Subscription Haul and First Impressions: Ipsy/ My Glam September 2013

Today, I bring you the September Ipsy (My Glam) Bag. If you didn't know yet, Ipsy is a beauty subscription service headed by one of YouTube's most successful beauty people, Michelle Phan. It's for $10/ month and you get about 5 products (mix of sample size and full size). This month's theme is Classic Beauty.

I'm really happy about this month's products so without further ado, here they are:

Jesse's Girl Liquid Eyeliner (Retail: $6.99) - This is one of the products I'm really excited about. I haven't had any luck finding a felt tip pen liner that I really love so I have high hopes for this one. I've only tried it on the back of my hand and so far so good. It writes a very fine line so it's perfect for subtle eye liner looks.

Cailyn Tinted Lip Balm in Big Apple (Retail: $19.00) - This lip balm has the same exact packaging as the gel eye liner I got a couple month's ago from Ipsy (see here). I really like this as it has a more opaque color payout than a regular lip balm and the lasting power (at least when I tested it on my hand), is pretty impressive. 

Nyx Eyeshadow in Cryptonite (Retail: $4.50) - This is my first single eyeshadow from Nyx and I now understand the rave about it. The pigmentation is beautiful! This particular color is a very nice grayish black with green and gold sparkle.  This would make a really pretty smokey eye look. I think Nyx is one of the best inexpensive makeup brands and I'm happy to add this to my collection.

It's So Big Volumizing Mascara from Elizabeth Mott 4ml (Retail: $19.99/ 10ml) - I'm looking forward to trying this out. This is from the same company that brought us the Lash Card that I also got from one of my Ipsy bags that I honestly never used. They're just in a drawer, chillin'. Anyway, the mascara looks really black which is what I prefer. The wand isn't shaped in a particularly exciting way, just your regular, good old straight wand with a little bit of a skinnier middle. 

J. Cat Fantabulous Lipstick in Honeycrisp (Retail: $2.49) - For this last item, I have to give a special shout out to the Ipsy Customer Care Team! My lipstick came in damaged and so I emailed customer care to get a replacement. I received a reply less than 48 hours later and my replacement was shipped a couple of days after. Fantastic service! Anyhoo, This lipstick is a nice, creamy, nude color - as in erase my lips kind of nude. At first I was like, "Meh. I don't think I'll ever use this." but then I realized that it's prefect for layering over a brighter, bolder color for that papow! my lipstick in your face! effect. It's super creamy and the color pay off is really nice. I love that a lot more inexpensive lipsticks are coming out with the quality that is way beyond their price point.

Overall, I'm really, really pleased with this month's bag. There's not one item that I don't like or I'm not excited to try out. I have to say, I think Ipsy has been getting better and better lately.

Here's the coupon codes for this month if you're interested:

Jesse's Girl: 20% off your purchase with code IPSYSEPT2013 (valid through 10/15/13)

J.Cat Beauty: 25% off your purchase with code FABIPSY (valid through 10/15/13)

Nyx: 30% off eyeshadow bases and HD eyeshadow bases with code IPSYPRIME (valid through 10/15/13)

Elizabeth Mott: 50% off your purchase with code IPSYBIG (valid through 10/30/13)

Cailyn: 30% off your purchase with code IPSY30 (valid through 10/15/13)

So, what did you think of this month's bag? Anything you're particularly interested in?

The One With The Monday Post (September 23, 2013)

Inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Will Work For Makeup, I'm doing The Monday Post.

Turns out, I'm not the only one who's not crazy about Mondays. Tiffany's on point with writing a Monday post to help us all get through the week. Here's to a little beauty motivation and some inspiration!

Favorite beauty read/ viewing: Of course, this week, it would have to be Will Work for Makeup. As someone who just very recently gotten into makeup, I appreciate helpful blogs like Tiffany's. I LOVE reading her reviews and hauls. She makes me want to experiment with makeup more!

Beauty Goal: Wear orange lipstick for my day look at least once this week. As I've mentioned, I'm very new to makeup and beauty so I'm still easily intimidated by wearing color outside my room! I'm slowly getting into bolder lip colors and I think an orange hue lipstick is an unexpected but nice twist for a fall everyday look. 

Product (Re)discovery: This weekend, I was finally able to fix my Mary-Lou Manizer highlighter from The Balm. I got it early this year and it came in the mail broken. I've been meaning to fix it but it's been sitting at the back of my drawer for the longest time! It's finally ready now and I'm pretty excited to use it. 

Beauty Lust: Tiffany wrote about her Nars blush collection and I've been dreaming about Mounia ever since. Unfortunately, it's discontinued but I'm hoping that it will come my way somehow. I'm also really liking Sin. I don't have anything Nars in my collection yet but I'm definitely looking at these two!

Most Looking Forward To: Writing a few beauty posts this week! I have a couple more haul posts of my subscription boxes (read about Beauty Box 5 here) but I also have a Fall season blush list coming up. I've already taken pictures and just need to do the write up. Yay! 

Isn't The Monday Post such a fun idea? Leave me your links if you decide to do it too and I'll come visit! And of course, all credit goes to Will Work For Makeup. :)

Cheers to a good week ahead!

Subscription Haul and Review: September Beauty Box 5

So this is it. I have decided and acted on cancelling my Beauty Box 5 membership. If you've been following my hauls, you'd know that I have always been on the fence about this subscription. For $12 a month, the products I have been getting have been hits and misses and lately, it's been a lot of misses. I've been talking about cancelling but always felt like I needed to give it a chance. After about a year (I think), I've finally cancelled my subscription. Just like the past few months, this month's box has just not been my cup of tea. I'm just not impressed especially if I compare it to my Ipsy subscription which I've been loving lately. Noting that the Ipsy subscription is also $2 less.

So here it is, my last Beauty Box 5 Haul. Read til the end for the coupon codes that you can use for this month's products.

First we have this 4-PACK OF ELASTIC HAIR TIES FROM FLY TIES (Retails $7.95 for 4-pack) - Ever since the original ones came out, I've been irritated at how companies have been selling these at ridiculously high prices. You can easily DIY this for about 24 cents a piece! I'll give it to whoever first came up with using fold over elastics, it's a great idea. It doesn't dent the hair and they hold up pretty well. This has been mostly all I've ever used since I started making them. What I don't appreciate though is the insane markup when you put a brand name on it. These ones aren't even singed! And let me tell you, making sure that the ends are nicely done plays an essential part on making sure that you can keep these babies for a while!

.08OZ BELLA PIERRE COSMETICS CELEBRATION SHIMMER POWDER (Retail: $15/.08oz) - This is a really pretty rose gold loose shimmer powder. I imagine it would look fantastic over eyeshadow. I'm not a big fan of loose powder because of how tricky it is to work with but I'm definitely keeping this in my stash for when I need a dash of fancy!

3ml SKIIN SOOTHING & SMOOTHING EYE CREAM (Retail: $49.95/ .5oz) - There's also this teeny tiny sample of an extremely expensive eye cream. I'm continuously on the hunt for good eye creams but I don't get excited about really small samples like this because I don't think I can't really tell if I like a product based from a tiny amount. This packaging is also very unappealing. It reminds me of medicine and I don't think it's meant for more than one time use.

5-PACK EVERY BEAUTY MAKEUP REMOVER PADS WITH ARGAN OIL (Retail: $6.99/ 50ct) - I love trying out new make up remover pads. This one is pretty interesting since they're dry and you just add water to activate it. I'll try this out tonight and see how it goes. I'm hoping to get good results since it's promising Argan oil properties and since winter is coming, I need hydrating properties from as many products as I can get!

Last is a BODY DRENCH LIP DRENCH LIP BALM (COCONUT LIME) (Retail: $4.99/ .15oz) - I'm a big lip balm hoarder and this one's pretty decent. It's hydrating but I'm not keeping it only because I cannot stand coconut flavored products. I'm passing it on to my sister. 

There you go. I think out of the 5 products, the ones I like are the shimmer powder and the makeup remover pads. The lip balm to if it was a different flavor!

Did you like anything from this month's box? What are your thoughts?

Ooooh, but before I go, let me share with you this month's coupon codes!

Bella Pierre: Use code beautybox5 to get 50% off Get the Look Kits (exp. 10/15/13). Check out the Purple Storm Kit! So pretty!

Fly Ties: Use code BB20 to get 20% off site wide (exp. 12/15/13). I don't think I'm Boho-chic enough but if I was, I'd totally get this feather accessory.

Skiin Shop: Use code BOX5 to get 30% off site wide (exp. 10/5/13). This Skin Tightener and Line Filler's intriguing.

See you next time,