Ipsy Glam Bag Review – November 2014

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I am on and off with a few subscription boxes, such as POPSUGAR’S Must Have Box (which is my all-time favorite thing to receive in the mail every month, I just can’t afford to buy it every month so I treat myself when I have the extra money) and the Julep Maven box (I have ALL the nailpolish thanks to them. I love love love the formula and the colors are always stunning! This box is 100% worth it if you ask me. And I love that you get to pick your polish colors so you’re not paying for a surprise that you might hate!), which I don’t get every month simply because I have so much nailpolish now, haha.

One that I am always ON with, though, is the Ipsy Glam Bag. At only $10 a month (plus $4.95 shipping if you’re in Canada, which is totally still doable), I really can’t say no. It’s something I look forward to every month and always am happy with. Even if there’s a couple of things that I am not the hugest fan of in my Ipsy Glam bag (which is pretty rare), I still have like three other things that I probably love. When you sign up, you take a quiz and tell them pretty specifically all of the beauty things you love and hate, so their selection for you is pretty on point. I change up my love/hates every now and then so I don’t keep getting a bunch of the same type of product and it seems to work quite well for me! They send out a lot of different brands, some that I’ve heard of, some that I’ve never heard of and some that I already am a huge fan of. I’m always into trying new brands and products, and also am always into getting products that I already love, so it’s nearly always a win-win for me. Anyways, enough babble. Let’s see what I got in my Ipsy Glam Bag for November!

The first item that caught my attention was the Elizabeth Mott You’re So Fine waterproof liquid liner in Glitterati. It’s a full size, which retails for $19.99 on Amazon. I found the formula very wet and a little bit hard to get a nicely pigmented application, as it would move the liner if I went back over a section when it wasn’t fully dry. I found it best to do a first application, and once it dried I went back over to make sure it was a nice, dark line. It stayed on quite well and I really, really love the little flecks of silver glitter throughout. It’s not too much glitter at all, and would be perfect for a holiday look! I really like this liner.

Next, we have the LA Colors Chunky Lip Pencil in Wine. This is another full-sized product, which retails for $2.80 at Hot Topic. I looooove lip crayons. I own a bunch of them in a variety of different brands, and really like this one in particular. The color is gorgeous, a super pretty medium berry. I think this color would look good on pretty much any skin tone. It goes on SUPER moisturizing feeling, basically like a balm, and the color is quite pigmented. I’m not sure about the staying power as I haven’t worn this for a long period of time yet, but with it being so easy to apply, I wouldn’t be too bothered if I had to re-apply every so often.  I’ll definitely be buying this pencil in more colors!

Another favorite in this Ipsy Glam Bag… a Nicole by OPI polish! It is an Ipsy exclusive color called Guys & Galaxies. Another full-sized product, which retails for $6.99 at Ulta. The glitter to clear polish ratio is really good- I have a few other glitter polishes that are difficult to use because there is just so much clear polish in them that the glitter often comes out really sparse. This one is perfect and will be SO cute used on the tips of my nails with a shimmery red or green (or any color, really) for a holiday mani. It also dried really quickly, which is a huge A+ in my books.

Next up is a Demeter Roll On Perfume Oil in the scent Pixie Dust. This is a .29 fl oz bottle that retails for $10 on the Demeter site. I’m not usually a fan of getting perfumes in subscription boxes because I’m really picky about scents. I generally don’t like anything super sweet, or floral, or musky. This is described on their site as fruity, sugary and light as the air itself. I’d say that’s pretty accurate. This sounds like a perfume I’d really hate, but I surprised myself when I gave it a test run… and LIKED it. It’s quite sweet, which is usually a huge no-go for me, but I can’t help but like this. It’s not super strong and intoxicating, so I don’t feel like a walking candy store. I had to smell it a whole bunch of times to finally pinpoint what I associate the smell with: the candy powder in Baby Bottle Pops and Fun Dips (hello 90s and early 2000s!). While that seems like it’d be a gross thing to smell like, it really is pretty delicious. Again, it’s a very light, though sugary, scent and definitely not intoxicatingly sweet. I quite like it! In the reviews on Ipsy, some people said the scent isn’t very long lasting. I’ve had just a little bit on my wrists for like five hours now and I can still smell it… so maybe it varies from person to person. Another win for this Ipsy Glam Bag!

Last, we have this Temptu S/B Highlighter in Pink Pearl. I have no idea what the S/B stands for, haha. This was the only non full-sized product (if you count the roll on as being full-sized, which it essentially is), but is also a product where a little goes a long way, so I won’t be running through this anytime soon. A full-sized bottle (1 fl oz) retails for $27.50 on Amazon. This was the only product I received this month that I wasn’t completely sold on. While the Temptu site claims it to be a cult favorite of makeup artists around the globe, I found it to be very, very sheer. To be fair, I haven’t actually tried this in a full makeup routine yet, I just swatched it on the back of my hand. I think it’s a perfect product for introducing highlighter into your makeup routine as it’s not super intense and you can layer the product to get a stronger sheen. I also think the trick to this may be to use a very light hand when applying, so it doesn’t rub off or rub in too much as it’s a quite liquidy formula. I’m sitting here adding on layers of highlighter to my hand as I type this and deciding I like it a bit more than when I started writing about it two minutes ago, hahaha. I’m going to give this one a 3/5 on the scale of how stoked I am that it’s in my Ipsy Glam Bag.

And that’s that! Four full-sized products that I like a lot and/or love, and one decently sized sample that I think I will learn to love. This may be my favorite Ipsy Glam Bag to date! It could have something to do with my glitter obsession, haha. If you want to sign up for Ipsy yourself, I highly recommend it. At $10 a month, you can’t go wrong.

What is your favorite subscription box?