Ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription that gives subscribers 4-5 sample and full size beauty products for $10 a month. All of the beauty samples also come in a handy little makeup bag that changes from month-to-month. This month's bag was a beautiful halloween-themed bag with lacey red fabric and a little bat charm as the zipper!
Essence Cosmetics: Satin Touch Blush in Satin Love | Retail $2.99
Essence is a brand I've never tried before so I was excited to test this out! It's a pretty pink shade with a satin-y finish. I think the shade just looked a little too bubble gum pink for my more tanned skin tone but it would look beautiful for fairer skin tones. There were two shade options and the other one was a little more on the peach-y coral shade.
TonyMoly Peach Hand Cream | Retail $12
I honestly don't have too much to say about this sample! It feels like a pretty standard hand cream but the description does say it contains adenosine which is meant to help minimize wrinkles. I won’t be re-purchasing since it didn’t really stand out for me but the sample size is great to throw in a small bag when I’m on the go! The full-size version does comes in an adorable peach container though, which makes it very tempting 😃
JM Solution: Water Luminous Jelly Cleanser | Retail $25
Although I’m not opposed to receiving cleansers in subscription boxes, I’m generally not super excited about them either - it’s hard to get excited about a cleanser! This cleanser, however, proved me wrong! It has a cool jelly texture and bubbles up when you rub it between your hands or onto your face. It’s also packed full of hyaluronic acid which is one of my absolute favorite skincare ingredients. I love it!
IT Cosmetics Bye Bye Pores Pressed Anti-Aging Finishing Powder | Retail $29
I've heard tons of great things about the IT Cosmetics line and already love their CC cream so I was super excited to receive this product! After testing it out for a couple of days, however, I really haven't noticed it performing better than my other, less expensive, powders. Although this didn't turn out to be my favorite product, I love receiving products that I've heard about but never tried. It gives you an awesome opportunity to truly test out a product without having to spend your money blindly buying the full-price item.
Furless: Black Beauty Blending Crease Brush | Retail $11.99
I always appreciate receiving a good brush from my subscriptions because honestly - it saves me tons of time! I'm not too picky about my brushes and I'm super lazy about washing them so having a lot of different brushes to cycle through ensures that I'm using clean brushes on my face! This one from Furless is a super soft crease brush that is hypoallergenic, vegan, and cruelty-free.
This month's ipsy bag was just middle of the line for me. None of the products in the box really blew me away but they are all products that I use in my regular routine and I always enjoy swapping out different brands to see if there might be a better one out there for me! Although I didn't end up loving any of these products, I am thoroughly appreciating the fact that ipsy seems to actually listen to my feedback and has been sending me products that reflect what I've noted about previous months.
Ipsy also recently launched a feature where you can choose to skip certain bags without cancelling your subscription entirely so that you do not have to receive a bag every single month if you find that to be too much. I think this is an awesome feature because it gives me more flexibility to stop the subscription if I ever feel like I have too many products or if I'm away for a month or even on a budget for a couple of months (looking at you Christmas gift shopping!). What did you think of your Ipsy bag this month? Are there any other subscription boxes you'd like me to review? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Ipsy also recently launched a feature where you can choose to skip certain bags without cancelling your subscription entirely so that you do not have to receive a bag every single month if you find that to be too much. I think this is an awesome feature because it gives me more flexibility to stop the subscription if I ever feel like I have too many products or if I'm away for a month or even on a budget for a couple of months (looking at you Christmas gift shopping!). What did you think of your Ipsy bag this month? Are there any other subscription boxes you'd like me to review? I'd love to hear your thoughts!
IT Cosmetics CC Cream Review: Worth the Hype?
The IT Cosmetics CC Cream has been a part of my make-up routine for almost a year now so I thought I’d finally take the time to share my experience (although you can probably tell by the fact that I’ve been using this product for almost a year where this review might be headed)!
Product & Packaging:
The packaging of this product is very practical. It’s a pump/squeeze tube combination so although it’s not anything glorious and fancy, it’s a great fit for the product itself! The pump is great for pumping out just the right amount of product and the squeeze tube gets all of the product out efficiently. With a lot of other foundations I always end up dumping or squeezing out too much when the packaging isn’t in pump format, so klutzy me appreciates this packaging a lot.
The only minor complaint I could even think of is that this product doesn’t come in a very wide range of shades. At the time that I’m writing this there are 7 shades - but when I originally purchased the product, there were even less! It's good to see that they’re working to increase the number of shades they offer!
The product itself is amazing. In my experience, I’ve found that a lot of great coverage foundations don’t include any sun protection, and products that are great for sun protection are really crap when it comes to coverage. Not the case with this CC Cream! It has fantastic coverage and has SPF 50 - the best of both worlds!
Application & Experience:
Because this product has such great coverage, you really don’t need much of it to cover most of your face! On average, I only use about a pea-sized amount and it’s enough to even out any discoloration or spots on my face. Due to the high coverage of this product, it’s become my favorite product to travel with! Instead of bringing a foundation and a concealer, I only need one tube of CC cream and I’m good to go!
For application, I always use a sponge and find that it blends out very nicely with a damp beauty blender. The product doesn’t feel too heavy on the face because you’re really not using much of it, it’s so effective!
Cost:
Here’s the kicker - This CC Cream is going to set you back $38. Normally, I’d have a pretty adverse reaction to a price tag this high, but with how incredible this product is and how long it’ll last you? It’s totally worth it. Nowadays, even some drugstore foundations are around $10-$15 so this product’s really only 2 to 3 times the price of a drugstore foundation and trust me - it’ll last you a lot longer because you only need a little bit for each use!
Final Verdict:
So, is it worth the hype? YES! This CC Cream from IT Cosmetics has not disappointed! In my opinion, it’s completely worth the hype and is a product I see myself using for many years to come! What do you think of the IT Cosmetics CC Cream? Are there any other hyped products you think I should try? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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Anastasia Brow Wiz: Worth the Hype?
If you follow the beauty social media world, by now I’m sure you've heard all the hype about Anastasia Beverly Hills' Brow Wiz! It’s been on my list of makeup products to try for quite a while now but I didn’t decide to take the plunge until Ulta knocked down its price tag during its 21 Days of Beauty sale. I’ve been using it for a couple of months now so I thought I’d share my experience with you all 😃
Product & Packaging: Brow Wiz is a pencil format brow product with a thin twist-up pencil on one end and a brow brush on the other. At first I actually wasn’t too impressed with the product but the more I used it the more I fell in love with it! I found myself reaching for it again and again over any of my other brow products - which is always a good sign!
I love the design of the product because I’m always searching for my brushes and when the brush is right on the other end of the pencil, it saves me tons of time! Plus, the tip of the pencil is a lot thinner than most of the other brow pencils I use, which means you can get a much thinner, more natural, and “hair-like” effect.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz (top) compared to Elf Cosmetics Brow Pencil (bottom)
Application & Experience: Prior to getting Brow Wiz, I was using one of Elf’s brow pencils and since the formula was much creamier on the Elf brow pencil, I initially found that Brow Wiz did not go on as smoothly as I wanted it to. Over time, however, I’ve realized that although Brow Wiz may not apply as quickly as other bigger, creamier brow pencils, this also means that the application is much more precise and the product stays on your brows much longer!
Cost: I purchased this during Ulta's 21 Days of Beauty sale (a dangerous sale if you’re a makeup addict!) which meant it was half off the original price of $21 - so I only paid $10.50 for it! I think the normal price is definitely a little on the steep side for such a small brow pencil so I don’t know if this is a product I’ll be buying regularly, but whenever it’s on sale, you’ll probably see me snagging a couple :)
Final Verdict:
So is it worth the hype? Yes…..but it’s still a little on the expensive side! :( I love pretty much everything about the product, but its price tag is just a little too steep for me. I’ll snag it on those Ulta sale days, but will still be on the hunt for a more affordable brow pencil! Have you tried the Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz? Do you know of a good drugstore dupe for it? :P I'd love to hear your thoughts!
