Skin & Tonics : Skincare Guides & Product Reviews

It’s been nearly two weeks since my March Ipsy Glam Bag arrived in my mailbox, so I’ve had some time to spend with the products. This month’s offering was a bit of a disappointment, making this the second month in a row that Ipsy has let me down. I’m beginning to sense a trend, and it’s giving me sad face.

First, let’s take a look at the bag itself, which I actually really liked. It’s a cute little navy blue and white nautical number, which I’ll definitely be dropping this in my purse once summer is a little closer.

This is what we saw inside the bag this month:

– 1 Travel Sized Pack of LA Fresh Makeup Remover Wipes (value: $2)
– 1 Deluxe Travel Sized Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist (approximate value: $3.50)
– 2 Yaby Eyeshadow Singles (value: $6.60 )
– 1 GlamRX Mini Freestyle Palette (approximate value: $6)

Total Value: $18.10

In past months, the average Ipsy bag value has been more in the $30-$50 range, so this was a big letdown in that regard.

For our bag breakdown, lets go ahead and get the makeup remover wipes out of the way. The LA Fresh Makeup Remover Wipes are makeup remover wipes. They remove makeup. I’m not really sure what else to say about them, except that this is a particularly small packet of wipes meant for traveling. I will use them, so they aren’t a total loss, but makeup remover wipes don’t exactly give me the vapors. These felt like a filler product to me.

Next up, we had a 1 oz. travel sized bottle of Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist. Juice Beauty is one of those brands that I want to like, but I’ve been disappointed with everything I’ve tried from them so far. This mist had promise because I like hydrating mists as a general rule. They’re refreshing, especially during summer months, and they can also be used as makeup setting sprays. Not this one though. I tried spraying this on over my makeup, and about an hour later I looked in the mirror and startled myself. My makeup looked smeared in some spots and caked in others. I looked at the back of the Hydrating Mist bottle and saw that it specifically states to spray on a freshly cleaned face, which for me, makes the product sort of pointless. Also, it smells repulsive. I thought it would just smell herby like their moisturizer, and actually, it does smell like herbs. But it also smells exactly like band-aids or the aftertaste of a shitty scotch (which happens to taste just like band-aids). Seriously, Juice Beauty, what is the deal with that smell? I will never use this spray. Also, I would advise pregnant ladies who are sensitive to weird smells to steer clear of this product, because it will probably make you ralph.

Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist smells like herbs and band-aids.

This bag also contained a couple of eyeshadow singles by a company called Yaby Cosmetics. The shadow pans are each about the size of a dime. There were several color combinations that went out, but the one I received was a neutral cream color and sort of a mauvy- brown. I was excited about these color choices until I swatched them. I thought they would be decent like the Coastal Scents ones we’ve received in past bags, but no. These Yaby shadows are chalky and it was really difficult to get any color payoff. I had to swatch them in the same place several times just to get them to show up in the photo. Some of the other colors might perform better, but I’ll never know because I would never buy them after trying these two.

Yaby Eyeshadow singles.

I had to swatch several layers of each eyeshadow just to get enough pigment to show up in this photo.

Lastly, we had the one thing I was actually happy about, and that’s the GlamRX mini palette. This little palette is an empty compact with a mirror in the lid that has a magnetic bottom. These were actually produced especially for the Ipsy bag, as the regular GlamRX palette that you can purchase for $16.50 is bigger and comes with makeup in it. The appeal of this empty, magnetic palette is that you can pop individual pans of makeup in it (like the Yaby shadows) and throw it in your makeup bag. Wet n’Wild pans reportedly stick to the magnet nicely. Some pans won’t stick to the magnet on their own, but you can easily attach some magnetic strips to the bottom, which is what a lot of people are doing with their Coastal Scents shadow pans. Another handy use: put your metal hair clips and bobby pins in it! They’ll stick to the magnet and won’t fall out into the depths of your cavernous purse.

GlamRX Palette

The bottom of the GlamRX mini palette is magnetic so you can drop in individual makeup pans – or bobby pins!

There were a lot of negative comments about it on Instagram this month and lots of empty threats from subscribers saying they were going to cancel the service. I was not among those who hated this month’s bag. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it, at least not to the extreme that I’m going to cancel the service. I was disappointed with it, in the same way a mother would be if their kid brought home a D on their spelling test after weeks of getting A’s.

It would be nice if Ipsy would step up their game again. Ideally, I’d like to see more interesting makeup in future bags – maybe some highlighter, bronzer, or blush. I’d also like to see some actual lipsticks (not glosses), cuticle treatments, and maybe even some exciting beauty tools like fancy tweezers. I know the idea behind the bag is to introduce people to brands or products they haven’t used before, and that Ipsy relies on building partnerships with brands to get these products in the bags. What I would like is for Ipsy to get a little more strategic with their brand relationships, and deliver us more products we’ll actually want to buy. We don’t need more chalky eyeshadow or flaky mascara. Are you listening, Ipsy? I love you guys and want you to keep succeeding! Let’s step this up again!

What kind of products do you want to see in future Ipsy bags?

Skin & Tonics Rating:
Performance: 2/5 – Disappointing eyeshadow pigmentation, hydrating mist was smelly.
Quality: 2/5 – Shitty eyeshadow, mediocre makeup wipes.
Value: 2/5 – This bag had the lowest retail value of any other Ipsy bag and the makeup wipes seemed like filler.

Overall: 2/5

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