ipsy
ipsy Glam Bag Review – September 2015
Its monthly present time again, hot diggity daffodil! This months bag was slightly bigger than last months to allow for the full-sized drugstore hair product that I have mixed feelings about. We got some lotions, we got some eye shadows, we got some eyebrow… goop. And I tested it all out – lets have a look!
It Puts the Lotion on it’s skin…(First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair® Cream)
Who doesn’t need a mini tube of lotion to carry around in their purse? This little guy is pretty okay. Its supposed to provide ” intense hydration for dry parched skin.” I found that its one of those lotions that leaves a soft, powdery feeling behind – like those lotions Victoria’s Secret sold back in the 90’s (they may still sell them now, too lazy and don’t care enough to check). Though, with a name like “First Aid Beauty,” I was really expecting this lotion to be a bit more… medicinal? I was thinking it might be a good one to use for post-tattoo care, but definitely has a scent which isn’t bueno for putting on irritated skin. The only place I could think of to use this guy and test its hydrating abilities was my ankles. For some ungodly reason in the last few years of my life I have developed increasingly dry skin on my ankles- I guess its part of my body falling apart because i’m old. It really didn’t help that much, but i’ll still keep it in my purse for when my hands get dry.
Eyelid Coloring Powders
(NYX Cosmetics ipsy Eye Shadow Trio)
This was probably my most favorite thing out of this month’s bag. A very well matched eye shadow trio that makes a smoky eye really hard to mess up (mind you, that means a lot coming from me.) This stuff blended very well and was decently pigmented. I used it for this 90’s grunge look I got goin’ on. All I was missing was a scrunchie from Claire’s and a clothes pin earring.
Hair stuff I could get at the grocery store (Garnier Fructis SLEEK & SHINE SLEEK PRIMER STYLE PREP)
I wasn’t really expecting ipsy to send me a sample of something I could get at CVS, but I am pretty pleased that I got a full-sized product that costs about $4.50 in my glam bag. Very nice, much wow. From what I could tell, this product is intended for use both with and without heat styling options, but it seemed like it really wanted me to use it with some kind of heat. Since we all know how I feel about blow dryers, I spritzed this in my wet hair on hair washin’ day and flat-ironed it. Here we see the result. Not really impressed off the bat – this guy is supposed to sleek and shine your hair, not frizz and poof it. In it’s defense, my hair always gets like this as a form of protest on hair washin’ day, but I feel like a product like this should work against that? I dunno, a day later I am seeing some lasting sleek and shiny-ness now that my scalp has re-oiled itself. I’m willing to give this a try a few more times.
Too light for me eyebrow goop
(Elizabeth Mott Queen of the Fill Tinted Eyebrow Gel)
I am relatively new to the eyebrow scene and have yet to master this “slaying” everyone on the internet talks about. Its safe to say that my proverbial “eyebrow game” is not “on fleek” (I don’t know what it means, look it up on Urban Dictionary if you’re curious). So this is the first tinted eyebrow gel I have tried. I may be a n00b at this, but I’m pretty sure you need this goop to actually match the color of your eyebrows, mine were a tad too dark for the goop – which admittedly had a milk-chocolate mousse color about it. It made me kind of hungry.
Bronze-y eyeface pencil(J. Cat Beauty #MOTD Waterproof Slide on Pencil for Eyes in Bronze)
Ooh, another full-sized product! That makes 3 in this glam bag if you count the eye shadow. I am pleased. This is a metalic bronze eyeliner with some serious staying power. I had to scrub a bit with my e.l.f. makeup removing wipes to get this swatch off of my hand. I haven’t really devised a way to go about using this eyeliner. I have never had a bronze colored eyeliner before. Perhaps I’ll look at what some other people who got this in their bags have done with it.
In Conclusion
I am so much more pleased with what I have gotten in these ipsy bags so far than what I ever got in my Birchbox boxes. This one had two full-sized products in it! I think this month’s bag was made a little longer than usual to accommodate for the full-sized Garnier thing. I was slightly disappoint because it seems like in transit, the Garnier hair thing was spritzed somehow and as a result the inside of my bag and all it’s contents were saturated in hair stuff. It didn’t damage anything, but product compromisation was never an issue with Birchbox and it made the packaging and skipping seem a little sub-par.
ipsy Glam Bag Review – August 2015
I got a fancy thing and it is super cool! Many moons ago I was subscribed to Birchbox and it was pretty fun, It was like getting a little random present every month. But I believe that those were the early days of the subscription box trend – now there are so many out there with so many different things that you could basically get one for every day of the month if you wanted. I discontinued my Birchbox subscription because I just kept getting samples I wasn’t at all interested in trying, there was no way to customize what you got.
So I just recently signed up for Ipsy and I have high hopes. You get to take a fancy quiz and one of the questions was even “How comfortable are you with using makeup?” Perfect – I could tell them upfront that I am a complete idiot and have no idea what I’m doing! This is my very first “Glam Bag” (already an improvement over getting a cardboard box every month), and here’s what I got –
Not as Yellow as I Expected Mask
(JUARA Skincare – Turmeric Antioxidant Radiance Facial Mask)
When I saw “Tumeric,” I was expecting this mask to be super yellowy-orange and I was kind of disappoint when it was just a pale peach. I really wanted it to be like orange face paint. It’s got the consistency of a thick body lotion or butter which I really hate when it comes to face masks because it makes them SUPER hard to get off. This mask was a little stingy, which also isn’t my favorite thing. I want a mask to feel cooling and calming, not like I just rubbed icy hot all over my face. It was because of this that I was concerned it would irritate my confused skin, but I noticed no redness or blemishes the next day – it really just left me feeling moisturized without oiliness. There was enough in this sample tube for one application, it went on very thick and I had to use the whole thing to cover my whole face. Its recommended you use it 1-3 times a week, so it would have been nice to get a sample with enough for at least 2 applications.
I looked up some of the medicinal/topical uses for Tumeric and did find that it’s active compound curcumin is BELIEVED to have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumour, antibacterial, and antiviral benefits but I didn’t find any records from clinical trials, so I’m gonna file all of that under “meh, maybe.”
Purple Cement Nail Polish (Trust Fund Beauty – Nail Polish in Elegantly Wasted)
Okay, I was super stoked to get what is essentially a full-size nail polish in this bag. Very like. Much wow. But the color? In certain lights it looks cute and eastery-purple… but in most lights it looks like I painted my nails with dingy cement. And boy did this stuff SMELL – mind you I am aware that it is not unusual for nail polish to smell a little chemical-y, but for something that’s touted as being non-toxic, vegan, and “7 Free” (that apparently means it doesn’t have 7 scary-sounding chemicals that I am assuming are found in normal nail polish?), it was rather pungent. Much smellier than regular nail polish. It also had some serious chippage after only about 48 hours of wear, but that’s probably my fault for not applying a top coat. I don’t think I’d buy it, but I’m definitely not going to throw it away. I think the band and color name is rather clever (heck I wanna be “Elegantly Wasted,” that sounds awesome) and I can probably layer the color with something else to make it more wearable.
Red Eyeface Pencil
(Skone Cosmetics – Luxe Doubler Eye/Lip Pencil in Wine)
This was my favorite thing of all the things! I really dig it. Another full-size product. 2 in one bag? I am pleased. I felt this was a very good color for my skin tone, its somewhere between wine and rose – a rosé perhaps? It wasn’t chalky and stiff like I’ve noticed other lip liners to be – mayhaps because it can also be used as an eyeliner? How about that – a twofer! Honestly, unless I was going for the I-just-cried-my-eyes-out-for-three-hours-because-I-watched-Bambi look, I would never use a red eyeliner. I wore it under a tinted balm and it blended nicely, but the color on the inner parts of my lips did fade a bit after about 2 hours and a Latte
Hobbit Lipstick! (noyah – Natural Lipstick in Desert Rose)
I could care less about the color – THIS. THING. IS. ADORABLE! Its miniature! It’s like the lipstick a hobbit lady would have in her purse on her way to the Green Dragon for a half-pint! Its what a feisty dwarf woman would have tucked between her enormous breasts for a date in Erebor (before Smaug trashed the place. <-Nerd) I have never seen a lipstick sample packaged like this… but that may be because I’ve never had a lipstick sample? Again – idiot, no idea what I’m doing.
It didn’t look too great with my skin tote, kinda made my lips disappear into the rest of my face. But it wasn’t too bad layered over the aforementioned red Eyeface pencil (that shot not pictured).
Spiked Gingerale Hair Stuff
(Briogeo – Blossom & Bloom ™ Ginseng + Biotin Volumizer)
Not kidding. Smelled like ginger ale with a tip of white rum and maybe some orange liquor? Freaking yum. I wished my car smelled like this stuff. What’s it for again? Oh yeah…
So, I was unable to properly field-test this guy because you’re supposed to spritz it on wet hair before you blow-dry and… I do not own a blow-dryer. Actually, I hate blow-dryers. With a passion. They’re loud, they’re hot, they make me all sweaty, my arm hurts after a while holding them up, and I inevitably clock myself in the head with the scorching hot end. Nothing like goose-egg to go with those victory rolls (Lol, oh Marina, like you can actually do victory rolls. Shut up). I would rather hop in my car and drive to Circle K for a Polar Pop with my head stuck out the window than blow dry my hair.
So I did the best I could and on hair-washin’ day I sprayed it in my freshly washed, still damp hair. This is how it looked straight outta bed the next morning. A little more volume than usual perhaps? Sure smelled good. I dunno, maybe I’ll give this to someone who has a better relationship with blow-dryers and see what they think.
In Conclusion
I’m a fan. I already like this subscription service way more than Birchbox. I like that it comes in a not-too-shabby bag instead of a box – those Birchbox boxes piled up after a while. I used them as gift boxes, but I feel like I’ll have more uses for these bags. I paid $10/month for Birchbox and it’s the same for Ipsy, but I feel like I am getting more full-sized products with Ipsy than I did with Birchbox, and I really like that I took a quiz and review the products I get on their website to help them better tailor what they send to me. Already excited for my random present bag next month!
How 2: "Girl" 