ipsy Review - May 2014

I seem to be on a roll with these subscription reviews this month. Let's see if I can keep this up. I'll be honest, it's not easy. The baby definitely takes up most of my time and when she's sleeping, I feel like I have a million other things I need to do. But for now, I seem to be getting into a rhythm and keeping up. We'll see how much that changes when I go back to work in a few weeks. Enough about me. On to the review!

I'm a little disappointed this month. I know a lot of people were already upset when they looked at their "glam room" because they saw it was more skin care products this month and less makeup, which is more what ipsy is known for. I don't mind skin care products so much and was actually pretty excited when I got my bag. It looked like it had a lot of promise, and the sample sizes were quite impressive. But after trying all the products, I was underwhelmed. There wasn't anything great this month, so we'll start with the meh category.



Calvin Klein Endless Euphoria Perfume (sample size)

I'm not the biggest fan of perfume. I could take it or leave it. This stuff isn't completely overpowering, so it's acceptable. I'm not sure if I'll ever wear it, but it's nice to have the option. I appreciated that the sample size was larger than most perfume samples, so kudos for that.



Eva NYC Therapy Session Hair Mask (full size)

This was one of the items I was particularly excited about. I originally thought it was a very large sample, but after going to their website, it seems that this is the full size version of their product. To be fair, I've only had the chance to use it once, but that one time seemed to undo what the Beauty Protector products from my BIRCHBOX did to my hair. Maybe I should've used a bit more of the product, or maybe I should've conditioned prior to using it instead of using it as a conditioner. Either way, I wasn't super impressed. The best thing I can say about it is that it smells decent. I don't think I disliked it enough to put it in the bad category, but it's borderline.



Pacifica Mineral Eyeshadow Duo (sample size)

I've been getting more and more into eyeshadow these days, so I wasn't completely bummed out when I found out I would be getting some this month. Unfortunately, these colors are not for me. The lighter color would do nothing for me since it almost matches my skin tone, and the darker color is a bit too dramatic for me. The best part about this duo is the name of the colors (Moonbeam and Unicorn).



Avene Thermal Spring Water (sample size)

So...this is literally water you spritz on your face or body. I guess it's supposed to calm irritated skin, but color me skeptical that I would want to pay $18 to buy some bottled spring water in a sterilized can to spray on me. Maybe I'll keep it on the changing table because it says it helps soothe diaper rash. This is another borderline "bad" category product. I guess I just thought it was more comical than bad.

There's only one product in the bad category this month:



Jersey Shore Sun Sans Tan Anti-aging Sunscreen (sample size)

If you read my BIRCHBOX review, you'd see that I rated the sunscreen sample I got from them a "meh". That stuff was pretty standard sunscreen. This stuff was not. It was overly thick, it smelled bad, and it didn't spread well at all. I'm sure as a last ditch effort I would use it, but as someone that has to use sunscreen constantly, I would not want to fight with this stuff on a regular basis. It just didn't work well for me at all. In fact, I wiped it off very shortly after applying because it made my skin feel gross.

The last thing I got this month doesn't really fit into a category because it was an extra item that I used my ipsy points to get.



BareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipstick in Light It Up (full size)

I appreciated that I got this for free using my ipsy points because it is an $18 tube of lipstick. I just wish I was able to choose the color. The "Light it Up" color definitely did light it up. It's a very bright watermelon color that I'm sure would look great on someone that wore makeup on a regular basis, but to me, it looked a bit too...dramatic. It was a lot of color, and I think it stood out a bit too much with my skin tone. Maybe I'll be brave one day and wear it, but it would have to be the right outfit.

So that's my bag for this month. I know it seemed like I was a bit harsh on the review, but I was pretty disappointed after being so excited about my bag. Almost every month I LOVE my ipsy bag, but eventually I had to get a bad one. I'm sure next month will be better.

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Happy Shopping!