Ipsy Glam Bag :: November 2012

Hello Lovelies, today I bring you a review of the November Glam Bag from Ipsy titled Party Perfect. So first off just a little introduction as to what is Ipsy and why I decided to give it a try. Sorry if this is a bit lengthy but since these are my first reviews I just want to give you guys a little insight into why I wanted to do these reviews and this blog in the first place so please stick with me. (or just skip ahead to the photos below for the review (>‘-‘)>

Ipsy was actually my first introduction to these new sorts of beauty sample subscription services and it’s all thanks to a wonderful Beauty Guru whom I follow on Youtube by the name of Michelle Phan. She is probably one of the more well known of the vast legions of beauty gurus on Youtube and I have enjoyed her videos for probably about two years now. She is super fun to watch and comes up with all kinds of crazy tutorials and DIY masks or treatments that are usually pretty easy to follow. Back in early October she released a video introducing her new venture into the beauty subscription services called Ipsy and I’ve later found that it was a preexisting service called Glambag and from past reviews that I’ve watched and read it was in much need of a facelift. So I personally think it was probably a good move to pull in a super popular beauty guru like Michelle to have as the face of their revamp. Anywhos it was enough to convince me from her one video to give the service a try. It seemed like a nice deal too, ten bucks a month and you get to try four or five really nice beauty products.

Now I probably should have done a little more research before jumping right into a subscription because after purchasing I did encounter many scathing reviews on past beauty bags. Thankfully though with my first October bag I was pleasantly surprised. Sorry I don’t have pictures but it included a full size eyeliner, travel size mascara, full size lipgloss, tiny eye shadow quad, and travel size hair oil. (if you're curious click here for a link to Michelle's video featuring the October Glam Bag products) Of those five products I got some pretty good use out of three. The lipgloss was good but I’m just not much of a lipglossy person. The one I didn’t care for were the eye shadows and that was because of the colors they chose for me. They were bright blue and I just couldn’t find a good way to wear them. Overall though I was pretty happy and since then I decided to give a few other boxes a try. I came across tons of reviews on different boxes and decided to stick with Ipsy and try out Glossybox and Julep. Aanndddd since those reviews were so helpful to me I thought I should start my own blog and give my two cents as well. Because I don’t know about you guys but I love reading and hearing other peoples opinions on products before purchasing them myself. I like to get both sides of the story you know? If any of you have Blogs or Vlogs were you have reviews on stuff I’d love to see them. Link them below in the comments and I will check them out!

So without further adieu here is my review on the November Ipsy Glam Bag:

 Every month Ipsy has a set theme for their bags and even though you take an initial style quiz for the most part it seems like everyone gets the same products but maybe just a different color of something. I'm not sure how strongly the Style Quizzes play into the color selections they give you or if they matter at all. Last month I got some crazy blue eyeshadow colors that I will probably never wear and would have never chosen for my skin tone,eye color, hair color combo (which was asked of me in my style quiz) but the lip color was a very neutral pink. The other thing I've noticed about this month's bag is that on their website they show what I will be receiving in my bag and according to that I was to get either the eyebrow gel or the mascara but I received both. Honestly I kind of think they just toss in random items and color combos without any regard to whatever style profile you were assigned initially. The kind of funny thing is too is I don't remember at all what my style profile was and when I look at my account online it gives me no indication at all either....so yeah guess it doesn't matter *shrug*. 

Product List/Value for the month:

Nailtini Nail Lacquer full size $13

Chella Defining Eyebrow Gel travel size approx. $10 (full size $18)

Starlet Intense Eyeliner full size $11

theBalm Meet Matt(e) single eyeshadow approx. $3.83 (full palette $34.50)

They're Real! Benefit Mascara travel size $10 (full size $23)

Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie lipgloss travel size approx. $9 (full size $18)

Total Bag Worth: approx. $58.83

 

 So first up...nail polish: Nailtini Nail Lacquer in Millionaire. Shown here on a bare nail is a golden glittery polish with longish pieces of teal glitter in the mix. Very unique I think, I didn't already have something like this in my collection so that's nice. I will have to test it out to let you guys know maybe next month how long lasting it is.

Next is Chella Defining Eyebrow Gel. Now I already use Anastasia's eyebrow gel and love it so this is probably a meh prodect for me but I tried it out and its nice enough. I like that its small and it will be a nice alternative to take while traveling. For someone who has not tried eyebrow gels before I think they'd like this.

This is the Intense Eyeliner by Starlet in Chocolate. Now this one I didn't care for right off the bat. The color comes off really reddish on me. It made me look tired or sickly when i tried it around my eyes. In the picture below I am wearing it but its covered by the eye shadow so you probably cant tell. I might have liked this one if they had sent it to me in black because I did notice that it would be the kind of liner that would stay put which is nice. However it's a little strange that when I went to find the website to see how much this liner would cost they didn't even have the color they sent me. The closest color was Espresso which probably would be a better color if its a darker brown and not so reddish. Who knows maybe they gave all the Chocolate liners to Ipsy because it was a crap color and they needed to be rid of it.

Continuing with the eyes they sent me theBalm Meet Matt(e) in the color Matt Batali. First of all HOW CUTE is the packaging!! AWWWW so cuuuute!! Ok out of my system ^o^ This is a nice matte grey with a slightly purplish undertone. When I checked out their website it looks like its part of a larger palette so this is probably another item where people received different colors.

Another eye product they sent me is the They're Real! mascara by Benefit. Now this is a niiiice product. I already own this product but was still excited to get this because now I have a travel size and a little more time before I have to repurchase this item. I also think that this is kind of a bonus item becasue as I stated before on the website it shows that I was only supposed to receive this or the eyebrow gel. I'm curious if other people received both as well. If not I would be mad to have not gotten this mascara becasue it is awesome! It makes your lashes look sooo long and nice. It picks out an separates each and every lash so well. It's buildable too so if you just want an everyday look that's not so dramatic just use one coat. Adding more coats will definitely give you some drama though if you like that sort of thing. In the picture below I only have two light coats on. If any of you are in the market for a new mascara get this one! Oh and if you can purchase it at Sephora because I've seen them offer a combo pack where you get an extra travel size for free.

 Finally we have Marvelous Moxie lip gloss in Daredevil by Bare Minerals. Now I've never been much of a fan of Bare Minerals. I think they are a bit of a gimmick. I think its great for anyone who has tried and loved their stuff I do like the idea behind mineral foundations and barely there application that still gives you awesome coverage. For me though I have some acne scarring and I still get breakouts here and there so when I tried them I felt like I really had to pack it on to hide anything and then it would wear off in like two hours or it would be really patchy. I would have like random spots on my forehead where it stuck but then have completely vanished from my cheeks. Their eyeshadow too, great colors, great application but two hours later....all up in my crease. Yes I know some may think well you should apply a primer first or some such. But if I'm going for a power foundation why would I want to apply a liquid base when I can just have to two combined in a nice liquid foundation or BB cream?!? Ok rant is over back to the lipgloss :) I daresay I like this gloss and I am not much of a lip product person so that's a big kudos from me. I'm pretty happy with a nice tinted lip balm and nothing else. This gloss looks really strong in the tube but once its one it really blends in nicely with my natrual lip color and isn't too sticky. It's got a slight tingly cooling sensation after you apply it too because I think its supposed to be plumping. I didn't notice any plumping action but it did feel pretty good.

 
So finally to end this review above are two photos to show you some colors swatches and how it looks when I'm wearing everything. Overall everything seems pretty natural looking. The eyeshadow I swiped over just the lid. I applied about two coats of the mascara. The eyeliner really doesn't show on my eyes but you can see it swatched on my hand. The gloss you almost cant even tell I'm wearing which is actually nice for me. Although you could definitely pair this gloss with a berry lipstick and produce a nice dramatic pout if that's your thing. I think you can get a better idea of the color payoffs from the swatches on my hand if you apply them a little heavier than I did. 

I supose that's all for today. I hope this was helpful to anyone trying to decide whether or not Ipsy is the subscription service for you. I think with any of these services there is always a bit of hit and miss but for me with Ipsy its been mostly hits! Let me know what you guys think! I'd love to hear from you and your experiences with these products or services.