IPSY November 2013

I received my November IPSY bag in the mail.  This month everyone was promised an EM by Michelle Phan product in their bags. I think that everyone that subscribes to IPSY is aware of who Michelle Phan is, so there was a lot of hype behind this bag. Keep reading to see if it was worth all the hype.

First Look!

This month's bag was a gold snakeskin print with a wristlet.  This bag was different because it was the first bag that I have received that was made to be more than just a cosmetics bag that you throw in your purse. This bag was marketed to actually be used as a clutch - although I probably would never do that. The bag still looks and feels a little too cheap to use as a purse at a party. But I appreciate that they made that attempt and you really can't expect a high quality bag in a $10.00 beauty subscription. 

This month's theme was "Glam it Up" they also included a card in this month's bag all about Em Cosmetics.

FULL SIZED Be a Bombshell lip crayon in Shameless.  I was not expecting too much from this product. I have received a blush in an IPSY bag in the past and it was nice, but not something I really took notice of.  As with the blush, the lip crayon's packaging feels really cheap and thin.  I tried out this crayon for work one day and I ended up liking the color on my skin tone and the color lasted on my lips for a considerable amount of time. I would be happy to receive another product from them and would even consider purchasing some more colors of the lip crayon from this brand. I just wish that they sold them in stores near me. I think that they only sell online and with shipping costs and not being able to see the colors in real life it makes it hard for me to purchase online. I really prefer seeing the product in stores and deciding then to purchase. 

FULL SIZED EM by Michelle Phan 'Lash Gallery Dramatic Volume Mascara' in black. I was originally disappointed that I got a mascara in by bag (you could have received a lipstick, lipgloss or eyeliner) - until I saw a video of an IPSY unboxing where they received the same mascara. When I received this mascara I immediately put this at the bottom of my mascara drawer and said that I would get to it later. After seeing the video I realized that this is a fiber mascara.  I tend to like fiber mascaras because my eyelashes are really thin and short.  I am excited to try this one out to see how well it works at making me look like I actually have eyelashes. 

FULL SIZED Starlooks Gem pencil in Amethyst. I was super happy with this color! It is a light purple shade with full on shimmer. I have been using this product on my lower water line and then lining my bottom lashes with the purple eyeshadow that I received in my IPSY September 2013 bag. I only wish that the liner was long wearing. 

FULL SIZED Pixi 'Beauty Bronzer' in Subtly Suntouched. This shade is a little light for a bronzer, I will use this as a blush and layer on a brighter color on top. 

BH Cosmetics 'Galaxy Chic' baked eyeshadow in Sun.

I received this terra cotta shade that is a nice color for the fall. 

FULL SIZED Nailtini nail lacquer in Champagne. I have been receiving a lot of these rose colored polishes recently.  They are all a little different from each oher (pinker, more of a bronze color, glitter) but I am getting a little sick of this color. 

I was very happy with this month's bag and IPSY continues not disappoint each month. They seem to send out mostly full sized products, as opposed to the sample sizes that Birchbox sends. But Birchbox tends to send higher price, luxury products in brands that I have not heard of before. I like both of the sample boxes for different reasons and will continue to subscribe for those reasons. 

IPSY referral link Please use my referral link if you would like to sign up for your own IPSY bag subscription.

Fab Fit Fun Fall Box 2013

I received my FabFitFun box...finally!

This box had a series of mishaps that kept coming. First there was a billing error and some of the subscribers were charged twice for the box and California tax - despite the state that they actually live in. I was one of the lucky few that had that billing error. I checked my emails from Fab Fit Fun and I was charged twice at like 3:00am my time and by 4:00am there was an email sent out alerting us to the error. Which was excellent service in my mind. They also let those affected know that for our troubles they were going to be adding an extra item in our boxes. 

Once the box was shipped - which took forever from the time that the email saying our credit cards were billed to the actual shipment of the box was like a months time in between. Maybe even two months-it seemed like forever. Either way, once the box was shipped, I received another email from Fab Fit Fun saying that some of the boxes were shipped out without one of the items that were a part of the sneak peak that they showed us would be in the box. 

Surprise Surprise I was again affected by this shipping snafu and another box was shipped out to me with the sneak peak item that was promised. 

Keep reading below to see what I got and the extra item that I was shipped. 

First Look!

As with each box, a card with Guianna Rancic was added, describing each of the products included in the box.

There were also a bunch of cards/coupons/brochures included in this box.

Bright Pink quick start guide to breast cancer awareness and a sticker and text program that will text you each months of remind you to do a monthly at home break cancer check. 

Bliss coupon for a free facial. There was a lot of restrictions to this coupon and the closest Bliss Salon to my location was one of those restricted sites. So I won't be using this coupon.

Gorjana coupon for use on their website.

FabFitFun sticker

Starlooks card

Awkward Family Photos cards with different pictures and a game on the back.

 FULL SIZE Gorjana Canary Scarf Two sneak peaks were released for this box. This is one of those sneak peak items. I really liked this scarf. The colors are really nice together and its in a light fabric. Perfect for the fall or as a style piece. Not so much for warmth.

FULL SIZE Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Cleansing Foam This is the second sneak peak item and the one that was missing from the original shipment. I don't normally purchase foaming products because it's really not worth your money. Like 80% of the bottle is water and the rest of it is the actual product.

 FULL SIZE Spa Ritual nail laquer in Health, Wealth and Happiness

Health Warrior Chia Bar in Apple Cinnamon This just sounds disgusting to me. 

FULL SIZE Surface Trinity Protein Cream 

FULL SIZE Starlooks eyeshadow palette in St. Tropez I seem to be getting a lot of Starlooks products in beauty boxes. Fun Fact - Starlooks has their own monthly box that they send out with all only Starlooks products in the box. 

2 packs Drinkwel 3 vegetarian capsules I can't really buy in to this actually working. I will try it out the next time I'm going out drinking, but my hopes are not high.

FULL SIZE Barre 3 Standing Slim with Sadie Lincoln DVD

FULL SIZE Orville Redenbacher Classic Butter and Sea Salt box with three pop up bowls of popcorn 

FULL SIZE Orly nail Lacquer in Go Deeper Sorry this pic is so blurry. I accidentally deleted the non blurry pics.  This is the extra product that was added to the boxes that were affected by the billing issue. It's a little upsetting that it's another nail polish, when one was already added to the box. But I liked that it was a different brand and a different type of polish  (full color vs. a glitter). And I really can't complain because it was really nice of Fab Fit Fun to even think of adding an extra product.

In all I continue to really like this subscription box, despite the high price, $49.99 a quarter, I feel like the value is really great each box. I also like the variety of different products that they send out in each box. It's not just all beauty items or, just food. There is a really good mix each box of beauty, lifestyle and food items. 

IPSY September 2013

This month's IPSY bag arrived!

This month's theme was Classic Beauty

The creator of IPSY, Michelle Phan, started out as a You Tube beauty guru. She then created a beauty sample company named MyGlam. Which evolved into IPSY. She just released a makeup line called "EM by Michelle Phan" and is doing some heavy duty marketing for her new line. One such marketing strategy is by putting samples of her makeup in every IPSY bag. What I appreciated about this sample is that it didn't count as one of the samples for the months bag. 

The big selling point of her line is the Life Palette. She included this fold out brochure with three eyeshadow samples and a blush sample.

 0.14 fl. oz. It's so Big by Elizabeth Mott mascara in black? The packaging didn't say what color it was and I didn't want to open the mascara up. I have a lot of different mascaras that I'm trying out and didn't want to open another one and have it start drying out. Interesting fact. Elizabeth Mott only makes two products, this mascara and Lash Cards.

FULL SIZE Starlooks Kohl eye pencil in Obsidian

FULL SIZE Cailyn Tinted Lip Balm in Big Apple. I really wouldn't call this a lip balm. It's not sheer like I would expect from a lip balm. The color on this was really strong and bright. It was more of lipstick, in a pot.

This product separated into three pieces like their eyeliners. The top of the lid separates to a brush. This is the same packaging as the gel eyeliners in their brand. The only difference between the eyeliner and the lip balm is packaging color and the actual product inside the pot. I didn't like the brush for eyeliner application and I really don't like the brush for lip product application either. I felt that it was too stiff for use on the lips. I have been using the brush for eyeshadow that I use to set my gel eyeliner.

FULL SIZE NYX eyeshadow in Purple. Love this color.

FULL SIZE J.Cat Beauty Fantabulous lipstick in Honeycrisp I hated this color. It looked even worse on my lips. It made me look dead. I applied the Cailyn lip balm over top of this and I looked a little more alive, but I still wasn't completely happy with the color.  The packaging was really cheap feeling. I received another J.Cat product in a previous month's bag and the quality of the product was not very impressive. I don't think the products that I have receive in my IPSY bags from this brand, impress me enough to want to make purchases from the brand. 

For some reason I didn't take a picture of this month's bag. If you are really interested in seeing the bag, I'm sure you can search what other people received. Overall I was happy with this month's bag.

IPSY referral link. Please use my referral link if you would like to sign up for your own IPSY subscription. 

IPSY June 2013

I received my June IPSY bag in the mail and I am so happy with this month's bag!

Price: $10.00/month

Ships out: Every month

June's theme is "On the Wild Side"

First Look!

This month's bag is leopard with a lime green zipper. This bag is a little different from the bags that I have received in the past because the zipper is on the front of the bag instead of the top. I really love this bag! I don't usually go for animal print (all I can think of when I see animal prints is the Jersey Shore. I'm trying to expand my wardrobe and incorporate more animal prints into my life, but finding animal prints can be hard to not look cheap. 

FULL SIZE NYX 'Rouge Cream Blush' in "Bronze Goddess"

Value: $6.00

Chella 'Highlighter Pencil' in "Ivory Lace" I used this to line my waterline. The stick was so creamy and easy to apply. 

Full Sized Value: $18.00

FULL SIZE Starlooks Lip Pencil in "Bare"Starlooks has their own monthly beauty box that ships out with various Starlooks products. I tried this lip pencil and I really liked it. I applied it in the morning before work and I saw still seeing evidence of the lip pencil on my lips at the end of the work day. 

Value: $12.00

FULL SIZE Cailyn 'Linefix' Gel Eyeliner in "Iron" with Built in Brush I have heard some really good reviews of this eyeliner. It claims to be waterproof and last all day.  I used this eyeliner and believe the hype. I have a hard time finding eyeliner that stays on my lids all day without smudging.  This product and MAC's Fluid line gel liner seem to work the best for me. The smudging is minimal throughout the day and most of the product seems to stay put. The built in brush is crap though.  I tried to use it to line my eyes and ended up quitting halfway through my first eye.  The brush is basically just a short lip brush. 

Value: $21.00

Close up of "Iron". It's a deep grey color. This is a color that I currently do not have in my cosmetics stash, so I was happy to get this color. 

Swatches of the colors I received. 

TOP: NYX "Bronze Goddess"

TOP MIDDLE: Starlooks "Bare"

BOTTOM MIDDLE: Chella "Ivory Lace"

BOTTOM: Cailyn "Iron"

JCat 'Sparking Cream Palette' in "Volta"This was interesting. I currently do not own anything like this and I really don't think that I would ever use this outside of Halloween. I might eventually find a use for this, but it's nice to be able to try this type of product out. 

Value: $4.49

Swatches (Top to Bottom):

Gold

Emerald Green

Yellow/Green

Multicolored and Black

Silver

One thing I noticed about this bag, was that most of the products all had Cruelty Free Symbols on them.  The only product that did not have a Cruelty Free symbol or say that it was Cruelty Free on the website was the Chella highlighter. I think that it was really cool of IPSY to not only have an animal theme this month, but also have animal safe products within the theme. Great job IPSY!

I love this bag! I think it might be my favorite IPSY bag that I have received so far.