hurt."
Would Jess do anything differently if she had that time again?
"I wouldn’t change anything really, the only thing I would change is, and I don’t know how to say this without sounding crass, but my shit-stirring behaviour! Why was my nose in everyone’s business? Was it because I was upset or was it because I didn’t want to be there or was it because I was bored? Also keeping Mick and Tamara there for as long as we did, Dan and I both have regrets over that, we wish they could have been sent home earlier and I’m not saying it was pressure from producers but we were told that we had already gone too far down the rabbit hole. It had to play out now like it was originally narrated."
On her ultimate self-care Sunday
There's nothing Jess loves more than skincare and beauty and she's even currently studying for a qualification in specialised skin treatments and beauty. But what is her ultimate Sunday self-care routine after a hectic week?
"I love getting in the shower and starting washing my hair with my really nice products and then shaving my legs and putting on my body conditioner and just sitting in the steam and having my favourite songs on and candles in the bathroom. Then coming out and covering myself in my favourite oils and then doing a face mask and using all my beautiful enriched products on my face. It’s my favourite thing to do and Fil knows that when my candles are on to leave me alone for two hours!
It’s so important to have that time, we live such busy lives now that no one really stops to look after themselves. So I find it very important, even if it’s just for an hour or two hours out of the week, to do something for just solely me. My favourite thing to snack on, especially when I’m doing my masks days is berries, so I have every sort of berry you could think of in my bathroom, blueberries, mulberries, grapes and I’ll just sit there and I’ll nibble and I’ll read. It just reminds me everything is okay, because my life can be very busy sometimes."
On #extra beauty treatments
If you want to know how the other half live, Jess' bad 'n' boujee beauty routine is a good place to start.
"I get a vitamin drip once a fortnight, sometimes once a month depending on how I’m feeling, so that’s basically a vitamin drip that gives me whatever I feel like I’m lacking at that particular moment or something for my hair or skin. I get vampire facials done probably once a month and I get my skin needling done regularly. I hate getting my hair done and I hate getting my nails done because they take so long. But I love nothing more than coming out of a salon with a bright red face from a vampire facial!"
Err, rather you than us, Jess.
"It’s so over the top, considering I have veneers on my top and bottom teeth, but I have a dentist-grade teeth whitening machine at home, I probably have every single beauty tool you could ever think of in your lifetime! I’m just obsessed with feeling good and just looking good, but for me and not for everyone else.
I’ve just bought this Facial Ice Sphere Kit after I saw a Russian Supermodel using it. I feel like it was the greatest thing I’ve ever bought. FIllip’s like, ‘Jess, why do you keep buying shit for?’ and I’m like, ‘babe, I need it!’"
On everyday make-up
Compared to her mammoth beauty routine, Jess' make-up is a lot more low maintenance.
"My favourite make-up if I was stranded on a desert island or whatever would definitely just be concealer, mascara and clear gloss - that’s all I need!
I love the Laniege Lip Glowy Peach balm and the Tarte Cosmetics Shape Tape Concealer. For mascara I use Rimmel London, the one in the purple container."
Quickfire round:
Show you’re currently binging? Animal Kingdom, I'm obsessed!
Go-to cuppa? I have an entire cupboard in my kitchen filled with T2 herbal tea, it's my ritual every single night before bed.
Go-to loungewear brand? I love anything from White Fox Boutique.
Favourite face mask? Anything from Aceology.
Favourite candle? Circa Home Vanilla Bean and Allspice and Glass House One Night in Rio, they're the only two scents I will have in my home!
Go to takeaway order? If it's going to be bad food KFC, I know! I always instantly regret it. If I'm busy and need to order food it'll be a chicken avocado rice bowl from some sushi place.
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Amelia Mist talks Made In Chelsea secrets, self-care and the £9 tool she uses for glowing skin
On her relationship with Fillip
Since MASFS, Jessika is now in a happy relationship with Fillip, who is the 'first person she's really fallen for since Dan Webb.'
"I say to everyone that our relationship is going great and you know, Filip and I have been together for a little bit over two months now and he actually, he broke his leg, he has a compound fracture on his tibia, bloody motorbikes, so he and I were only together for a short amount of time before he broke his leg, so I said ‘just come and stay with me, I’ll look after you.
He’s literally about to start walking again and we’ve spent the last week just bickering but we’re very happy in our relationship, we’re understanding our love languages and our communication and stuff. All of these things would have taken a lot longer, but he’s great. He’s the complete opposite of me, but the same person, if that makes sense?"