Ipsy: March 2015 *Guest Blog!*

Lauren’s Note: Today we bring you another guest blog! Christine and I have been buddies for YEARS now. We have done plenty of dancing and drinking together over the years but we have always bonded over being product junkies.  We were having lunch the other day and I told Christine how I had unsubscribed to Ipsy and she graciously volunteered to write a guest blog about Ipsy so Boxy Ladies does not have to be Ipsy-less! I could not have been more thrilled! Here’s Christine! 

I have been subscribed to Ipsy since October of 2012. I had first heard of Ipsy long before that, when they were called “My Glam Bag.” My Glam Bag had a rocky start, and it wasn’t until they changed their name to Ipsy that the bags really took off in the beauty subscription box world. I am the type of person this subscription was made for- a total beauty junkie. I am always on the hunt for a holy grail product and read numerous blogs and watch countless YouTube channels just to see what others think of certain products. I am also a big fan of sampling before buying. Only a crazy person would drop enough money for a delicious steak dinner on one beauty product only to not like it and never use it again. No thank you, give me the medium rare porterhouse please. For $10 a month, Ipsy sends their subscribers 5 deluxe sized beauty samples that range from hair care to skincare products as well as makeup and makeup tools. I like that in addition to well known brands like Urban Decay and Tarte, they throw in indie brands like City Color and Mitchell and Peach. All of the samples come packaged in a reusable makeup bag that you can use to carry your samples around with you! Isn’t that nice? I’m personally on the fence about the makeup bags, as sometimes the styles are not my taste. With that being said, lets dive right in to my March bag.

Ipsy’s theme for March is “Floral Fantasy”. The bag is super cute, A bright blue, yellow, gray floral pattern with a little pink thrown in. I love love love floral patterns! The bag really screams Spring to me, which makes me excited for the warmer weather. As far as the “Floral Fantasy” theme goes, it stops at the bag. That is something I have never understood with Ipsy– why have a theme but not carry it out? I was surprised to see a bag I like this month, as most months I do not like like their bags. A lot of the bags look really young (hot pink and studs? I’m 31 and will never be caught with hot pink and studs anything) and they tend to be kinda small by my makeup hoarding standards. I rarely use them. If I do, it’s mostly for traveling and the rest of them get gifted with something else or taken to Goodwill. But I like this one and it will have a nice home in my bathroom cabinet with all the other up-to-par bags.

First product is the Dr. Brandt Pores No More Anti-Aging Mattifying Lotion. Between Ipsy and Birchbox, I have received so many samples from this line and I have yet to use any of them. I do like that I keep getting the samples, which to my knowledge have not been duplicated yet. I hope to keep getting them so that I could possibly end up with samples of every product from the line. I know, I’m crazy. This particular product is oil-free and claims to moisturize as well as contain anti-aging and mattifying properties. All of those things are relevant to me. It has retinol and apple stem cells (what?) but does not have parabens, sulfates, fragrances, or dyes. The directions state that you can use this am and/or pm. I would probably use this product in the morning before I put any makeup on, to keep my face from over greasing and making my makeup slide off. I did notice that when I held the sample tube up to the light, the product line in the tube is less than half of the container. I instantly got annoyed with Ipsy for sticking a half full sample in my bag, but upon inspection of the other samples I have from this brand, they are all half full. Why make the sample packaging bigger than the amount of product? To me, that is nuts. I can understand if it was free, but I basically paid for half a tube of product that I will use up at one time. How am I supposed to know if I like a product if I can’t use it at least twice?

Next up, Vintage by Jessica Leibeskind Illuminating Face Highlighter in Crystal Pink. I have never heard of this brand so of course I Googled the name. Usually there will be a couple of blog posts or YouTube videos on whatever I am searching for but I couldn’t find anything like that for this product. Maybe this is a relatively new product and brand? I like highlighters, but I do not wear them everyday. I will wear highlighter on the weekends if I am going out (the shimmery-er the better), but not for work or even happy hours/small weekday hangouts. I have extremely oily skin and I think for me, wearing shimmery highlighter for more than 4 hours at a time in daylight only makes me look shinier. I use oil absorbing sheets to prevent that and those sheets ain’t cheap, y’all! This highlighter looks really pink in the package, but swatched on my hand is only subtly pink and gives off a slight gold shimmer. I really like it and I think I’m going to try it out only over my blush and not my whole face. It seems like it would be pretty all over the face of someone who is very tan which is not me.

Ipsy sends me a new face cleanser every month. A couple of months ago, Lauren and I got the same Ipsy bag that included Beauty Without Cruelty’s facial cleanser. She was fine getting the cleanser, but I was like, is Ipsy trying to tell me to wash my face more often? Apparently that is a yes because I got yet another cleanser in this months bag. It is the Pur-Lisse Gentle Soy Milk Cleanser and Makeup Remover. I have heard of this product before, most likely from YouTube, and I have to say, I am really excited to try it. My skin is oily and acne prone, but I don’t know if it is sensitive or not because I have used abrasive and gentle cleansers alike and never see a difference. The label on the cleanser says it is packed with blue lotus, white tea, soy proteins, sea silk, and lupine peptides. All of that sounds really fancy and I hope it makes my face feel equally as fancy.

There are 3 things I love getting in my sub boxes; Lipstick, nail polish, and concealer. I have the skin of a raging hormonal 14 year old, so concealer is an every day must for me. Ipsy sent me a sample of the Boo Boo Cover-up Concealer/Camouflant in medium this month. I have heard things here and there about this product, but I haven’t really noticed that people online use it a lot. It is supposed to hide skin imperfections while promoting healing. It contains aloe, chamomile, green tea, tea tree oil, and vitamin E. I’m glad that I got a shade that will match my skin. I have gotten lucky with concealer shades in past bags matching my skin well. I’m almost out of my It Cosmetics Bye Bye Undereye concealer that Ipsy sent me a few months back. The bye bye Undereye has changed my life and made me a fan of It Cosmetics (that’s a another blog post in itself) and I hope that the Boo Boo cover-up is just as good.

When Lauren and I were having lunch a few weeks ago, we were talking about cancelling boxes to save money. I said that I might cancel Ipsy because all they ever send me is pink colored make up. I seriously have a ton of lipsticks and lipglosses that Ipsy has sent me that I will never use because they are bubblegum pink. I like red lipstick and I always hope to be sent the red option only to find I got the pink or dusty mauve– yuck! This month the beauty gods answered my prayers. I got a lipstick in my bag that isn’t pink! And there was even a pink option this month, that I was sure I was getting. (Lauren’s note: there is no doubt that I would have gotten that pink shade! I have the same complaint about all the pinks!) Instead, I received NYX Butter Lipstick in the shade Hunk. It is a purple/magenta color that goes on pretty sheer for a lipstick and the color is not garish at all. It’s actually a pretty berry color which I think is on trend for Spring. I like that it doesn’t feel heavy like a normal lipstick and it kinda stains to leave a nice color on the lip. This color is right up my alley and I cant wait to wear it everywhere and for every occasion (IE: grocery shopping).

Final Grade: B+ 

I liked this bag okay and I think I’ll keep my subscription just to see what I get next month. The lipstick will be the most used from this bag for sure. If you’re interested in finding out more about Ipsy and maybe be included in next months bag, click this link and become and addict like me!

-Christine