November IPSY glam bag: Glam it up

One thing that has become clear is that when it comes to blogging & holidays I really suck at doing both at once.

I'm going to try! A lot harder! 

But for the time being I hope you accept this late review of my November IPSY bag. 

This month's bag was a gold plastic snake-skin print wristlet with hot pink trim. This is probably one of my favorite bags. Although I'm not a huge fan of snakeskin print, the gold makes up for it. The wristlet strap is the best idea! It makes this bag ideal for bringing out with you for a night on the town. It's the perfect size for that too. I think this is a bag that I will be using not just for organization like I have with all the others. 

Another perk was that this month came with 6 products instead of the usual 5! Michelle Phan (creator of IPSY) threw in different products of her Em makeup line for everyone to try.

Starlooks pencil in Topaz

Let's jump right in! First product is the Starlooks gem eye pencil. At first I was like, really? Another Starlooks product? IPSY needs more brands to whore out. I was not impressed with the other starlooks products I got, in fact I don't think I have ever used them again. 

However when I saw that some people were getting a silver color called topaz, I crossed my fingers that that would be the pencil I received.

See, I can put aside shoddy formula for a silver eyeliner! It's SO perfect for this time of year, and for some reason I don't have one even though I have thought about owning one for a while now.

As you can see it's a silver metallic eyeliner. My one complaint is that it is REALLY soft. So it's incredibly easy to break or mess up. I have been careful with it so far but, a word of warning to anyone that has this pencil- it's fragile!

This was a full size product. The pencil can be found here for $14.

The next thing I got was this cute individually packaged sample of BH cosmetics Aphrodite from their Galaxy Chic baked eyeshadow palette. I love how this is specifically made for IPSY, as you can see by the coupon code being printed on the top of the lid. 

I can't stress enough how much I love this color. It's perfect! I am so pleased that I got this color. 

It's a beautiful metallic pinky red. 

BH cosmetics didn't totally impress me with the last samples I received with IPSY but this sample totally restored my faith in them. They are a great bargain brand with those huge palettes with every color you could want. I can't wait to buy more from them. Honestly I'm kicking myself because I didn't buy anything during the black friday/cyber monday sale. The good thing is that their stuff is almost always on sale. Making it even more great priced! 

This palette normally is sold here for $22.95 However right now it's on sale for $12.95. I don't know how long that sale is lasting but that's just an example to show that all their makeup goes on sale a lot. (It was just $9.95 during black friday) 

Now I'm not sure if the sample I got is actually the same size as one of the eyeshadows but I'm going to assess the value based on the assumption that it is.

Based on the full retail price of the palette, this one sample is worth about $1.28

Yes, another Nailtini nail polish. Like I said, IPSY may need to get more brands...however, I'm not complaining. In my opinion most nail polish is welcome by me! And this is a lovely rose gold color that I don't have anything like. 

Again, a perfect shade for the holidays! 

I don't like how... "streaky"? they look but I think that is a characteristic that tends to happen with metallic finish nail polishes. It's not obvious unless you are in bright light. Since I took this picture with flash, that is what happened here. you can see the finish is odd. However perhaps a nice top coat would fix that.

Overall this is definitely a polish I will be using especially around the holidays.

This shade is called "champagne" and I can't find it on their website anywhere! I don't know what the deal with that is!

Their polishes sell for $13 each and since this is a full size product that is the value of this as well.

You can consider the above products to be the ones I loved or liked. Now we are getting into a grey area with the lip pencil. After that, it's all down hill.

The Be A Bombshell lip crayon is pretty unassuming. The shade 'hot damn' is your typical fire-engine red color. It's a chubby pencil. 

I like this close up because it really showcases the brightness and shimmer in the pencil. 

Here is the pencil swatched on my hand. It's opaque and it's red. Seems pretty straightforward. 

However since I had just received the BA Star lip pencil in holiday red (reviewed here) I had to do a comparison! 

Right away you can see the difference. The BA Star (top) is much thicker, redder, and more opaque. It's a clear winner in my book. On the lips, the be a bombshell goes on fine with no hassle, however it drags a bit and seems a little dry. The BA star goes on smoother and is much creamier. I was definitely surprised by this. 

If it wasn't a competition, the Be A Bombshell would be fine. It does its job. However when you stack it up against the BA Star pencil, it seems silly to reach for anything else. Hands down the BA Star chubby pencil is a better product- and at $8 is actually cheaper. 

However the Be a Bombshell crayon can be found here for $14, if that's your thing. 

It certainly doesn't look bad!

The next product is one that I won't be using- a Pixi bronzer. 

This is the shade "summertime" and the website describes it as a 'true deep bronze"

While in theory and in pan it's a very nice color, looking at my swatch above you can see that it doesn't show up on my skin. you can just barely tell the spot that I've applied it in.

Can you see the swatch on my face? Just barely, and that was after a few swipes (with my fingers) to get it to show up. It might be ideal for paler skintones or if you are looking for a subtle bronze look. However I do not normally go for any kind of subtle look. I will probably keep this though because it could be used for some contouring- maybe. There does seem to be a bit of shimmer in it that I hope can be blended out. I guess we'll see!

This retails for $18 but also comes with a kabuki brush to apply it with. I am going to take a wild stab at the price and just say that the kabuki is with $8 making the bronzer itself worth $10. That seems fair to me.

Last but not least is my Em product. I got the lip gallery 'creamy color sheer lipstick" in the shade Hug me. 

First of all I guess I don't really grasp the concept or point of "creamy color sheer lipstick". I don't grasp the point of sheer lipstick whatsoever, actually. Perhaps that's just me.

Honestly I would have loved to try out any shade but Hug Me just did nothing for me. It's just a light pale nude color that, when sheer, is essentially nothing but minimalistic shine. 

As you can see, sheer indeed. You can faintly see that it provides shine. It has almost a golden sheen to it when first applied however when you rub your lips together (just once) it completely blends out and disappears.

I guess that there would be people that this appeals to but I am not one of them. It's boring and I can guarantee that I will never use it.

Add in the fact that these sell for $16.50, I have to laugh. I personally would never pay that much for a sheer lipstick. I would hardly pay that much for a great, amazing lipstick. Never a sheer one. 

Then again I probably wouldn't even pay $2 for a sheer lipstick so I guess I am a bit biased, huh?

So that's all for the November IPSY bag. One thing I must say is that it's really lovely to have discounts on all the brands that come in your bag. I think that's a really great touch because sometimes I get a product that I don't necessarily like the shade to but I like the product. With the discount I can buy a shade that I am sure to like. 

Overall the total value of the November bag came out to $68.78. 

IPSY costs just $10 a month so that is, once again, an amazing bargain!!

I am especially excited for next month's IPSY bag because I cashed in my IPSYpoints and got...a beautyblender!!! I am so excited to try it out! 

Don't forget if you want to sign up for IPSY It's only $10 a month and you should sign up here using my referral link.  It's because of awesome people signing up (and reviewing products...but mostly signing up!) that I got to redeem my points for a beautyblender! So thank you, thank you, thank you!!! 

Are you signed up with IPSY? How did you like your November bag offerings? Let's talk about it in the comments!

Follow your bliss,

Ember Darling

P.s. I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving (those that celebrate it) filled with lots of pumpkin-flavored things (my favorite part)