Here is the bag upon arrival.
This month's theme is "Street Style" and the bag is square and silver with some studs on it. The bags are always pretty nice for organizing, storage, and travel.
The first item I took out was a Pacifica Natural Water-proof Eye Pencil in the color "gun metal". The full sized product is listed at $11. I can't find the size of the full sized product, but it doesn't look much bigger than this sample, so at least it's a good value. The color is silvery and metallic, and it applies pretty smoothly on my arm at least. I pretty much never wear eye liner, so I might end up giving this away, but it seems to be a decent product.
Next up, I grabbed the Crown Brush Infinity Shadow/Crease Duet Brush. The brush is listed as $6.99 on their website, discounted from $17.50, which is supposedly the retail price. Isn't the retail price the price at which it is sold by the company? Anyway, I do like brushes and having enough to not have to clean them every time I do my eye makeup, so I do appreciate this item. The bristles are soft and I think it will do its job well.
The next product from the bag is the Alterna Haircare Caviar CC Cream. The full size is listed at $25 for 2.5 oz, which makes our sample of 0.85 oz worth $8.50. The first thing I noticed is how strong this smells. I think it's a bit oppressive, but I asked my boyfriend and he thinks it smells good. Basically, this is just a bunch of silicone and cetearyl alcohol, so if you are sensitive to those products, I would beware! I myself don't really like silicone in my hair because I have to use shampoo to remove it, which dries out my hair a lot. I will probably give away this sample as well.
The fourth item is a Cailyn Art Touch Tinted Lip Gloss in the color Basic Instinct. The color in the picture isn't very accurate, it is more of a darkish pink color. Awesomely, this is a full sized product that is listed at $19 on the Cailyn website. I am not usually a fan of lip gloss, but this is a very nice color, goes on pretty thick but not sticky, and leaves a stain when it wears off. I am pretty impressed with the product and very happy that we got a full size. It pretty much makes this bag worth it.
The final product is a NYX Hot Singles Eyeshadow in Addiction. I think this is also a full sized product listed as $4.50. It's described as a "pearly deep red" on the NYX website, but it looks like it leans a little more burgundy to me. I am a fan of NYX products in general, but I don't really wear eyeshadow daily, so I am trying not to add too much to my collection. There could be worse things to get though.
Here are swatches on my arm of the Pacifica eyeliner, Cailyn lip gloss, and NYX eyeshadow. These are pretty true to color and taken in natural light.
In my opinion, Ipsy is definitely worth it for a makeup novice who wants to try out a bunch of
different products. However, there are some very troubling issues. First, it is very difficult to get a subscription initially. You fill out your information and are put on a waitlist, which you can get stuck on for multiple months. They occasionally offer ways to "skip" the waitlist, which nearly always involve posting on Facebook. The good news is that you can set your Facebook settings such that Ipsy posts are only visible to you so you don't have to spam your friends, but it's just a pain in the butt since there doesn't really seem to be a reason to have a waitlist at all.
Another issue I have is that they do not pay attention to your quiz results at all. I said that I do not like eye liner, hair products, lip gloss, or eyeshadow, yet as you can see above, I got one of each of these in my box this month. It wasn't like there were any other options either. One reveal showed that everyone would get either an eye liner or a nail polish, and I got the eye liner even though I said that I love nail polish and do not want eye liner. It's just kind of rude to the loyal subscribers.
The final issue I currently have is more personal. I finally got enough points to redeem for a reward (literally impossible unless you are able to refer a friend), so I planned on redeeming it and cancelling after this month. However, since I redeemed it on September 1st (and not BEFORE September 1st), it will not arrive until my October box, so I have to stay subscribed until then in order to get my reward.
Anyway, hopefully I haven't completely ruined the idea of Ipsy because it really is great for people who aren't very picky about what they want. It's pretty inexpensive and has generally high quality products. As you can see, you definitely get your $10 worth in products in each bag. If you want a referral, I would be happy to give you one in the next month!
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