Monday 21 September 2015

Ipsy Glam Bag Review

Hello blog readers,
It's been a while since my last post (as it always is, sadly I do not keep up with this as much as I promise myself I will). But, I recently received my Glam Bag from Ipsy and decided it was time I finally reviewed the service.

Ipsy is Michelle Phan's company, and for those just exiting a cave, Michelle Phan is the first YouTube millionaire, she makes beauty tutorials and general beauty videos.
Ipsy is a subscription service, you pay about $10 a month ($15 for Canadians because of the exchange) and every month you get a makeup bag filled with awesome mini-sized products to try. A lot of the time, they're not even that small and in the case of lipsticks, lipgloss, rollerball perfumes and nail polishes, they are full-sized.
When you first sign up, you do a little beauty profile (hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, skin type, likes and dislikes) so they can try send you shades and products that work for you. They charge you for your bag each month and you can cancel at any time without paying any fees. Don't like your first bag? Just cancel.
Check out their website for more details and information about subscribing!

There are a lot of beauty subscription services out there, but I'm going to say up front that Ipsy is the only company to really impress me with their service. I have tried Loosebutton (a Canadian company) and at first I liked their boxes but recently they changed it so that you only get 4 boxes a year and pay almost $30 per box. I thought the selection might be much better but I was incredibly disappointed with what I got and canceled. Mostly because they sent me something they had already sent me twice before and I had provided feedback on it saying how much I disliked the product. So frustrating!

Anyway, moving on to the Ipsy review. This is my experience with Ipsy Glam Bag!


First of all, the bag is so pretty! That's the first thing that sets Ipsy apart from other subscription services. With most other services, the products come in a box and eventually, however pretty the boxes are, you start throwing them away because otherwise you're just a hoarder with a bunch of empty boxes. Some people use them for storage but I think they just become clutter. 


These bags on the other hand are amazing! They are good quality and the are beautiful. You can use them as your travel makeup bag, keep one in your purse for makeup, receipts, coupons or whatever you need to store. Also because they are so cute, you can put some makeup or whatever you want inside and they could be part of a great gift!  My favourites are definitely the ones in the left of the photo. The bags are not always the same material. the nautical print one feels like waterproof material, the white and pink bag is canvas and the black bag is shiny plastic. 

Enough about the packaging, what do you actually get?


The obvious star of the bunch is this full-sized gorgeous, shimmery, duo-chrome eyeshadow from Urban Decay! This exact shadow costs $20 on the Urban Decay website. So if you got this bag, you've already recouped your money in one high-end, full-sized product. Love it!
This swatches true to colour, with the same amount of shimmer you see in the pan, in one swipe. It's amazing. Which brings me to reason number two that Ipsy is great, this is part of a new line of shadows from Urban Decay that haven't actually been released yet! So everyone who got a May Glam Bag got to try them first. They also did that with the Urban Decay BB cream a few months back, it's an awesome perk.

Zoya polish in "Piaf"

This is a nail polish line you can only get in the US but I always hear amazing things about it. Which is yet another perk of Ipsy - since the company is based in the US you get to try products that are only sold there.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this colour, but there were about 8 colours they were sending out and I just pulled the short straw I guess. I might try it on my toes in the summer and see if I like it better.

PacificaCoconut Crushed Pearly Body Butter

I got a Pacifica body butter a few bags ago in a blood orange scent and I love it! I use it all the time, it's the best hand cream to keep with you. I was really excited when I got this. This smells like vanilla and coconut, so really it smells like heaven. It has a shimmer in it, which usually I don't like in creams, but this will be beautiful on skin in the summer for a little glow. I love these body butters so much I would buy a full size but this is yet another brand only sold in the US.

BB&W Candle in "Pumpkin Caramel Latte"
Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia Perfume Roll-On

This is a nice light floral scent. It's really convenient to throw in your purse or something. There was apparently a vanilla scent that was sent out as well. I kind of wish I got that one, because I LOVE the scent of vanilla. Hands down, my favourite scent. But this one is still really nice. However, if I super disliked it, there's a swap forum on Ipsy's facebook page where users can swap products they didn't like.

Yaby concealer in Honey

This was a cool addition to the bag. In a previous month, there was a magnetic palette and two eyeshadows sent out. This concealer (they match your shade based on the skin tone you indicated on your profile) fits right into the magnetic palette. I'm someone who suffers from really dark, purple under eye circles and I hate them. So I really loved getting this, because now I can throw this in my bag and touch up concealer if it wears off throughout the day. Also because this palette is magnetic, you can use it to keep bobby pins so they're not just floating around in your purse!

Juice Beauty lipgloss in "Pink"

This is a nice gloss. Not really sticky with pretty decent colour and shine. I'm not huge on most lipgloss so I wasn't overly excited about this but it's still a nice product.


Overall
I really love getting a glam bag every month! It's a great way to branch out into new products and try things you might now have tried otherwise. I also love that the price in on-par with other subscription services like it but in my opinion the range and quality of products you recieve are much better. Plus every month you get a cute new makeup bag! Even the shipping bag it comes in is cute- it's bright magenta pink. Tell me you wouldn't love seeing that in your mailbox. Every month, Michelle Phan and the other YouTube girls involved in this service (I think there are 5 altogether) each do a video using all the products in the current bag, to give you some ideas how to make the best use of your products. In case you're curious, below is a picture of some other products I've received in previous bags! 

L.A. Fresh makeup remover wipes, coastal scents eyeshadow quad, mirabella highlighter, 
Sation nail polish, Big Sexy Hair hairspray and Glam RX magnetic palette (same as one shown above).

I will continue to subscribe to this service because I have been incredibly impressed. I highly recommend you go over the Ipsy website and try out a bag! It'll be the best $10 (or $15 for Canadians) you'll spend that month! 

Hopefully you guys enjoy the review. If you decide to try out the service, comment or tweet me (TashaSinghs) and let me know what you think!

As always, thanks for reading,
-Tasha