My First Ipsy Bag

So earlier this month, I received my very first Ipsy bag. I’ve done Birchbox for about two months now but then I heard about a program called Ipsy. I don’t care much for skincare or hair products and I heard Ipsy was a little more centered around makeup so I decided to give it a try.

Opening it up I saw that the theme of this bag is “Beauty Candy.” I don’t get it, but that’s what it is called.

Now, like Birchbox, Ipsy is a $10 a month program providing you with a couple of samples of products to try. Different than Birchbox, Ipsy products don’t arrive in a small cardboard box, but in a cute little bag. I’m not much into clutches but the bag was decent looking.

Within, I received:

Starlooks Lip Gloss in Guilty Pleasure 0.3 oz — $12, 0.14 oz — Sample worth $2.58

Indie Lee Brightening Cleanser 0.5 oz — $32, 4 oz — Sample worth $4

Skone Tattooed Waterproof Eyeliner in Black .07 oz (full size!) — $15, .07 oz — Sample worth $15

Figs & Rouge Hand Cream in Mango Mandarin 0.67 oz — $6.56 (from Feeling Unique), 2.8 oz — Sample worth $1.57

and Doll 10 H2Glo Highlighter in Champagne 0.15 oz — $30, .35 oz — Sample worth $12.90

Total Ipsy Bag worth $36.05

So far, I like the Starlooks Lip Gloss. It’s not too sticky. It has a medium shine, a pleasant smell and what appears to be a smooth, even, opaque color. The color, however, is not to my liking. It’s a bit too pink. I tend to go toward skin tone or pale lip colors or colors that are just slightly red as if someone just pinched my lips. Other than that, I think many would enjoy this color.

The Indie Lee Brightening Cleanser is just an average cleanser to me. I currently use MAC’s Green Gel Cleanser ($21) and don’t notice much more of a difference. In fact, a large reason I even use the MAC cleanser at that price point is because I get 40% off with their makeup artist discount. Otherwise, I’d be using Cetaphil. I’m not big into skin care because I feel like it’s mostly all snake oil. That aside, the Indie Lee cleanser did make my face clean. Brighter? Who knows. It smelled like soap. Some people don’t like fragrances added to their cosmetics, but I do. Especially when the unscented product smells like chemicals… or maybe that was added fragrance. For $32, I’ll pass.

Now I love eyeliner. I’m extremely picky about eyeliners. I’m still looking for a holy grail but I have a few that I like the most. The Skone Tattooed Eyeliner was mediocre at best. I wouldn’t pay $5 for it. Maybe $5 but not a penny more. The applicator is cool. I prefer MAC’s Penultimate Eyeliner which is $20 and contains twice the amount of product. Skone’s applicator has a thicker felt tip than MAC’s which can either be a positive or a negative depending on who you ask and their application technique. My big issue with Skone is that the pigment is just not there. It’s a very soft black color which is just not my style. If I want anything lighter than the blackest black, I’ll wear brown. I haven’t been able to test its waterproof capabilities yet because I probably won’t be using this product again. For the 6 or 7 hours that I wore it, it did seem to last and that was without primer and eyeshadow.

The Figs and Rouge Hand Cream was… I don’t know. Good? How do you review hand cream? I like makeup. You already know how I feel about skincare products. The cream had a wet feeling as opposed to oily. Because of that, it felt like it dried into my skin rather than left it with a filmy coating. The Mango Mandarin fragrance was faint and disappeared within moments. Seems pointless especially when the fragrance is printed in such large lettering on the package. At $10, I’d say if you like hand creams, maybe you’ll like this one due to the texture but don’t get your hopes up about the scent.

Lastly, the Doll 10 Highlighter was probably the product I was most excited to receive. I’ve always wanted a cream highlighter and was happy to finally get the chance to try one. I’ve used this product the last few days and I guess I’m still feeling it out. It’s a little greasy feeling. Not too greasy, but it feels a little petroleum jelly like to the touch with a little less whipped of a texture. The coverage is light with no buildable coverage. Many people use lighter concealer, lighter foundation, or light powder to do a lot of their highlighting, but this is a pearlescent highlighter that uses light reflecting particles to capture natural light instead. That’s what I love about this product. It gives your skin that dewy glow that makes your skin look moist and healthy. If you’re looking for a subtle highlight, this may be the product for you.

All in all, I really did love the Ipsy bag I received. My biggest gripe is that I’ve never heard of ANY of these products prior to receiving them in my Ipsy bag. I love cosmetics so if I haven’t heard of these products, I feel like it’s probably because neither has anyone else and a lot of the time, if people haven’t heard of a product, it’s because not enough people are liking them. That aside, even though two of the samples were skin care products that I didn’t particularly care for, I at least like receiving these little samples because I likely would never go out and buy them on my own. The other products, while I didn’t fall in love with any, it gave me the opportunity to try three products that if like the way I usually try new makeup products, basically by buying them at full price and then discarding the ones I dislike, I ended up saving money and gaining new content for my blog :-D.

If you feel like signing up for the $10/month Ipsy service, head over to www.Ipsy.com! Let me know what you think.