Frest Start - Ipsy Unboxing January 2015

 Flippity Ippity Ipsy.

I will be honest. My enjoyment with the service is kind of - not waning? - but it's not as exponential as it was before. November gave me an amazing bag, and December's was rather decent but I don't know. Even with getting nice products I have grown stale with the blogging aspect. That's really half of the excitement; the review. I had a partial post typed up for December in addition to filming myself opening it. Watching the video it was not something that exciting. Like I used a webcam and my lighting was the bad sun-already-went-down kind.

Plus, the butter lip balm I got was quickly stolen from my purse by a pair of jerk-brothers and annihilated. Though I got the boring nude color, I actually really liked it. Dallas I'm assuming was the instigator, because he is truly the nosy one. That is despite Nightshade sporting a less cute sheltie nose, and instead a long and thin collie muzzle.

Maybe I'll finish the post for december, but it was hard to get arsed about it. Even though all the products I got were indeed pretty awesome. In fact except for the hair styling produc (and of course that cute balm..) t, I have been regularly using everything. That's kind of a definition of a great bag.

So like the theme of the bag denotes, this is a fresh start. It's time to get excited about the arbitrary blogging again. Lord knows that if a lot of my favorite bloggers are starting to poof on the internet, at least I can continue.

Let's start backwards from normal. The bag. It's blue on one side and a somewhat whitish cream (or is it just my lighting?). The zipper is salmon which is very cute in terms of color theory. It's a strange material, textured woven plastic or something. This bag is just fine. It's innocuous and the zipper works, unlike my December bag.

LashFood

Phyto-Medic Eyelash Enhancer

 0.5 ml/3 ml
one month trial supply adjusted to $13.33
Buy the full four month supply here for $80

This is actually a fairly valuable sample, because the full size is a grotesque $80. It is roughly a one month sample, so hey in a month I can share what I thought. According to the envelope it came in, upwards 85% of people had results of length and 100% of people thought their lashes were fuller and denser. This is all based on independent studies, hosted by JB Cosmetics group I'm assuming. Probably no objectivity. Also that is after four months. Perhaps this sample does not have enough juice to push into that. Either way I am anxious to do this test because what could it hurt?

This product was pointless and would only give psuedo results. It was like a sugar pill. 

Probelle

Into the Blue Nail Lacquer

full size available here for $6

After nearly a year of Ipsy I finally received a nail polish! Great timing with all sarcasm intended, as I just started a job that prohibits nail polish. It's fine for today because I need not go in to work until Tuesday and here it is friday. I can wear this gorgeous bugger for the weekend. What an absolutely lovely shade of blue, which knocks on the door of my exact favorite hue. It's an amazing cream color and reminds me of my husband's eyes, so I'm pretty thrilled.

This has been on my toes and on my nails when I had consecutive days off. I love it and it's decent in two coats. Thin in formula, it really does best with three. 

Two coats. And pretty Dallas. 

Three coats and Nightshade. With a toy he is in progress of ruining. It shortly went in the garbage. 

Elizabeth Mott

All Over Shadow Brush

full size available here for $9.99

Nicely contained packaging and an eye-catching design. The brush is dense and super soft. If I were not wearing gobs of blue and black eyeshadow, I would go upstairs and test the brush. I am sure this will work quite nicely, even as a regular fluffy brush. With this I am pleased.

I have no additional comments. It works fine as a blending brush. 

Pacifica

Natural Mineral Coconut Eyeshadow in Ethereal

Sample adjusted to $3.50
Shop Pacifica's eyeshadow here

Fugging this stuff again. By far the worst eyeshadow I had ever used came to us in May's Ipsy in that god awful duo. The colors refused to apply to my lids and barely swatched. My chintsy plastic case broke immediately.

It's very hard to find their products online. I found a larger palette with the darker color, Treasure in it, but without a size listed. I have no idea where to adjust the price on this one, so I will default the price to $3.50. That is the price of a similarly sized eyeshadow pot in their four pan eyeshadow palette that was $14.

This though is housed in it's own pretty little blue box, patterned to flow directly with the Pacifica design on their palette. I receieved the lighter of the two which is a small disappointment because I need another bronze like a hole in the head (translation. I still need another bronze because bronze). So far the comments on the product page are much more welcoming than what we had last year with Pacifica eyeshadow. 

It does actually work beautiful and has made many a neutral work-eye sparkle. 

Malin + Goetz

Mojito Lip Balm

0.20 oz/0.35 oz
Sample adjusted to $8.40
full size available here for $12

This is a repeat, and somewhat defies the fresh start theme. So far we have had a number of repeat products throughout this bag. Same song and dance samples are getting smaller and the varieties getting fewer.

This item is not particularly thrilling. I have been making my own lip balm for two years and I have loved how moisturizing that has been. It's based on a Burt's Bee knock-off recipe and I've honed it over every batch and it's a nice heavy lip balm that will stay with you for hours and absolutely superior when using before bed time. Still it's winter and my lips have been feeling the weather.

I have never tried a mojito. I cannot judge the flavor as a comparison, but it has little flavor. Slight mint. I kind of hate the Carmex type application tube, but it's worth it if it's an amazing product that can conquer winter lip stings. It feels like a really gel-heavy lip gloss, and may be a tad too sticky. Of course I am going to use this whole thing up, but I am not like dropping my pants over it. I just hope that the balm improves upon my lips winter weathering. The balm does feel soothing and will be nice overall.

I lost it recently, but it has been a luxury for my lips. 

Bag Value.

Out of the ten dollars invested on January first, I reaped products with a retail value of $41.22.

I would like to start something of a recap. Such as in February, I would like to add how i felt about January's bag. Kind of like my preface in the beginning of this post referencing to my (unposted) December bag. Let's see if i remember to do that.

May 2014 Ipsy Unboxing - Fresh Picks

Am I late with my post? Yes I am. You see, I received my bag on Friday. Tracking said it was at my house by 2pm. To my dismay, we did not close up shop until 7:30pm (half hour over actual close time). Then my friend showed me some of the miracles of couponing.

ie; $75 pair of shoes for $3.60. And a butt ton of carrots and Miracle Whip for free. Basically I can eat as many tuna fish sandwiches as I want. Wow.

Anyways I finally got home around 10, and feeling progressively sicker since the morning I had a fever.
A little digression from Ipsy for a moment. For about a decade of my life, when I would get sick it was in May and one of the latter three months of the year. It was like clockwork. So being sick in May was nothing abnormal, if I hadn't already had two previous sicks this year. Since moving into my apartment I am sick every other month. Bad ventilation? Who knows. Hopefully we zip on out soon.

Well onto the Ipsy.

My spoils. Not too exciting eh? I'm not incredibly disappointed, in fact I am not disappointed at all. I am just not excited.

Let's start then with the Pacifica Shadow. I have not yet used it on my eyes. Overall though, this may be the least of all the products.

I tried to do both finger and arm swatch. My knee absorbed all light.

Let's talk about the colors first. Moonbeam (the purple) is a lovely soft purple, and I could see myself using it if I could see it. Unicorn on the otherhand, while somewhat chalky thrills me based on the name. It's kind of beautiful and shows up decently. As you can see in the above photo, a swipe on my fingers yielded quite fair for the Unicorn.

Two finger swipes without primer

Now as you can see, Moonbeam does stick closer to the skin. It is very faded compared to the pan. I'll just stick with UD's Grifter. Aaand that Unicorn looks like a powdery mess. So no, I am doing what I hate and just providing an arm swatch without an eyeball look (maybe that will be rectified when I shower)...but the frip am I going to do with these?

Insult to injury look at that chinsy case? It struggles to open and then pop! The lid detaches. It doesn't even pop off though, it just...off.
Dunno guys. This might actually go to trash land unless I feel bothered to work with it.

That Hey Honey! Mask makes a face shiny while it's on. It certainly feels nice, but not nice like those cucumber masks. My cheeks felt nice and smooth afterwards, but the areas that needed exfoliation like my bumpy forehead after a few days of sick laziness (translated to no shower. hi.). Still bumpy.

What did I expect? I don't even know.

The face moisturizer is really nice though. It's light and applies very easily without a lot of product. That one I am very satisfied with. It's a moisturizer and moisturizes. Good job little tube.

Sunscreen I have not yet used but I am sure it will block out UV rays like a champ. My shoulders and neck will love it. Words are not exactly bubbling from inside of me for a lot of my yield.

Finally I was pumped to get the brush. Is it a good one? I have no fekking idea. The lack of hygeine has also prevented me from trying it, but I am sure it will do brush things. Likely it's better than what I have so that's good. I was in the market anyways.

So this Ipsy bag was not amazing by any stretch. Still ll of the products (save for one) are incredibly useful for summer. Additionally, I do not need a constant supply of makeup. The mask was a good touch and so was the moisturizer. I am satisfied, and will be a subscriber for another billion years if the bags repeat March and April.

On a completely unrelated note... totally rad about that Titanosaur. 65 tons? Wow size. Just today I was watching this really awesome British program called Primeval, and Andrew and I assumed one creature was a T-Rex. Segue into small discussion about the largest dinosaurs, and the one of the program was actually a Gigantosaur. Cool, never heard of that.
Spinosaurus talk and then a quick look into social media and just this week they discovered an even larger predator? What perfect timing!

If you are interested in a truly interesting show, give Primeval a go. We have really enjoyed it so far because dinosaurs and and anomalies.