Ipsy November 2014 Girl Meets Glitter

Son of a gun I forgot to upload this while waiting on pictures...I rock at this..

Imagine my joy when Ipsy finally sent me a shipping code earlier than it had in quite a number of months. No account errors, no shipping delays. Now double that thrill when my mom pulls into the driveway to drop me off at home, and hanging out of my mail box is the pinkest envelope on the grayest day. And this was a day earlier than it should have been, as it was scheduled for delivery Saturday the 15th, and it actually arrived on the 14th.

On my regular facebook group I follow, one individual had a legitimate complaint that the Ipsy envelope was not a metallic pink. While mine was that same “matte” type shade, it really didn't bother me. Also was written a complaint about how the glue was too hard to seperate the opening. Frankly, that's a pretty funny complaint. The envelope is sealed. I would rather my things not fall out of the bag buut okay.

Petty complaints aside, I was pretty thrilled with the bag this month. Glitter is not a theme I was super enthralled with, but it turned out okay. Not too much of the products were actually infused with glitter. You see, I do not have an affinity for glitter.

But onto the items.

Marc Anthony
Oil of Morocco Argan Oil Volume Shine Hairspray

buy the full size here for $8.29
1.5 oz/ 9.0 oz
Sample value adjusted $1.38

The dud of the bag is of course the hair product Ipsy keeps thinking that I want. Both products from the last month have been used, but they did not rock me like maybe a cleanser would have. This one was a hair spray. My little 2010 travel size Garnier has been missing it's lid since about 2011, and it is truly running low. This worked exactly as I needed it to when I added a tiny pompadour. I forgot whether or not it smells like anything but whatev. The size is actually fabulous and I am not as disappointed about this as I originally though I would be.

This barely contributes to the bag value, and that puts us off to a bad start.

Elizabeth Mott
you're so FINE Eyeliner in Glitterati

buy the full size here for $17.99
full size

The next item was the Glitterati liquid eyeliner. That is my glitter and it's actually pretty nice. It boasts waterproof and smudge proof claims. With an initial swatching on my hand, I smudged it. It yielded. BUT let me say that it was not even set. This appears to the a longer setting time despite claims of drying super fast, but then during my shower I had to rub it off. Water hitting it did not eliminate the matte black or glitter sprinkles. So plus one on that. 

When applied to my eyeballs, I did not encounter problems with the eyeliner transferring or smudging throughout the few days I have tried it out. It goes on fairly black and surprisingly, the glitter looks absolutely amazing with shimmer shadows. Pair this with my Ammo palette I felt like a rockstar. Now I have to dock the company points for the claim that the tip is precision. It's anything but, instead it's a rounded tip. You can get a fairly thick line from this because it's a blunt shape. Urban Decay's 24/7 Liquid liner has a precision tip, and you can get such a thin line. I've seen drugstore liners with precision tips. Precision tip this is not. It's alright because I may be improving my steady hand during application, and I enjoy the thick line it gives me, I just have no idea how one would achieve a cat eye with that huge tip.

This was worth the bag, and Ipsy has a 50% off code until well into january. I could see myself using that on another one of these bad boys. 

Be a Bombshell Cosmetics
Eye Base in Submissive 

buy the full size here for $14

full size

I also received the eye base. At first I had frowny face, because I just bought a NYX shadow stick in a similar color. Upon using this, I can see that this is in fact lighter and much more shimmery. It provides a different look than just a metallic or matte shade. It's very creamy, and takes a bit of building but I have found it does well as a primer. It just cannot be worn alone, much like the original NYX shadow stick. 

I wore this with under Smog from the Ammo palette and it was awesome and held up the entire day. A second test was with a matte shade, Faint from the UD Naked Basics. Matte is what I said, but the shimmer peaks through in a pretty classy way. It also subtly brightened the darker brown shade of Faint. 

Though it's a touch redundant to a bronze Ulta cream shadow I own, I found this to be much easier to work with. It's texture let it built up and blend a lot easier than the Ulta one. The main difference is that the Ulta one can be worn alone, and is more opaque. Redundancy or not, this was very welcome and I kind of love it. So far, this bag is amazing.

An additional wearing with only a light brush of shadow yielded many creases by the end of the day. I wore this on Thanksgiving under some lightly applied UD shadow, which was hastily applied during a car ride while my dog licked the mirror on my palette. Just as a note, you absolutely need to wear this with something if you want a long day of wear. 

This represents both the liner and eyebase.

Temptu
S/B Highlighter in Pink Pearl

buy the full size here for $27.50
0.1 fl oz/ 1.0 fl oz

Sample size adjusted $2.75

Through the first hadn swatch I decided I liked this more than Benefit's High-Beam. It's very pretty and I liked how fluid it was. While I cannot boast it's application for highlighting and contouring, I did find it added a lovely shimmer to my cupid's bow, upper cheekbone, and under my eyebrows. The pink sheen picks up very nice in the light and really is between gold and pink. Somewhat a duo-chrome. All in all, I found this easy to work with and I appreciated it greatly in the bag. Size was rather small, but I doubt I will use it enough to where the size will irritate me. That is not to say I don't love it, because I rather think I do.

J. Cat Beauty
Wonder Lip Paint in Red Potion

buy the full size here for $4.99

Full size

Finally was the product I was most apprehensive about. My heart has been rather low when it comes to my Ipsy lip products as of late, but it's usually raised when I can actually try the product in question. This was no different.

This months lip options were on the cheap side, and there was a direct repeat from last month. Fairly tacky, but I really enjoyed that repeat product last month. There was two lip crayons, another gloss, and a few lip sticks. Both of the glosses were nude and everything else had various wine or berry shades.

I was saddled with the Jcat Wonder Lip Paint. The colors given were either Mad Splatter, a deep red, or Red Potion which is a burgundy cranberry type. It's insanely dark. Of course, I was given the darker Red Potion.

I made my faces at the choice and then gave it a college try. In a review I watched on YouTube, the lady had quite a few colors of the Jcat and a handful of OCC Lip Tar as she believed them to be dupes. She ruled the textures different, but some of the colors were dead on. While I have never tried the Lip Tars to compare, I found that these were rather nice. The color is super opaque and it somewhat dried down to a glossy stain. The color was actually flattering enough on me. But be advised... a little really goes a long way. I applied mine with a brush, and I believe it would be impossible to use your fingers like I saw someone on the Ipsy forum doing. These are very affordable at five bucks a pop, so I really would like to try out some other colors. It may be worth it. This was the hit of the bag.

As far as longevity goes, it does come off easily if you wipe it off and does not have much for staining power. It dries, but not completely leaving you with a non sticky gloss feeling. It's a little tough for me to describe. An example of it's lasting power is that I applied this around 10AM the morning my sisters and I took both of their little babies to the art museum. I removed it so we could eat dinner around 4. It was pristine leading up to that moment, and I drank some water and had some apple and a garlic biscuit at the museum. Like I said, this may be something I want more of. 

Wearing everything in this one.

How about the bag and value?

Overall the bag was kind of fantastic. I was even impressed with the bag itself, because it was not gritty like I thought it would be. My first impresion of the bag on the internet was disgust because I imagined touching it and glitter rubbing off on my fingers. Instead there was this awesome and festive bag that I could see myself using. Final thought on this particular bag is that, Ipsy may have converted me to being a little more open minded with glitter. As most of the products ended up being glittery. 

Nothing will beat last month's October blue puffy quilted plastic bag. I flipping loved that bag. 

$41.11/ 10.00

The value seems to be on the average side, leaning towards the upper-middle. For five items that I can actually use, this could be my favorite bag to date (product wise). I have yet to do this years Ipsy bags in actual value...That's a post I look forward to. 

And heeere is something neat. I just got an awesome follow on my instagram. 

Like woah you know how I mentioned that I wanted to do embalming or something closely related since I was 12? Yeah. You know what sparked me revisiting that idea when I was 21? I was watching Oddities and there was a pratron who had been (is still?) a mortician, and she was lovely, and she made lovely clothing. That moment sitting my bed with a puppy Dallas, I remembered my the first childhood aspiration that I actually wanted to do. You know how a lot of kids want to be things? I never had a clue even when I was in elemantary school. There were no dream jobs that popped out at me. Not until I heard of this wondrous place called Ancient Egypt and that there was this Jackal that embalmed people and sent them off to judgement. It was around then I developed an unsatiable curiosity for psuedosciences and quack medicine that gave way to our modern medicine. Heck, I somehow convinced my husband that we should go to the Mütter Museum for our honeymoon...

MORTICIAN FANGIRL MOMENT!!!

tl;dr

OH MY GOSH GUYS. SHE'S LIKE THE REASON I REVISTED MY CHILDHOOD DREAM AND THEN EVENTUALLY WAS OFFERED AN INTERNSHIP AT A FUNERAL HOME. (which I am still holding my breath on.)