Back to Ipsy.

Back to the grind here. Brass tacks is that I unsubscribed from Ipsy in October. Partially due my not wanting to spend the money, however negligible, another part is that I just wasn't feeling it so much.

It's not a bad service, but like I often become in both Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout 4, I was over-encumbered. I had too much crap laying around that I wasn't using or wanting. Since my cancellation I have emptied out tons of little samples. Maybe empties post I mentioned. Shoot, who knows.

Anyways, Ipsy has once again enticed me. Em cosmetics eye shadow palette, from partially failed cosmetic brand? Yep. Sign me up. And then I found out that I had enough points to redeem some illuminator, also from Em. That one I am actually pretty psyched to use.

I have not forgotten the excitement for the Early Access to the Glamrooms. All day Wednesday I was expecting an email, but it turned out to be Thursday. Here is my haul.

Let's break this mother down.
Crazy Rumors
HibisKiss Natural Lip Color - Coral
0.15 oz tube. Full size at $4.99 Link
This I am pretty excited about, even though I have a million delicious Mtn. Dew lip balms. A tinted lip balm is welcome, and the ingredients look promising. Additionally, the color appears very flattering in photos. 

Jelly Pong Pong Cosmetics
Caribbean Sun Bronzer Duo
0.10 oz compact. Full size? $24.95 Link
It can be appreciated that this is a bronzer and blusher. It looks matte, and that is more my speed. However, I have no way of telling what shade it is, and whether the bronzer will be orange on my. Anything warmer than Hoola or Chocolate Soleil is too warm for my pallor.

Glamour Dolls
Blending Brush #10 Sperm Whale Edition
$3.99 Link
Oh. I do wish this was a packing brush, but eff yeah to the brush. Always great to have another eye brush, and I am thankful.  

Trissola
Chia Smoothing Oil
0.5 oz dropper bottle, out of 2 fl oz. Adj. $6.50 Link
Hair products never win me favor. Initially, I was miffed. Like I resubscribed? For this? But, it's not a styling product. It's one I can use. Keep in my purse or whatever, and then make sure my hair is glossy and black. Okay. Bring it on. I actually am pleased with this.

IT Cosmetics
No-Tug Waterproof Mini Gel Eyeliner - Black
0.012 oz, out of 0.017 oz. Adj. $15.53 Link
My UD Perversion pencil is pretty diminished. It has some juice, but shoot I am excited to try another one. (The UD 24/7 Perversion is probably HG status. It is perfect.) This seems to be a little over half. Decent value, and hopefully it works just as well as the UD in my eyeliner, and lack of smudge and transfer.

In total, this bag is valued at $55.96. Great, as that figure is, it's not the cash value, it's the usability. Save for the bronzer, I can see these as every day, or at least frequent.

Months in Review.

After some reading of my own blog here - which put me to sleep -  I noticed that I went for about a year. It was a decent year, but after that year I fell off the wagon. Partially, those reasons are outlined. One being I did not want to keep buying things. The second reason was simply I grew out of love with the idea of writing.

Truthfully, I always have and will always love the concept of journaling. So let's get back to it. What new acquisitions have I made since my October mumble?
Here we go super mini review!
Oct. 3 I purchased the NYX Mineral Face Stick, NYX Hi-Def translucent powder, NYX Color correcting concealer, and the Real Techniques Miracle Sponge
Well. I have little to say about the foundation stick, and it is fairly hard to find tons of reviews on it. I can't say it's my favorite, but then again I have not really worked with it. The translucent powder does fine, but maybe not a perfect replacement for my Bare Minerals pressed mineral veil. The correcting concealer is wonderful! It took a bit to figure out how much product to use, but finally I got it. I do not use this every day. My skin is fairly clear, but when I am going somewhere I may use it. The sponge is great, but I wonder how it stacks against a beauty blender. All of these were discounted via a promotion.

Oct 12. I purchased the NYX Tame & Frame in Black. Meh. It's kind of light, and a little hard to pick up on my brush. Need to work with it more.

Oct 24. I purchased the Tarte Amazonian Clay full coverage foundation. I love this, but it is not for every day. Sometimes I am too dry feeling, and would just prefer something lighter. This was purchased during the 20% off.

Oct 31. Anastasia Beverly Hills Self-Made palette. Discounts and points dropped this bad boy down to $20. The brush inside was crap, but so many of the colors are beautiful. Favorites are Witchy, Isla, and Blush. Most of the colors are really buttery, save for Pink Champagne which is a little gritty. Still, I adored this.

Dec 12. ABH Dipbrow in Granite. I do like this much better than the NYX one. It works really well at beefing up my brows, and shucks. For 14 months leading up to this purchase I have been using way too light of a brow pomade! Oh I love this! I got a new sample of UD Perversion mascara, and NYX Liquid Suede in Sway. All of these were free with Ulta points, and 20% off when I finished off Christmas shopping. Yay for extra goodies.

Aaaand there started my no-buy. Which really, you can tell actually started in November, but Christmas shopping kind of didn't count. I had a $92 bill which only rang up for $2 with my points I had been banking for forever.

The new year I started with a major purge. I got rid of a bunch of things that I got as freebies, or from Ipsy. I kept things that I could actually see myself using, and things I actually wanted to use. All of my makeup now fits neatly in a Sterilite 5 drawer table top container.

Additionally, I am keeping a list on my phone. This list has products I am interested in trying, in specific shades and whatnot. If it's on the list, I will be hunting down reviews and then saving them for when I get my allowances. The no-buy is going to soon roll into a low-buy. This is going to certainly limit what comes in, and encourage me to spend more time shopping my stash. Let us hope that with that I can develop some good posts about stand-out products in my stash. The reviews, more or less, will be in depth, instead of just a first impression. I also hope to post some looks.

That is the end of my come back. I am looking forward to bringing some good content, and hopefully inspire some other relatively broke people to make do with their own products. Of course, I want to sprinkle in some new things once we hit february. :)