Ipsy glambag Review: July 2014

Not sure how I'm feeling about Ipsy Glambag. I have been getting it for almost a year, and I love the cosmetic bag and most of the products, but there's a lot of repeats. Birchbox, even though they ended up giving me a lot of cheap products towards the end, had a lot of different brands working with them. I think it's time to try a new beauty subscription service. I would prefer one around $10 like Birchbox and Ipsy, any suggestions? 

This month's bag. So cute, a pink square bag with a scalloped edge. 

This month, there were five products. Nail polish, lip product, hair product, tanning oil (???), and concealer/liquid eyeshadow. I don't really use hair product (and I've put that on my ipsy profile), and I 100% do not use tanning oil, so both of those products are kind of useless. But I am always game for lip products, nail polish, and concealer. 

Pixi Beauty Mini Tinted Brilliance Balm in Unique Pink. I like the color of this, and I always love lip pencil balms like this. The website says that it is $14 for a full-size crayon, I can't find specifics online, but it appears to be about half the size of one from the site, so value: $7. 

Whet nail polish in Facetious. A dark blue, very pretty, just my kind. Very nice, I tested it on one nail and it lasted for 3 days without chipping, and before I took it off, there was only minor tip wear. Value: $15 on the website. 

Hang Ten Dark Tanning Oil SPF 08. I don't use Tanning Oil, mostly because I hate being tan and also I don't like going outside in the sun. I'll probably trade it off or give it away to someone. To me, this is worthless, but on the website the value: about $2. 

Marrakesh Endz by Marrakesh Hair Care. Split ends drive me nuts, so something that claims to repair split ends is a golden product for me. No promises on whether it actually works or not just yet, though. But it smells incredible and makes my hair soft. Value: $5.99 

Bare Minerals 5-in-1 BB Advanced Performance Cream Eyeshadow in Barely Nude. Not a huge fan of cream eyeshadow because it usually smears a lot, but I tried this one and it's not too bad so far. Value: about $6. 

Verdict: The overall value of the bag was about $36, which is pretty good considering that it only cost $10. I think I will be waiting another month to see how the next bag is before I consider cancelling and switching to a new service; I feel like Ipsy is really limited, they seem to only have a few companies working with them; I've gotten Pixi products so many times in the past year. Any suggestions? Or recommendations for a bigger beauty service, preferably around the same cost? 

May 2014 Ipsy GlamBag Review

Long time no see! I am finally done with school for the semester, and I am back! I am planning on updating this blog a lot more frequently because I want to be able to use this in my portfolio. So definitely stay tuned and make sure you check back! I have a lot of posts planned and finally everything has come together: most of my pictures have been taken on my iPad lately, because the camera on that is the best one that I have, but transferring the pictures to my laptop takes forever. So I bought a wireless keyboard, and now I can type the posts on my iPad and have them up much quicker! Also, I had a ton of plans for LED/at-home gel nail polish kit posts, but my Sensationail lamp went missing. I just found it, so expect some posts with that within the next month! :)

Here's a simple post to mark my comeback, though. This month's Ipsy GlamBag! 

This month, the products were awesome. I definitely approve! 

The cosmetic bag that the samples come in. That's the nicest thing about Ipsy! I collect make up bags like no other, so I'm glad that I get a new one every month. This one feels like it's made out of canvas material, and it has a green leaf design. 

A 1.76 oz bottle of Avene Thermal Spring Water. So, it feels nice. And it smells nice. And it's supposed to be fancy (it has water taken from French Springs, apparently). But overall, it seems kind of useless because it is just spring water in a spray can. A 10.58 oz bottle is $18, so going by that, this is worth about $3. 

A 60 mL bottle of eva-nyc Therapy Session Hair Mask. I love this so much! I try to take super good care of my hair, and this works great. My hair is very thick and long (past my shoulders), and I have to tie it up a lot for work (which causes split ends like you wouldn't believe). I used this as a hair mask, and it made my hair so smooth and soft, this product makes up for the bottle of spray water! A 60 mL bottle sells for $12 on their website, so this is worth $12. (Although through ipsy, they offer 65% off this hair mask, so I am definitely re-purchasing and stocking up).

This was probably the most surprising item in the bag. A sample of Calvin Klein Endless Euphoria. This was surprising for two reasons: One, it's Calvin Klein. And two, it's not one of those tiny, .000001 oz sprays of perfume sample that most companies usually send out. This is .01 oz of perfume. I love the smell of this! It is floral and very light. This is a rollerball, which I love, and it's so tiny that it can easily fit in a purse but, at the same time, you can use it for more than one or two sprays. A .34oz rollerball of this perfume costs $20 at Ulta, so this is worth... Less than a dollar. Oh well! It's the thought that counts. 

A 2.0g compact of Pacifica Mineral Eyeshadow in Duo #2 (Moonbeam & Unicorn). I don't tend to like mineral makeup because it usually creases easily for me, but I do like this one. Plus the color pay-off is quite nice. Unicorn is from their Charmed palette, and Moonbeam is from their Mystical palette.  Just guesstimating (since it's kind of hard to tell with the palettes and this compact), I'd say this eyeshadow compact is worth about $3-4. I love it because purple and white eyeshadows are my favorite :) 

Lastly, sunblock! This is .5 oz of Jersey Shore Sun's Sans Tan Pure White Mineral Sunscreen. The bottle claims that it is all natural and anti-aging, and it has SPF 35. So this is (as the name suggests) kind of whitening. I did pass it on to my mom because she's a sunscreen nut, and she likes it. It smells nice and it applies smoothly. On their website, they sell 2 tubes of this (which is their travel-size) for $25, so this is worth $12.50. For a relatively tiny bottle! Kind of crazy, but I guess that's the price you pay for whitening, all natural, anti-aging sunscreen. 

And there's my review. All in all, this GlamBag was worth about $31 (if you generously say that the Calvin Klein Endless Euphoria rollerball was worth about $0.50). Not bad, considering you pay $10 shipped for it! And the products were pretty nice. Definitely glad that I made the switch to the GlamBag. 

(This review was not sponsored. I pay for the GlamBag out of my own pocket (which is why I was relatively bitter about the spray bottle of water). 

Stay tuned! 

Rakuzen

December Ipsy Glambag + Glambag Review!

As you might know, I previously was subscribed to Birchbox for over a year. However, in the past few months I had been thinking about changing subscription services--I like getting a monthly box of surprise make up and beauty products in the mail, but Birchbox was sending me a lot of repeat products and boxes that were really not worth even the $10 that I spent for them.

I am a HUGE fan of Michelle Phan, so I decided to switch to Ipsy (note: not an affiliate link). It is the same price and I was hoping that it would have better products, plus it comes in a makeup bag! It is really hard to find a new use for those boxes, and I love makeup bags.

So far, I have not been disappointed! I was getting them both at the same time for a couple of months, and every time they would arrive,  it was clear which box was the better value. I still like Birchbox, and I would recommend it if you are a beginner to make-up products and just want to test out and play with some products.

Here is the December Glambag!



The bag is a small black shiny quilted bag, with red on the inside. The zipper has a circle tag that says Ipsy.



POPBeauty Bright Up Your Life eyeshadow palette in Naturally Bare. I am not a big fan of neutrals, but some occasions do call for toned-down make up, so I am happy to have this in my stash. Plus, I love the small size, since I can throw it in my travel make up bag that I stash in my backpack for when I am running late to class on a full day, that way I can do my make up in between classes.



  NYX Extra Creamy Round Lipstick in B52 (LSS565 soft mauve-pink). I love NYX, but I am not a big fan of this color. I am more of a red or pink lipstick kinda girl, but there is always re-gifting. And I was excited to see NYX in the box! This is a full-size lipstick, valued at $4.



Snow by Demeter Perfume Oil Roll On. When I first saw this in my bag, I was not particularly enthused. I see this all the time at Walgreens and Rite-Aid (back when I used to go drugstore clearance makeup and nail polish shopping weekly in high school), so I was thinking that this was the first lower-quality Glambag that I have gotten in the 5 months that I have been receiving it. As I researched the brand a little bit more, I found that they have a Sanrio collection! But sadly, this perfume does not smell that good.. it is too strong and the scent is just not that great.



Nicka K New York Nail Color in Ripe Apple. Nail polish! I am a big nail polish fanatic but unfortunately, this color is way too loud for me. I am not a red nail polish girl (I can count on one hand the number of red polishes in my 300+ bottle collection). However, this is a full-size bottle, which is valued at $4.99, so this bag is definitely worth $10.



Be A... Bombshell One Stick in Girl Crush. This is a shimmery light pink blush in a matte black tube. I love the packaging on this! Unfortunately, the color does not work that well with my complexion. I believe this is also full size, and according to the website it is $16.

Okay so actually, this bag was not particularly to my tastes (ironically, it was a much better match for my mom so, easy Christmas gift!) But to prove that the Glambag is an awesome product, here are some of the ones that I have gotten in the past.



This was the most perfect one and, coincidentally, my first Glambag that I received in July. See how stuffed the bag is? (Not to mention how cute the bag is). It came with a ton of products:



Benefit Benetint cheek/lip stain, a 3-shadow California Collection pallet (which was much more to my liking and featured a purple!), POPbeauty lip crayon in a bright pink, Coola Sunscreen sample, and an amazing hair spray.

So, I highly, highly recommend Ipsy. The only thing is that after signing up on the site, it takes about two months to get off of the wait list and start receiving your products. But it is worth the wait! So now monthly, I will be posting a review of the ipsy glambag instead of the Birchbox box.