Ipsy - August 2014

My Ipsy bag came yesterday and I unboxed it on my Makeup Miscellaneous YouTube Channel.  I'm not going to lie, this month was kind of a disappointment for me .  However, I still decided to keep Ipsy over Beauty Box 5 because if I average out previous months I have enjoyed Ipsy more.  Here's hoping next month is better though or Ipsy might be on the chopping block.  This month's theme was Beauty schooled.

I peeked in my Glam Room as usual, and I think knowing what others got made it an even worse month.  I think Ipsy needs to pare down the variety in their bags, especially since their Ipsy Match survey program doesn't seem to work all that well.

The first item I got was outside my bag in a separate cardboard sleeve and it was the Urban Decay Perversion Mascara.  Black mascara has got to be the most frequently sent out beauty subscription item, but fortunately the fact that this was an Urban Decay product (and a newly released one at that) made it a little easier to take.  I'll definitely give this one a shot and see how it works for my lashes.  The sample sized tube is .10 oz making it worth $5.50

Next up was an Absolute You're the Balm Lip Balm in Grape which is from Nicka K New York.  This highlights what I said above about bag variations because some of the other subscribers received tube style all natural organic lip balms that I would have been happy to try out.  The balm I received is a pot style (not my favorite) that's grape flavored and includes ingredients of petroleum, and aspartame.  It also has flecks of glitter, which is not something I want in my lip balm.  It does feel like it will probably be moisturizing, but I doubt I'll get much use out of it.  This sized lip balm is usually sold in a two pack with their green apple flavor for $5.99 which makes this single balm worth approximately $2.99.

The third item I received was a sample tube of the Dr. Brandt Pores No More Pore Refining Primer.  I am excited to try this out as mattifying primers usually work well for me.  It also has a slight tint to it that reminds me of the Benefit Porefessional, though I've only ever tried a teensy sample of that so I can't really say how the two compare to each other.  The swatch blended out quite smoothly, so I will definitely be adding this under my foundation for a while to see how it works out.  The sample is .25 oz and worth $11.25.

Also included in my bag was a very small Coastal Scents Forever Blush Duo sample.  The sample didn't have the colors listed anywhere but fortunately Ipsy's product page was able to tell me the shades are Fresh (the peachy shade) and Elegant (the pink shade).  These blushes seem very smooth and pigmented when swatched with my finger but the sample size is too small to get a blush brush in.  These blushes are currently on sale for $3.98 and Ipsy included a 25% off code of 'blush25off' for Coastalscents.com, so despite my disappointment with the sample size I do think I'll pick up a couple of their Forever Blushes to try because I was planning on ordering the original Revealed Eye Shadow Palette soon anyway.  Since the blushes have a full retail price of $7.95 I guess this 2.5 gram sample has a value of $1.99, which seems high, but I at least want to be consistent in the way I calculate the bag value

Finally I received a sample size Lord & Berry Silk Kajal Kohl Eye Pencil in #1001 Black.  This is tiny, like the size of my pinky tiny.  I know it's not a cheap liner at $16 for the full size but it still just seems underwhelming to get such a tiny sample.  Pencil liners aren't my favorite but this did glide on quite smoothly when swatched so I'll give it a try.  The sample is .02 oz but I cannot find the size of the full sized liner listed anywhere so it's difficult to know the exact value of the sample size.  I held it up to a few other pencil liners I have and it's about 1/3 of an average liner length so I'll give it a value estimate of $4.

The bag itself is quite cute this month, though was difficult to photograph because it kept wanting to roll over and hide the zipper.  It's a pencil case style design to go with their Beauty Schooled theme, and while it isn't exactly the best shape for my purse I'll be able to use it for travel and storage.

Overall probably my least favorite month so far with Ipsy.  I'm going to stick with them for now since I've enjoyed my past bags, hopefully September will be an improvement.  I did get an overall value of $25.73, so it exceeded my $10 subscription price, but still the lowest month for Ipsy since I've joined.  If you'd like to subscribe to Ipsy I'd love it if you did so using my referral link here.  Ipsy is $10 a month or $110 for an annual subscription and you receive 4-5 deluxe sample or full size beauty products each month.  My video unboxing is up on the YouTube channel and also embedded below.

Ipsy Bag - April 2014

A couple of months ago I joined Ipsy as a fun way to try out new products and build my makeup collection.  Ipsy is a beauty subscription service similar to many others out there, but is one of the more affordable ones available.  It is $10 a month or $110 for an annual subscription and you get 4-5 deluxe sample size or often full size products.  It has a mix of drugstore & higher end products which is one of the reasons I chose it over Birchbox; as much as I like trying the expensive stuff its more realistic for me and my budget that I'll repurchase something I can pick up at the drugstore.

April is my second month receiving Ipsy and I'm really enjoying it so far.  Ipsy ships mid month and around the 10th of the month you can either sneak a peak at the coming months products in your "Glam Room" or be surprised when it shows up in the mail.  I told myself this month I was going to wait and not look, but failed miserably so I knew what products I was getting. There were quite a few variations in the bags sent out this month, so while I didn't get a product I was really wanting to try (Lollitint!) I'm pretty happy with what I did end up with.  You'll have to forgive my photos, I'm new to trying to photograph makeup swatches and it turns out I'm not great at it.  That said, onto the bag...

The first product, which is the only item that was included in every bag this month, is the Urban Decay 24/7 Eye Pencil in Black Velvet.  This is a travel sized pencil but it has quite a bit of product and by volume estimate has an approximate value of $6.  It's also my first Urban Decay product so I'm excited to try it out.  I haven't used it on my eyes yet but it glided on my arm very smoothly for swatches and didn't budge once it dried so I think it's going to be easy to use.

Next we have the Coastal Scents medium shadow brush.  I've been slowly changing out my brushes, either for better quality ones or just because they are old and worn out so I was excited to get a brush in my bag.  This sells for $2.99.  It is soft and and worked well when I used it to do a quick swatch over my existing shadow with the Elizabeth Mott eyeshadow I also got in the bag.

This seems to be the month for eye products with Ipsy and I also got Elizabeth Mott Pop goes the Shadow in Champagne.  This is a full sized product worth $12.99 which is more than the cost of the whole Ipsy bag.
Its a gorgeous shadow and well pigmented for a neutral, but unfortunately with my skin tone and lack of proper lighting I couldn't seem to get any swatch photos that did the shadow justice.

The Starlooks Luscious Longwear Lip Pencil in Nude is the fourth item in my bag.  This is also a full sized product worth $14.99.  There were several lip products in the mix this month and I wasn't sure about this one as I don't usually use lip liners.  I decided to try it as an all over lip color and while it's a smooth pencil it was a little drying as a lip color.  It's a peachy pink color and goes okay with my fair skin tone though so I can see myself wearing it occasionally with a gloss over it.

The fifth and final item included was a sample size tube of dr. brandt microdermabrasion scrub.  It's a small sample but that's because the full sized product is $78 (yikes!) so the estimated value of this 7.5g sample is $9.75.  I put a small dab on my hand and it has very fine microdermabrasion crystals, not larger beads like some scrubs.  It also has a very lemony scent, I heard a reviewer describe it as lemon pledge and unfortunately I would say that's an accurate description.  I have mild rosacea so I'm a little worried about this product but have been able to use other scrubs in the past as long as I'm gentle with the application so I plan on trying this out in the next few days.

The bag design itself this month wasn't too exciting for me, it's cute and I like the square shape of it but it's not one I see myself carrying around.  I'm okay with the bag being hit or miss because if I continue to get Ipsy I figure I'll end up with at least a few I use regularly.  March's bag was an abstract print I wasn't sure about at first but it kind of reminded me of nail polish so now I'm using for my go-to nail supplies and it's growing on me. While there's no estimate for the value of the makeup bag itself, I have seen some bloggers estimate it at a dollar or so.  I'm just going to leave it out of the total estimate, but it is definitely nicer packaging than just a cardboard box.

Overall I think this was a pretty great bag.  I'll get use out of everything in it and it included 3 full sized items. I'd estimate the total value of the bag at around $46, which is well worth the $10 subscription price.  I can't wait for next month!

If you're interested in signing up for Ipsy I do have a referral link that you can use here (that will give me points for bonus items), or if you'd rather not use a referral link you can simply go to Ipsy.com to sign up.