Ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription that gives subscribers 4-5 sample and full size products for $10 a month. All of the beauty samples also come in a handy little makeup bag. I love that all of Ipsy's products come in these adorable bags because they are insanely useful for holding just about anything!
Smashbox: X-Rated Mascara
I'm pretty sure this is actually the second Smashbox mascara I’ve received from ipsy in my time subscribing to them - which is very frustrating because 1) I don't use mascara much and 2) It's essentially a repeated sample of a product I’ve already indicated I’m not interested in. Frustrating!
Hikari Cosmetics: Shimmer Bronzer
I have really been loving this Hikari bronzer! Initially when I started using it, I was a little bit thrown off by where exactly to put the product! This product has four different colors in it and each one seems to have a different amount of sparkle to it and is either a more bronze or more blush type color. For me, I found that swirling my brush through all of the colors made it more of a blush shade than a bronzer. What I've been doing instead is using each little quadrant individually as either a blush or bronzer and I like the product much more this way. I previously received a Hikari blush from ipsy and have really liked the product, used it frequently, and still haven't even hit pan on that blush - so I'm definitely excited to continue trying out this brand!
Mellow Cosmetics: Creamy Matte Lipstick in Nude
I always love receiving lip products in my subscription boxes! I find it to be the best way to try out new shades and find what colors work best for my skin tone! I've been really into nude lipsticks over the past couple of months and was really excited to try this new lipstick. So far, it has applied really smoothly and has a great pink-ish nude tone. My only gripe is that it slides off the lips too easily and as a result, doesn’t have very good staying power - especially for a matte lipstick. I'm not even sure I would consider it a truly matte lipstick as it’s more of a cream finish than anything else.
Hanalei: Lip Treatment
This lip treatment comes across to me as just a very moist, glossy balm and I really couldn't differentiate it from any other balms I already own. The sample itself was on the small side and it seemed like there was a huge air bubble in it so I hardly got any product in the sample! I really would have loved to try more of the product to see if the lips treatment made any difference on my lips, but I didn’t feel like I received enough product to thoroughly test it out!
Avenue: Micellar Lotion Cleanser and Makeup Remover
I was definitely most excited to try out this cleanser because this is the first time I've ever tried any type of micellar product (seriously, what even is micellar?!). I typically use make up removing wipes to remove my daily make up but sometimes these wipes can be a little bit harsh and still do not efficiently take off some of my make up! I used this product to take off some of my more stubborn eye make up and was highly impressed! I’ll definitely be taking a look at more micellar based products in the future.
This one was just a middle of the line ipsy bag for me. There were a couple of products that I'm really excited about integrating into my make-up routine – but overall I think the bag’s customization could've been better. Both the good and bad of ipsy is that if you can go online and see all of the products that were available for each month and see what other people received that you didn't receive. Every time I look at these products, I wish I could have self-selected the products that I wanted to receive it my ipsy bag instead of having them choose what they think I want! Oh well, hopefully, I’ll have better luck with the products in my bag next month. What did you think of your ipsy bag? Are there any other beauty subscriptions you think I should try? I’d love to hear your thoughts!