February Ipsy Glam Bag Review
February 18, 2013 | Beauty Boxes, Misc., Reviews
My Ipsy bag arrived last week. Sadly, this has been the least exciting Ipsy bag I’ve received since I’ve subscribed. There were a couple of products in it that I, personally, can’t use due to my trichotillomania. Mascara? Useless. Lash Cards? Like buying Louboutins for a Boa Constrictor.
The bag itself for this month is a cute, patent leather number with red lining. It arrived a bit wrinkled. It’s still pretty cute in spite of the wrinkles, and it’s small enough that it’s perfect for dropping in my purse.
Inside the bag this month:
• Deluxe Travel Sized Pixi Flawless & Poreless Primer ($15)
• Deluxe Travel Sized POP Beauty Smokey Lash Kapow Mascara ($9)
• Full Sized pack of Lash Cards ($7)
• Full sized MicaBeauty Gel Eyeliner in Black ($30)
• Coastal Scents Eyeshadow 4-color Sample Palette (No Retail Value)
Total Value: $61
The Pixi Flawless & Poreless Primer is interesting. It’s a water-based primer, as opposed to the countless number of silicone-based primers on the market. I’ve been wanting to try a water-based primer since silicone primers tend to give me clogged pores. This one in particular has some really interesting ingredients – salicylic acid, shea butter, titanium dioxide. It promises to minimize pores while simultaneously helping to unblock them, as well as create a smooth, silky canvas for your foundation and prolonging its wear.
It looks tinted when it comes out of the container, but it goes on translucent. It seemed to brighten my face a bit, but that property was invisible once I applied my foundation. It goes on smooth and has a nice slip to it, though it’s not as slippery as a traditional silicone primer. My makeup smoothed over this primer very nicely. I can’t tell if it minimizes the appearance of pores. The size of mine didn’t look any different, but then, I don’t have very large pores to begin with. In terms of makeup longevity – I didn’t really see a big difference in the lasting power of my foundation. One of the main functions of a primer is to extend the longevity of makeup. For that reason, I would never pay the $30 price tag for a full size bottle of this. As far as primers go, I like this one more than others I’ve tried, but I’m not a big primer fan to begin with. Primer is great for a lot of people, I’m just not one of them.
The POP Beauty Smokey Lash Kapow Mascara just looks like standard black mascara. It’s waterproof and claims to volumize lashes with a glossy black finish. Unfortunately, I can’t really test it out. Because of my trichotillomania, I don’t have enough lashes to make it worth trying this product. I opted to mail it to a friend instead.
Same goes for the pack of Lash Cards. Lash Cards are supposed to help with your mascara application. By holding the curve in the card just above your lash line as you apply mascara, it’s supposed to prevent smudging, and help with lash separation and curl. I dropped this in my friend’s package with the mascara.
The MicaBeauty Gel Eyeliner is really nice. The thing is, all gel eyeliners are nice, which is why I love them so much. The formula for all gel eyeliners is virtually identical, so I get the same performance from a cheapo version as I do from a $30 version like this one. I’m not complaining though – this is the product that will get the most use from me out of this month’s Ipsy bag. I just wouldn’t pay the high price tag for this when I know I’m going to get the same performance out of a $5 version.
Lastly, we have the Coastal Scents Eyeshadow sample palette, which features 4 dime-sized pans of Coastal Scents Eyeshadow. The colors in mine were lovely neutrals. I’ll definitely use this, but I have enough BH Cosmetics eyeshadow palettes, which are identical to the Coastal Scents palettes, that I’m not going to be purchasing any of this eyeshadow. Plus, the one time I tried to place an order with Coastal Scents, they charged the credit card but never sent out the order. When I contacted their customer service about it, they couldn’t find the order but they did reverse the charge. They were very prompt about it, but the whole ordeal was disappointing enough to make me distrust their website’s ordering system.
So, this Ipsy Glam Bag wasn’t very exciting for me. Even though it wasn’t as exciting as past Ipsy bags, it still felt worth more than the $10 I paid for it, and was still far better than any Birchbox I ever received. Hopefully next month’s Ipsy bag will be more exciting!
If you want your own Ipsy subscription, you can sign up on their website for $10 a month.
Skin & Tonics Rating:
Performance: 3/5 The primer was just okay, but the eyeshadow and gel eyeliner were nice.
Quality: 2/5 The bag was cute, though a bit wrinkled. The products were okay, but not spectacular.
Value: 3/5 Not as many full sized products in this bag.
Overall: 2.5/5
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For the record, you’re not missing anything with the Pop mascara. It’s the worst! It flakes off and I end up with raccoon eyes 2 hours in. I’ve even tried it with the Lancome lash primer and it still happens.
Good to know. Even though I don’t use it, I get really upset about shitty mascara. There are so many good ones out there, I don’t understand why a company would try to plague us with a crappy one.
So, I’ve been on a make-up break to let my skin do its thang with all my fun new goodies. Yesterday I finally got around to using the POP mascara and lash card and thought I’d share my thoughts.
First, I should note I’m a total eye make-up fanatic. My eyes are the one feature I truly love about myself, so a good mascara (which, for me, means thickening, non-flaking, and good for curling) is an essential staple.
First impressions of the mascara were good. I like that it has a traditional bristle wand; the rubber-type wands just never seem to grab and hold onto lashes very well, so this was a very good omen. However, upon application, my lashes began to stick together and clump almost immediately; even after using a clean comb and a clean wand I keep on hand, my lashes just would not stay separate. While I liked that the color is a true black, the formula was just too thick for my thin, long lashes.
Which brings me to the cards. I have 20/200 vision, so using the cards meant leaning all the way over my vanity and awkwardly holding the card against my eyelid with one hand and attempting to apply mascara with the other. First off, as soon as there was the slightest bit of mascara rubbed off on the card, it smudged onto my eyelid, cheek, and inside edge of my nose. Again — I was leaning pretty far over, so part of this is just due to the weird angle. Given the rave reviews others have given to the lash cards, I’m fairly convinced this was “user error,” but it felt really awkward to me. Maybe I just need more practice.
Overall, I’d give the mascara a 3.5 out of 5 for nice, true black color; traditional style wand; and no flaking (though there was some smudging after about 6 hours), and the cards a 2 for concept and design.
Thanks for that review! I’m going to share it on my FB page (with credit to the author, of course) to give it more visibility.