I finally signed up for a monthly subscription! Everything else seemed like it was either too expensive (i.e. glossybox) or it wasn't worth the monthly price for the items. The past two ipsy bags I've seen on the blogosphere had me very interested in signing up, and for only $10 with shipping included, why not?! Plus I figured it would get my monthly dose of "makeup exposure" and would keep me sane from buying more makeup, haha.
November's ipsy bag comes in a small brown makeup pouch and includes 5 items, 2 which are full-size and 3 sample sizes.
The contents inside. It also included a $20 off discount for justfab but I don't know where that went since I was too excited when I got it that I opened everything and used it, lol.
This item is full size! You can wear it over a base color for some added sparkle, or put multiple coats and make it opaque enough to wear by itself! I may have enjoyed a different color, but I already have many plain nail polish shades so this glittery concoction is a nice addition to my collection.
Above is displayed, from left to right, 3 coats, 2 coats, 1 coat, and bare nail.
It's definitely a buildable color, don't you agree? The glitter definitely clings on better when there is a textured surface. Hence why the second coat is much more opaque than the first!
November's bag also included an eyeshadow from the Meet Matt(e) palette by theBalm! I've always wanted to try out theBalm's product to see if they were any good and turns out the eyeshadow is very pigmented, smooth, and just overall good quality.
I spy the "nudetude" palette on hautelook right now, I may have to purchase that since that's what I've been on the fence about.
I received Matt Batali, which I believe is what everyone else got from all the bags I've personally seen. The shade is a rich, dark, chocolatey color. It's not exactly black but I wouldn't classify it as just a brown. It has this really nice smokiness to it and I used it to deepen my eyeshadow a few times already. It's very pigmented, so beware!
This lipgloss looks so dark in the tube, but when you apply it alone it really isn't that dark. It gives a nice berry tint to your lips but if you want the full effect I'd recommend layering it over a vampy lipstick. It's also minty, which I like! It makes me feel like I'm wearing lipbalm or something and I'd say it's a sticky lipgloss which means it'll keep my lips hydrated as I wear it and will be more prone to actually lasting.
A closer look at the shade. It's not quite this dark in my opinion but the bathroom lighting was not cooperating with me.
The applicator is an angled doe-foot wand which works nicely. My preference would be a brush applicator but this is more common.
Above is one normal layer of the lipgloss. I should've taken a naked lip picture for comparison but the gloss tints my lips just a little bit.
This is with an additional "globbing" on the gloss. It doesn't look much different from the other swatch, but I got confused while uploading the photos for this blog post so I'm sure none of y'all will notice a difference either.
Another full-size product. It's a black pencil liner but I would've say it's a deep black but rather an mediocre black. I used this to line my eyes, top and bottom lash line, and I fell asleep and it didn't smear or migrate. It did have some wear on it when I woke up but in my opinion it held up pretty well!
It's dull because I've used it a few times by the time I took this photo, sorry! I didn't want to sharpen it because one of the first things I noticed about this was it looked as if my grandmother had sharpened it with a knife instead of a sharpener.
I've never heard of this brand before but after trying it out I'm not quite sold on the product either. The packaging it comes in feels very cheap and so does the wand compared to my previous experience with the Anastasia Brow Gel. I do understand this is a sample size so the full-sized version might be better in the quality of the packaging but I can't say I'm remotely interested in purchasing that. I've used it on my brows and it gives a soft natural hold while still defining your brows. I can't say how it holds up during the day though since I didn't really recheck at the end of the night.
Here's the wand. It's just simple and basic. From what I remember the wand on the Anastasia one is more of an oval shape and it was actually soft. Maybe my standards are too high?
Above I used the Chella brow gel over my eyebrows with nothing else applied on there. I also lined my upper lash line with the Starlette liner and then I used Matt Batali on the lower lash line and I ran a little in the crease to show that it can be used lightly for a light wash.
I personally wouldn't use the eyeshadow on my brows just because it would be too harsh for my liking and I don't think it'd compliment my skin tone very well. Sorry for the red eyes, they were irritated and it was about 2am when I took these photos!
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If you're interested in signing up for ipsy, check out their website. It's $10 a month and so far I'm a happy customer! I actually received mine about a week and a half ago, I've just been lazy to take photos and post but I read on the comments on the site that some people haven't received theirs yet so that might be a factor in not purchasing.
Hope this helps anyone!
