Ipsy - November 2014

It's Ipsy time again!  My bag actually arrived a couple of days earlier than usual this month which was a nice surprise.  The theme for November is Girl Meets Glitter and several of the products had glittery or shimmery aspects to them.

Be a Bombshell Cosmetics Eye Base -  I received this in the color Submissive, which is a bronzy shimmer.  The eye base is a creamy solid base, which reminds me very much of Maybelline's Color Tattoos.  The color is nicely pigmented but also can be sheered out, so it looks like it will work well as either a base or an all over lid shade with a darker crease color.  It should also really bring out similar colored shadows when used as a base so I'm excited to play around with it.  Plus unlike the stinky Be a Bombshell. mascara I got in my July bag the eye base doesn't have a detectable smell to it, which is great.  I received a full size product which retails for $14.

J. Cat Beauty Wonder Lip Paint - My lip paint is in the color Red Potion, which comes out of the tube as a very deep almost blackish red, but blends out a bit to be more of a deep berry red.  The formula reminds me of a mix between a melted lipstick and a lip stain.  A little bit goes a long way with this and when I first swatched it I accidentally used enough to cover my whole hand.  The color is a bit intense for everyday wear for me, but I will get some wear out of this and am interested to test out the staying power.  The lip paint is full sized and worth $4.99.

Temptu S/B Highlighter - Temptu makes liquid highlighters in several colors and Ipsy sent out Pink Pearl, which is a nice light opalescent pink shade.  The pink seems to sheer out a bit just leaving a liquid highlighter shimmery effect, so this should hopefully be good for highlighting the tops of cheekbones & bridge of the nose.  Ipsy's website also suggests mixing  few drops into body lotion for an all over shimmer.  The highlighter is a 0.1 oz sample size but it is a very thin liquid so I'm sure a tiny bit will go a long way.  The sample is worth $2.75.

Starlooks Gem Eye Pencil - Starlooks is introducing new colors of their Gem pencils and Ipsy sent out two of them, Ultra Olive and Ultra Orchid.  I received Ultra Orchid, which is a purple shade with tiny flecks of glitter.  I'm not a huge fan of pencil liners because I find they cause some pulling on the eyelid, but this does seem like a very soft and creamy liner.  Plus it isn't another black eyeliner which I'm pretty happy about.  The glittery aspect will make it fun for upcoming holiday looks.  I received a full size pencil with a value of $17.00.

Marc Anthony Oil of Morocco Argan Oil Volume Shine Hairspray - This has a pleasant light fruity scent, which is good because I find some hairsprays have so much scent to them it's like spraying perfume on your hair.  I sprayed a little in my hair after my unbagging and it seems to be a medium hold that would be good for when I curl my hair because it will hold the curl but not be super stiff.  It didn't flake when I combed through my hair afterwards too, which is great.  I don't use a ton of hairspray but this is a nice 1.5 oz travel sized bottle, which is worth $1.38.

The bag itself this month is a cute and fun silver glitter bag with a bright pink zipper.  It has a plastic coating over the top of the glitter so it doesn't drop glitter everywhere, which I really appreciate.  I will definitely use this as my purse makeup bag for a while.

Overall this was a pretty good month.  I calculated a total value for the products I received of $40.12.  I will get use out of all of the products I received and I feel like they go well with Ipsy's theme for the month without being over the top glittery. If you'd like to try Ipsy it is a monthly subscription service that costs $10/month including shipping.  I also have a referral link you can use here.  My video unboxing of this bag that also includes a review of my October products is below.

Beauty Box 5 - July 2014

My July Beauty Box 5 arrived a few days ago, but I've been procrastinating on getting this post up.  As I mentioned in my last Ipsy post, I've started a Makeup Miscellaneous You Tube Channel and I did unbox the BB5 in a video as well, which you can view here & I'll also embed the video at the end of this post.

July's box theme is Defining Moments and except for the one spoiler item that is posted on the Beauty Box 5 each month I managed to avoid other unboxings and keep the contents of the box a surprise.

The first item was the one spoiler item I knew about, which is the Revlon Bold Lacquer Mascara.  While a black mascara isn't the most exciting item to receive I was happy that it's a full size product and will definitely try it out.  This is described on the BB5 card insert as both a lengthening and volumizing mascara.  It is also supposed to lift lashes without a curler and not smudge or flake.  That's a lot of claims so I'm curious to see how it works out.  This mascara has a value of $7.99

The second product in my box was the Starlooks Kohl Eye Pencil in Obsidian.  I own one other Starlooks product which is a a lip liner I received in my April Ipsy Bag.  Once I opened this box I watched some other unboxings and what's funny is it looks like Beauty Box 5 sent out a lip liner as well because I didn't see one other person who got the eye liner.  I'm actually glad I got the eye liner because the lip liner looked very similar to the one I already have.  Obsidian is a soft black pencil liner, and i'm not a huge fan of these regular pencil liners because there is usually some tugging and pulling.  That said I haven't actually tried this on my eyes yet I'll give it a fair shot before making a decision.  The card says it can double as a base for your entire eye.  I definitely think that would be too dark of a base for me but if you were doing a very dark, smokey eye look it might work.  This is also a full sized item worth $12.00, which covers the whole cost of the box in itself.

Next I received a full sized Body Drench Candylicious Lip Balm in Peppermint Stick.  It is a clear lip balm, which is always handy to have around for either use on it's own or under other lip products.  It is infused with beeswax, conconut oil, and vitamin E.  I have used this a couple of times since opening it and it is definitely peppermint and even made my lips a little tingly.  This lip balm is worth $3.99.

The fourth item in my box was a packet of the Hask Argan Oil Intense Deep Conditioning Hair Treatment.  I use a deep conditioner on my hair a couple of times a week so I'm looking forward to trying it out.  While foil packets aren't my favorite packaging there is easily enough product in this packet for 2 uses and it retails for $2.49 per packet.

Finally I received a sample size of Glowing Mama Walnut Face and Body Scrub from Anna Naturals.  This is a vegan scrub that doesn't have parabens, harsh cemicals, or artificial fragrance.  It has a very smooth creamy base with exfoliating beads of crushed walnut.  I am still loving my Derma E Microdermabrasion scrub from May's Ipsy bag but will see how this scrub compares.  The full 4 oz size is $10.99 and while the container isn't marked I'm guessing this as about 1/2 oz so I'm going to estimate the value at $1.37

This box was a big improvement on last months for me so I think I"ll stick with Beauty Box 5 for a few more months and switch to a 3 month subscription to bring my cost down to $10/month.  I estimated July's Box total value at $27.84.  As I said above I unboxed this my new You Tube channel & have embedded the video 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.