April IPSY Glam bag: Beauty Rocks

For once I have a legitimate excuse for posting my glam bag late. My grandma passed away April 17th and life has been pretty hectic since then, as you can imagine. So my blog has taken a back seat for the most part but I'm trying to make a comeback!

So let's start with the IPSY bag from April.

Starting with the bag...this is definitely one of my favorites. I am a huge music lover so "beauty rocks" theme with a record player is perfect. I really like it! Not as much as solid print bags in a print I love, but still.

Here's my bag's contents and I have to admit, I'm not stoked OVERALL. Of course I'll explain that all.

Let's start with the best of the bag which is of course this Urban Decay 24/7 Velvet glide-on eye pencil in black velvet.
Obviously anything Urban Decay is worth the rest of the bag to be honest. This is a pretty straight forward product. A black eyeliner pencil. Which came just in time as I was just recently thinking to myself in disbelief that I didn't have a go-to black eyeliner pencil anymore since I only use liquid or gel eyeliner these days.

A smudged out line to the left and a straight swatch to the right. See the little bald part towards the top? That was where a little bit of the tip broke off because I was pressing down too hard. This is definitely the kind of eyeliner that is soft to achieve the "glide on" effect and for the blendability. The website says it is waterproof but I didn't test that claim but I would be interested to know...

This is just a trial size and when I went to look for the weight/price on Urban Decay's website I got a little confused.
It says the trial size fill weight is .03 oz but it says the full size is .04 oz.
Very peculiar. Since you can't buy the trial size individually and I don't know what to make of the weight issue, I am making an educated guess about how much it is worth based on the other travel size kits.
This travel size is worth about $6
The full size is available at Urban Decay's website for $20 and you can also find it in store at Ulta or Sephora
Would I repurchase? Yeah mosty likely, but I would definitely buy a travel set because it is a much better value and you get to try multiple colors. Win/win!

I got this Cailyn tinted lip balm in Apple Pink.
Let's talk about how much is wrong with that sentence.
First off, when are apples pink?! And to be real I don't even think this is a pink shade. More like a peachy-nude.
But the biggest gripe I , and everyone else, has with this product is that it's somehow marketed as lip balm. As even the most casual beauty lover knows...lip balm is supposed to be moisturizing.
This sucker is pretty much the opposite of that.

It's super matte and as you can see it settles into fine lines and such. It is pretty drying. I have heard that it is long-lasting, which is nice, I guess? But I couldn't stand to have it on my lips long enough to find out.
Maybe this could work for you if you did some major prep work to your lips beforehand and slathered on a ton of actual lip balm before applying.

Another shot to re-affirm how drying this B is.
Unfortunately I can't see myself using this in the future since it makes my lips feel like ass.
Not actual ass cause that's typically a smooth surface.
It actually pisses me off that basically the main thing this "balm" claims to be is "SUPER moisturizing" uh, what? I can't even see that under any stretch of the imagination. Keep trying, biddies.

It also bugs me that the pictures on their website are super photoshopped. not only that but they photoshop a shine on to the "ultra matte" balms. Um, ok? That's smart I guess.
Also it says "coming soon, june 2013!" Really, you didn't have time to update your web page in the past year?!

All in all this product left me grumpy.
The plus sides are that it was a full size product and it has a built in brush which is pretty neat.
This product sells for $19 which literally made me say HA! out loud.
It can be bought on their website here 
I think you already know that I would not repurchase this.

The next product in this confusing bag was this Dr Brandt microdermabrsion skin exfoliant sample.
In case you haven't noticed by the lack of skin care reviews on this blog, I don't really use any skincare products.
I want to get into them but just haven't gotten around to it yet. So this was a nice sample to try although I haven't tried it yet. In fact I don't think I have ever used a skin exfoliant so I'm not sure if I would like it!

The website says it polishes away dead skin cells which is nice but that sounds just like any other exfoliator out there so I'm not sure what sets this one apart.

Here's a drop of it on my skin next to a swipe of the lip balm

This is another product whose price had me laughing.
This little shit retails for $78 on their website ... I know that skin care items are typically more pricey than cosmetics but damn. I don't have that kind of money!
This trial size is actually just an 8th of the full size with just .25 oz making it worth approx $9.75
That is an insane price for something I will probably only use once or twice.
Even though I haven't used it yet I can confidently say I will not repurchase since it is way out of my price range.

This little bugger stunk up my whole bag. I smelled it as soon as I opened the envelope. Once I opened my bag and discovered the culprit I found that the cap was loose. Nothing spilled out but I guess that's why the smell was so strong.
I was a little surprised since I have never gotten a fragrance in my IPSY bags.
This is just a roll on perfume oil in jasmine. it's a nice product but jasmine is not really a scent that I enjoy. It's too easy to be overpowering.
I will be either tossing this in a giveaway or giving it to someone who likes the smell.

This retails for $10 on their website which isn't a bad price I don't think. Their website actually has a LOT of fun scents!
With the 20% off coupon Ipsy subscribers get I might get another scent to try, there were quite a few that caught my eye! And I like that it's so portable and it's a roll on oil so the scent should stay around for a while.

Lastly I got this Elizabeth Mott pop goes the eyseshadow in Champagne.
I wish IPSY would stop giving me such boring colors. I get that they want to be widely appealing but geez.
Anyway, this eyeshadow arrived to me shattered. Womp womp womp.

This eyeshadow promises to change your life and I think that's extremely laughable. No champagne colored eyeshadow is ever going to change my life. C'mon. They are a dime a dozen. And everyone has Naked hahah

Anyway this eyeshadow is the full size product and retails for $12.99 at the Elizabeth Mott website.
I won't be repurchasing this product because to me that is far too expensive for just one eyeshadow.

So I investigated IPSY's website and found a form for what to do if something is broken. It said to write them and they will get back to you and ship a replacement. It also said that if they were out of the product they would replace it with a similar product. Understandable.

I was pleasantly surprised after dealing with IPSY Care (their customer service) their reply was fast and to the point. They had another eyeshadow on the way to me within 24 hours. I was satisfied.
Until I actually got said eyeshadow. Remember I told you they might replace it with a similar product. And hey, that's fine. But what I got was a BH cosmetics sample that I already got in a past Ipsy bag.
I mean.....I am pretty confident they have various eyeshadows laying around. They couldn't have checked to make sure they weren't sending me one THEY already sent me?!
A little disappointed by that, not gonna lie. Another item to add to the giveaway pile.

Overall if it weren't for Urban Decay being in this bag I would be so annoyed with what a bomb it was. It's like they knew they had an awesome eyeliner in there so it didn't matter what else they stuck in there.
Whateva. Still worth the $10 because let's face it ANY $5 will be worth $10 really!

This bag was worth approximately $57.74 although I would never pay that much for it I am glad to get it for $10.

If you want to get a bag full of goodies in the mail for only $10 a month and join in on the surprise, you can sign up using my referral link here.

March IPSY Glam bag

It's April. Meaning I totally failed at getting March's glam bag up actually DURING March. Shuttup. I'll get it next month.

Time slips away from me. Honestly. But I quite liked March's bag so I want to talk about it!

I am going to put this post under a read more cut because there are a lot of pictures! However if you're familiar with my blog you probably already are used to that ;)

February IPSY glam bag

{Chandler Bing voice} Could I BE any more behind?!

Well, enjoy looking at my Ipsy glam bag for February. The theme for Feb was ~The look of love~ which, of course makes sense since february is often seen as the love month since it contains Valentine's day. 

The bag itself is definitely one of my favorites I have ever gotten. The outside is just a simple bright pink with white zipper detail...but the real shine is on the inside!

Leopard print interior! I love it. 

Usually I tend to talk about the products in order either from most favorite to least OR vice versa. But this time I pretty much like all items equally except for the obvious star of the bag, the Zoya polish. 

However first I'll talk about the only item I am less than impressed with. Another Pop beauty product. I have received a few items from this brand in my Ipsy bags and can say I've never really been impressed with either of them.

This is a mini version of the Plump Pout lipgloss...I read online that there was a problem with one of the batches that went out that had an awful taste and smell and even went so far as to burn those with sensitive skin. MEGA yikes!! Luckily mine wasn't effected by this. 

I got the shade Peony Petal which reminds me of a dusty rose type color.

Now, I'm not a fan of lipgloss in general so this wasn't a win for me.

Here's the lipgloss in more bright lighting (with my daylight bulbs shining) it's a nice pink, and I'm not normally a pink person. But I rather like this color. 

Here is the color again in different lighting as you can see it is actually a bit darker than the picture above would lead you to believe. I think it looks rather nice on my lips but like I said I really hate lip gloss. One positive point was that it wasn't 'tingly' which most products that are 'plumping' tend to make your lips feel a bit strange. 

Like I said this is a mini version of the product however there are NO sizes on the POP beauty website so I have no idea how to calculate how much this is worth. In addition, there is no mini size to buy from the website so I am just going to say the full price, even though this is NOT the full price item. 

This product can be bought here for $16

Would I buy it again? No, as you might have guessed since I said 5 times that I don't like lip gloss. I would certainly never pay $16 for it. 

A product that I feel neither here nor there about is this pair of false eyelashes from J.cat. Again I have gotten a J.cat product in a past Ipsy bag and was defintiely NOT impressed. But I am always down for fake eyelashes. They are the type of product that I like having on hand but wouldn't necessarily go out and buy them (except for special occasions). Honestly I still haven't used the first pair I got in my IPSY bag but I am still glad that I got them both!

These are in the style EL 213 and come with lash glue which is always a plus.

They look pretty typical for me, if a little cheap looking. 

This product retails for a typical $3.99 on their website here. 

I can't say if I would repurchase this since I have yet to use them. However I am more inclined to buy lashes that I can get ahold of easily at the drug store, vs ones that I have to buy online. 

The next product is from a brand I have never tried, City Color. I was very intrigued by a matte blush, though!

I am not a blush person. I have literally bought one in the past 3 years. I don't know how to shop for blush and the one I've been using looks okay so I just haven't looked for alternatives! I do however want to try NARS Orgasm but that's a story for another day

I got the shade Fresh Melon which is a pinky coral. After looking at some of the other shades other IPSY bags got, I'm very pleased with this shade.

On the left is a straight swipe or two and on the right is a more blended out look. Interestingly enough it seems to look more orange/coral once you blend it out. Do you see that too, or is it just me? Either way this is a pretty straightforward blush.

This retails for only $2.99 on their website here. 

Whether or not I would repurchase really depends on how well it wears and if it looks good on my face. I have yet to swatch it on my cheeks but I like the quality and color other than that and the price is RIGHT. So, there's a strong possibility I would repurchase.

I also got a Mally waterproof eyeliner. 

The shade is Starshine (the IPSY website says Starlight which is interesting since that is wrong.) which as you can see is silver. I like this silver eyeliner much better than the last one as it's way easier to apply and supposed to be waterproof (although I must admit I didn't test it!) But I am a little perplexed as to why they would include silver eyeliner twice in such a small period of time. I mean, I will definitely use this one, a LOT more than the other one, but it seems a little much.

This product is a full size and sells for $15 over at Mally beauty's website. 

I would think about repurchasing this product if it weren't for the price. There are lots of great eyeliners for less than that and ones that are even better at the same price point. So I would buy one of those instead. However, I am going to use this up for sure! 

Last but certainly not least is my Zoya nail polish.

I got the shade Odette which is part of the Natural Collection. I don't see how purple is Natural but who am I to say? I am just happy to have received my second Zoya polish without actually purchasing them ;)

Here is Odette after just one coat. As you can see it's not very opaque and definitely needs more coats. 

Here is Odette built up to full opacity. The only complaint I would have about this polish is that it's not that great at self leveling. But a great top coat would fix that. 

This full size product is $9 on the Zoya website

I of course would not repurchase this shade (I have never needed to buy two of a nail polish shade and don't know anyone who has) but I would purchase Zoya again for sure since they are well known for being one of the best brands. I would personally wait for a sale though or buy them used if I could because the price is a little steep for my taste. 

My february glam bag was valued at $46.98 which is pretty impressive considering two of the items were under $5. Of course I only spent $10 so once again I am walking away with a steal!

I mean think of it this way, this is like if I bought the Zoya polish, paid $1 shipping, and then got ALL the other stuff as a free bonus. When you look at it that way it really highlights what a great deal IPSY is!

If you're interested in signing up for IPSY yourself you can do so using my referral link here if you want to help give me some points. 

So that was my february glam bag, check back soon for the March glam bag. I am determined to have it up before April ;)

January IPSY Glam bag

Alright well we all know with my vacation I had a pretty busy January...what's my excuse for February, you ask? ....Let's move on and pretend I had one.

I almost let this go and skipped January's IPSY review but in the end I couldn't bring myself to.
I also want to start noting at the end of every product whether or not I would buy it again. I think this is more of a way to keep track of myself.

January's actual bag was a bit of a disappointment. Not cute at all. But of course still functional so not a waste. This might be good for sample/travel sizes of bathroom items..I'm not sure why but it just reminds me of that.

Here are the items that were included in my January glam bag...to me it seemed very left- field and seemed almost out of place to me.

Of course I'm sure the first things your eyes fell on is the best item in the bunch-

Yes I was one of the lucky few that got a sample of Benefit's Porefessional. I have never tried this, nor much from the brand in general so I was very happy to have gotten it.
I was mostly excited for this because I have heard so many good things about it, it's one of those cult favorites. However, pore minimizers are not really on my list of necessary products. I will use this sample I'm sure but it will take me a long time and I don't know if I will really need it.

When you dispense it it seems to have a nude color but once you rub it in, it disappears.

I haven't used this on my face yet but on my hand it did not seem to blur any pores.

This sample size is only .1 fl oz. The full size can be found here and is .75 fl oz and retails for $30. The sample size is worth approximately $4. Give or take. Math isn't my strong point, people.

Would I buy this again? I haven't tried it on my face yet but I'm not sure. Because of the cult following it has, I expect to love it. But it's not necessarily a product I need. So I'm really not sure if I will ever repurchase or not.

Another brand I have never heard of. This product actually comes in handy since its "winter"- FL winters hardly count but the weather IS bipolar enough to give me chapped lips.

This is mojito lip balm that claims to protect and soothe. This is a full size product which is nice.

As far as lip balm goes, I'm not an avid user even though I probably should be. This felt really nice on the lips so I'm going to make an effort to wear it.

This is full size and retails here for $12.
Would I buy it again? So far it seems like a great lip balm but the price is a bit too high for me to justify. The mary kay one that I love is only $10.

The next product was the one I was most surprised to receive-

a foundation sample. From a brand I have never heard of. It's kind of funny because I was talking with my friend and she said she had received so many foundations. I was surprised to hear that and told her I had never received one! And then what do you know, the very next month I got one.

I have to say that I'm very shocked this is a full size product. I thought for sure it was a sample size.

Above is the product straight out of the tube and then after blending in. You can see it is a little light for my hand but otherwise is a fairly good match.

Above it's on the left side of the picture. You can see it covers some of the redness that is present on my cheek but all in all it's not full coverage enough to be something that I can see myself using regularly.
It does cover fairly well- as you can see if you scroll up to the lip gloss swatch picture.

I understand that they included a more sheer coverage because that was the most likely to appeal to the larger audience but it doesn't so much appeal to me. There's nothing wrong with this per se, although I have yet to wear it all over my face or for an extended period of time.

This is a full size product and can be bought here for $13.55
For the price I would not re-purchase it. That's a little more than I pay for my drug store foundation and even though it's less than the Mary Kay foundation, it's also much much smaller.

Another brand I've never heard of! Which is not to sound like complaining, that's half the reason I have this membership!
But this product, Balm me up by Balanced Guru...is, a body balm, I guess?
Personally that's a product that I don't use.

As you can see the inside is a weird texture...I'm a texture kinda person. It weirds me out. It's completely organic though which is nice.
I guess this is used for extreme dryness. The website claims it won't leave you feeling greasy but I have to disagree. I put some on my arm and definitely thought it was an oily feeling, but I could have put too much.
All in all I would probably only use this on my elbows or maybe my feet in my extreme dry spots because I am always lacking in that moisturizing department.

This is the 1oz travel size that can be bought here for $12
Would I buy this again? No I don't think I would. It's nice that it's organic and it has a nice citrus-y smell, but it's not something I need in my routine and certainly not for $12 or even worse the $45 full size price!

Last but not least I received this pack of makeup remover tissues. I feel like this is a product that any makeup lover is always in need of.
I haven't opened it yet because it's the kind of package that gets dried out easily once you open it, so I am waiting. I haven't read the best reviews yet though!

This is a 10 ct which retails at this website for $2.49
To me that is too expensive for only 10 wipes so I would not buy it on my own.

So that wraps up my january bag! I have received my february bag but I haven't even opened it yet! I know, crazy.
So I will open and review that as soon as possible for you.

So overall the bag was valued at $44.05 , which is great next to the $10 I spend every month on the subscription.

If you're interested in starting your own IPSY subscription you can sign up through my referral link here.

If you're already a subscriber what did you think of your January bag? Were you impressed?

December IPSY glam bag: celebration

As you can imagine things got pretty busy this month. But hey! The month's not over! So my review is still on time.

I know you guys have missed me (hold the applause) but I am ready to dive head first into 2014. I have so many posts lined up, so many goodies to share, and so many plans for this blog! So I hope you're all down for the ride!

This month's bag was a new design. I love that IPSY is branching out with not only the print design on the bags but the bag design themselves. This month's design had the zipper on the front, instead of across the top. It was a 'patent leather' material with a quilted design. Personally the material gave off a very strange scent at first. It was so strong at first that I couldn't stand it! I put away my bag for days before really looking through it.

The smell eventually settled down, though. 

This month's bag is eh. I am not thrilled but I am not disappointed, either. I feel like I say that frequently about IPSY bags. But that's fine by me. As long as they aren't disappointing then I don't mind dropping $10 a month on it. 

The first item I found was this set of false lashes. It comes with adhesive which is awesome because if it didn't I'd be shit out of luck. 

I am not the type of person who wears falsies that often- mostly because I am really bad at putting them on! I know that's something that comes with practice though so I am glad that I got this.

This is exactly the type of product I like receiving from IPSY. Something that I wouldn't normally want to buy for myself, but enjoy having.

Included was #33, a safe choice. They are just run of the mill lashes. Full and simple.

I've never heard of this brand and the IPSY website links to Ulta to buy it from, so I'm guessing that's the only place to buy it? It can be found here for $3.99

It's no secret that I love nail polish and may have a slight addiction. This is an interesting mini bottle from Indie polish brand Starrily. My first indie polish actually!

Bzzz Bzzz is a glitter bomb with various size glitter in yellow and black. Makes sense with the name, huh? 

However, realistically this is such a random color. Like, unless you like the Steelers, when the heck is this an appropriate color combination?

I can tell you right now I probably won't use this much. But since nail polish pretty much never goes bad, I don't mind tossing this in my collection.

Starrily polish can be found here, however, the store is closed for the holiday. You can't even look at the polishes, which is a bummer. SO I have no idea how much this retails for. I will be updating this as soon as the store is back up and running!

One product that I couldn't be bothered to look twice at is this eyeshadow trio from Pop beauty. 

It's a staple for most collections, a smoky eye trio. shimmery white, grey, and black. However once I saw it I didn't even have interest in opening it. Does that sound bad?

It's just, the truth is, those colors are boring to me. I have a million white eyeshadows and even more black shadows. 

To be completely honest, I didn't even open it to swatch it. I offered it to a friend right when I opened it and really, I had trouble trying to open it anyway so I didn't even bother! I think she will enjoy it so hey that's fine by me! 

So this is another confusing product to find the price for. There doesn't seem to be any trios at all on the Popbeauty website. So if a 10-pack runs for $24, a trio would cost approximately $7.21

After I was less than impressed with the Be a Bombshell chubby pencil, I wasn't too excited to find the Be a Bombshell The One Stick in my bag. It's an extremely chubby cream stick that is supposed to function as lipstick, blush, and eyeshadow.  

I got the shade Flustered, which is described as a "warm, bright pink". 

Swatch is on the left with a blended version on the right. In my opinion this is too bright and pigmented of a color to really work as a blush for me. I like subtle blush, personally. I suppose it would work as a lip color, however since it's so large and shapeless, it's a bit harder to apply than regular lipstick. As an eyeshadow it's more subtle, just a slight tinge of cream color. 

So I'm not stoked on this product, but it's not horrible. It did not sell me on the Be a Bombshell brand, though. Especially since this product retails for $16. I would never pay that much unless it really functioned extremely well as all 3 products it claims to be. 

The last product I accidentally didn't take a picture of the product itself. It's a Nyx round lipstick. I love Nyx but I have never tried their round lipsticks- only their matte lip products. 

I probably would have been happy with any shade. But I was pleased with the one I received- sunflower. 

Sunflower is described as a shimmery red-orange, but I see it as a coral. In the swatch above, it's the one on the far left. I really like this color because it's not one that I would buy for myself in the store because I'm not usually drawn to coral colors. However I will gladly wear it now that it's in my collection. For that reason alone I can be happy with this month's bag.

Unfortunately I'm disappointed that the two lip products I received were so similar in shade. I would have much preferred receiving a deep or even nude Nyx color, to contrast with the pinky red 'all in one' stick.

Nyx creamy round lipstick can be found here for $4. 

One last thing that I got- a beauty blender!! I traded my IPSY points in for my very first Beauty Blender. I haven't used it yet but I can't wait, since all I have heard are raving reviews!

So that wraps up my December Ipsy bag. All together it was worth approx. $31.20 (that's without the Starrily polish!) So once again, a great deal for only paying $10. 

If you'd like to get in on this great monthly sub service, you can click my referral link here and sign up! 

For those of you that have IPSY, did we get similar bags? Were you happy with your December glam bag?

Follow your bliss,

Ember Darling

P.s. I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas, if that's what you celebrate. Or just winter holidays in general :) Have any big plans for New Years Eve? I'll be sharing lots of Christmas goodies (makeup, nails, & a haul!) this week! So be on the look out for that!