I’m about to go out of town to film a secret project, but before I hit the road I figured I had enough time to get this ipsy Glam Bag review in. There was a very diverse assortment of products this month, which was exciting. I tried them all this morning amid furiously packing so my face looks sort of crazy. Also I only have one fingernail painted. It happens to the best of us.

Jesse’s Girl Eye Color Collection in “Behind Blue Eyes”: This is sort of a fun little palette! The colors aren’t extremely pigmented, but they get the job done! For a blonde like me, this collection of blues and grays is a fail safe product to toss in an overnight bag for those mornings away from your normal makeup collection. I gave it a little try this morning and was happy enough with the results, but I can’t wait to leave it at my boyfriend’s apartment and really try it out there.

Pop Beauty lip gloss in “Peony Petal”: You probably know this about me if you’ve been following my blog and reading these posts month after month, but I am not a fan of lip gloss. It makes my lips feel sticky, my hair always manages to get stuck in it, and it stops looking good after about twenty minutes. That being said, I didn’t have as many of those problems with this one. The color is nice, it smells great and was slightly less sticky than your average lip gloss. So, I give it a B.

Mally Evercolor Starlight Waterproof Liner in “Starshine”: I feel like I complained about getting a light silver eyeliner relatively recently, didn’t I? Getting another one makes me feel like maybe there’s something I’m missing here. At first try I still don’t see the point, but my goal this month is to figure out how the heck to use such a light eyeliner.

Zoya Professional Lacquer in “Odette”: More nail polish. I have nothing to say about nail polish! It’s a nice color I guess? I have too much! No more nail polish, ipsy! It’s all the same to me!

Uberliss Straight Effect RituOil: This is the kind of stuff I really like getting in my ipsy bag: totally new products I didn’t even know existed! Hair oil? Good oil for your hair? I’ve recently started straightening and curling my hair more than usual, so having more products to soften and protect my locks is a good thing for sure. Kind of early to know I’d keep using this long term, but it did make my hair shinier.

Benefit High Beam Complexion Enhancer: I’ve never used anything like this before. From reading the instructions I gather that you apply this product over your makeup to sort of add an additional glow to your cheek or brow bones. I have no idea if I did it right. It was a little more sparkly where I applied it but overall I didn’t see much of a difference. I do really like Benefit products though, so again, another goal for the month: master the complexion enhancer.

As usual, if you want to sign up for ipsy, you can help me earn more insider points by signing up using this link! Insider points give me access to more free products, like the High Beam I got this month. It’s a lot of fun! Let me know if you got any of these products this month and what your thoughts were.

I am super late on this, but I’m still using NaNoWriMo and Christmas as an excuse. The products are still new to me, so let’s do this thang!

November’s Gold Ipsy Bag:

-BH Cosmetics Galaxy Chic Baked Eye Shadow in “Eclipse”: I haven’t historically been the biggest fan of BH Cosmetics eyeshadow, but I might have to make an exception for this one. The color is a shimmery purple – glittery eyeshadows can sometimes come across as a bit much, but the range of glitter colors in this particular eye shadow really do bring out a distinctly “galaxy” vibe. I don’t know how often I’ll use it, but the color is really neat.

-Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in “Shameless”: I love the color of this lip crayon. It’s not a color that would jump out to me on a shelf, but I really like it. I usually like my lip products to be a bit more on the lip-stain side, but this crayon surprised me.

-EM Michelle Phan Waterliner in “Royal Amethyst”: I am always down to try a new waterliner. I’ve been branching out to colors other than black, and this purpley hue actually goes quite well with the “Eclipse” eyeshadow.

-Star Looks Gem Pencil in “Topaz”:  I don’t understand the point of light silvery liners. I haven’t found a way to use it yet that does it any justice, though I will say it’s a much brighter silver than most others I’ve tried. I think it will have to be a detail makeup product, because I can’t see it standing out enough on its own.

-Pixi Beauty Bronzer in “Subtly Suntouched”: I am fiercely dedicated to my Benefit blush right now, so it was hard for me to give this new blush a try. I do like Pixi brand makeup a lot though, so I’ll be honest and say it’s a nice, subtle color that I can see myself tossing in a makeup bag for a sunny vacation where I won’t be wearing much makeup. It’s nice. A bit sparkly too, which I like.

Nailtini Nailpolish in “Champagne”: It’s a very pretty color (actually one of my favorite colors ot wear on my nails, so +2 points for that), but I really wish ipsy would stop sending me nail polish. I will never use it all.

December Black Ipsy Bag:

-Pop Beauty Eye Shadow trio in “Smokin’ Hot”: I just can’t get my mind past the fact that the packaging looks incredibly cheap. I don’t know much about Pop Beauty brand makeup, but it’s packaged like a Wet N Wild product. I don’t wear black/silver/white very often, so I’m sure it’ll come in useful when I find myself needing these colors, but I’ll be honest and say I haven’t actually opened this one yet.

-J. Cat Beauty The Big Lip Pencil in “Red Rose”: Super bright, super red, and very easy to apply. If and when I need my lips to be THE BRIGHTEST RED, this product will be perfect. Until then, it will sit in my makeup bag.

-Mirabella Eye Blender: The only blending brush I have and use consistently is more of a short, stubby one, so this brush was sort of new terrain for me. The bristles are so long! I haven’t really gotten a good handle on how to use it yet, but it’s soft and surprisingly high quality and I am happy to add it to my collection.

-Be A Bombshell The One Stick in “Sunset”: I literally have no idea what you’re supposed to use a one stick for. Everything, apparently? I tried using this thing as blush and it worked alright, but as I said, I already have a blush I use pretty much every day. This thing kind of freaks me out, as does most makeup you can use all over.

Okay I just looked it up and apparently you can use a one stick for cheeks, eyes and lips. What!?? What kind of witchcraft is this thing? Apparently I need to go back for further testing.

-Salon Perfect False Eyelashes in “53 Black”: I was very pleasantly surprised to get falsies in this month’s ipsy! I don’t wear false eyelashes that often, but I do really like them. These ones, believe it or not, are actually kind of on the smaller end for me. I’m glad to have another set though (perhaps to wear to more sensible events), and I love the brands that include eyelash adhesive.

You can sign up for ipsy as well if you want to receive these fun little makeup bags each month! It’s just $10 a month and you definitely get much more than $10 worth of products. Here’s my referral link; if you sign up using it I’ll get ipsy points I can use to try more products!

I’m just gonna put it out there… this month’s Ipsy bag was kind of lame. There’s nothing particularly wrong with any of the products, but I kind of feel like it was a lazy month. Hardly any of it is even makeup, and what I like most is seeing the different products my friends and I get based on our preferences and skin tones and whatnot – but the bags my roommate Eia and I got this month were identical, down to the very last item. I’m still obviously going to review everything; I was just sort of disappointed.

Starting at the top left…

Nourish Organic Coconut & Argan body lotion: Always a fan of body lotion, but I’m not too sure about the coconut scent. It sort of reminds me of sunscreen, which is confusing when you live in the Pacific Northwest and it’s currently fall. My hands smell like it’s time to go to the beach, but my sweater and leg warmers say otherwise.

Zoya nail polish in ‘Giovanna’: I did really like this polish. It lasted at least a couple days without chipping (which is sayin’ something on these hands) and the color is a gorgeous emerald green color. It’s actually perfect for the Narcissa costume I am putting together, as I don’t actually own any green polish quite like this.

Big Sexy Hair Blow Dry Volumizing Gel: I’m not the biggest fan of lower-end hair products – my hair tends toward the greasy side already, so unless I’m using really great products, anything I put on it sort of just weighs it down or quickens the already fast-moving process toward oiliness. This product was just meh – my hair blow dried a bit straighter than normal, but it feels heavier rather than voluminous.

LA Fresh Oil-Free Face Cleanser: I am a stickler about washing my face every night before bed, but every once in awhile there’s that lazy night… for me, it was when I watched American Horror Story after dark and was too afraid to go into my bathroom alone. Haha. I grabbed one of these cleansing wipes, and while I definitely wouldn’t resort to these every night, they do work in a pinch! They smell lovely and get rid of a fair amount of your makeup, which is a plus. They’re also biodegradable and compostable, which rocks.

Starlooks lip liner in ‘Tickle Me Pink’: I’ll be honest – this is my very first lip liner. I’ve never used one before! I have no basis for comparison! It seems good, it’s a nice muted rose color, and I’m excited to get used to it!

Let me know if you subscribe to ipsy and if you use these products, or if you’ve tried them on your own. And as always, if you want to sign up, you can do that here (subscribing through my link gets me ipsy points I can use toward free gifts!).

I got my Ipsy Glam Bag for August, and I love it! I used every single product in my routine today, so figured I would do a write up/review of them, now that I’ve developed my opinions.

First is the Vanilla lip balm from Noya. I’m not going to lie, this was pretty much just lip balm. Maybe I’m a naive lip balm consumer, but it’s all sort of the same to me. I tend to buy more fruity flavors on my own, but I was pleasantly surprised by this vanilla one. I will definitely toss it in my purse and keep using it. Also, a plus, Noya doesn’t test on animals or use preservatives. Hooray!

Next was Lash Booster Mascara from Pixi. I only recently discovered Pixi brand cosmetics, at VidCon actually – Subblime was giving them out to people! I have been very impressed with everything I’ve tried from Pixi so far, and this mascara was no exception. In fact, I think this was my favorite product in this month’s bag. I have really thin eyelashes, but this lash booster mascara made them look fuller than I’ve ever seen them! Will definitely buy again.

I really enjoy trying new facial products, so I was excited to try the Jojoba Charcoal Facial Scrub by Michael Todd True Organics. Right away it kind of freaked me out – the charcoal in the formula makes the scrub itself black – which is a scary thing to rub on your face! It was extremely gentle though, for an exfoliant. Which I really appreciate, as my skin is sensitive and acne prone. I’ll be interested to see if I notice a difference at all in my skin over time, but it feels lovely today.

Moving on, next was the All-In-One Multi-Mineral BB Cream by Pacifica. I’m a little wary of BB Creams (since my skin is so temperamental) but I’ll try anything once. This claimed to be color matching, but it was a little dark for my skin. Also, the tube barely had anything in it, so it was kind of tough to get a good sampling out of it. I’m sure this product is decent, but I’ll probably stick with my current face products.

The final product from this bag was a NYX Blush in Espresso. I wasn’t quite as excited about this one, because I already own a lot of NYX products. I often buy more coral type hues for blush though, so it’s kind of nice to add a more brown tone to my collection. It’s not bad, but again, it’s NYX. Nothing new.

I also got that adorable unicorn themed nail polish in Lime Crime for referring at least two people last month. Thanks guys! If you’re interested in joining Ipsy and getting fun products each month, it’s only $10 and I think it’s totally worth it.