Ipsy Glam Bag Unboxing and Review: September 2013

Just like in August, this month my bag took a long time to finally reach me, which isn’t surprising at all, considering that DHL trucks are powered by snails 🙂 The bag contents, however, were awesome, so I instantly forgot about the shipping delay. This month’s theme is “Classic Beauty”, and our bags were filled with products to create a timeless look.
About Ipsy:
Each month subscribers will receive a new Glam Bag with deluxe samples and full-sized beauty products customized according to your beauty profile. Members can watch and play along with the stylists with the same products that they are using, all for only $10 a month.
If you would like to use my referral link click here to join Ipsy. Thank you!

butter LONDON Nail Lacquer Vernis in La Moss
I didn’t think we’d see the day when our bags will contain butter LONDON nail polishes, but here they are! Although I’m slowly but steadily switching to 5-free formulations, I still enjoy the smooth glossy finishes of my other BL polishes, and I was happy to add one more to my collection. As you can see from the swatch above, unfortunately my nails have suffered some really bad peeling and had to be chopped fairly short, so I’ll re-swatch this one when they grow out a bit. La Moss can be described as an opaque, very dark, very vampy deep brownish burgundy creme with high gloss finish. This shade was featured on the runways by Rachel Roy and Dannijo at NYFW Fall/Winter 2013.

Cailyn Cosmetics Tinted Lip Balm in Big Apple
I expected to see a slightly shiny, moisturizing, buttery sheer texture with subtle tint. What I got was an ultra-matte, super smooth, and long-lasting color! This lip balm seriously exceeded all of my expectations, and I especially like how true to color it is. The brush applicator allowed me to outline my lips perfectly without the help of any other products. It’s so pigmented, I didn’t need to prime my lips at all! Overall, I loved this lip balm a lot, and if other shades are as pigmented and long-lasting as this one, I might need to get at least two more jars with more wearable everyday shades 🙂

NYX Single Eye Shadow in Nutmeg
There was a variety of eye shadow colors sent out this month and I received mine in Nutmeg, which looks just like ground nutmeg from my spice rack. I normally don’t buy NYX products, but I did like this particular eye shadow. It felt very velvety and seemed very pigmented. In the swatch above I only used one dry swipe and no primer, so you can see that the color payout is actually pretty nice. Unfortunately, some of the colors [including this one] are now completely sold out on the site, so I can’t purchase more even if I wanted to 🙁

And now some great news for those of you who didn’t like your NYX eye shadow colors!! NYX has amazing customer service, and they offered to swap the shade you received for another color of your choice, because they want everyone to be satisfied! Simply click here and fill out this contact form with “NYX + Ipsy color swap via MakeupTalk” in the subject line, and give them your address and the name of the shade you wanted to get.

Elizabeth Mott It’s So Big Volumizing Mascara
This mascara was created by the same company that makes Lash Cards, in fact, Lash Cards and this mascara are the only two products they make. I really didn’t care much for this one, to be honest with you. It was supposed to increase the volume and the length of my lashes, as well as curl them, however, I didn’t notice any volume, and it only added a very subtle curl, which is practically invisible unless you know how stick-straight my lashes were before. It did lengthen my lashes by about 30%, which isn’t bad, but I prefer multi-purpose mascaras. The hourglass shaped wand is not revolutionary, and I have been using a mascara with a similar wand made by Hourglass Cosmetics [no pun intended]. The bristles make a weird sound when you’re taking the wand out of the tube, it’s kind of like a squeak from plastic rubbing against glass kind of noise. So, overall, I don’t think I’ll be using this mascara after all.

Starlooks Obsidian Kohl Eye Pencil
Not to sound like an ungrateful brat, but this to me is just “yet another black eyeliner”. I would have loved to get just about any other color, but I already have at least 5 black pencils 4 of which are still unopened, and about 10 or 15 of other types of black eyeliner [liquid, pen, and gel]. I plan to give this one to my Mother, because she never got into eye pens, and still uses eye pencils like this one exclusively, so she will be delighted to receive this as a present 🙂

[Extra] NYX Bronze Smokey Look Kit
This cute little makeup palette was a referral bonus in September, and since it has so many colors I will eventually dedicate a whole post to it. For now, here are a few closeups for your viewing pleasure 🙂 The entire thing can fit on the palm of my hand, and I especially like that the lip products are separated from the eyeshadows.

[Extra] em Career Life Palette Sample Card
There was an extra em Life Palette card sampler included in all Ipsy bags, and I’m not sure if everyone got the same one or different ones. I got to try a few colors from Career Life palette from the Out to Lunch quadrant [bottom left]. I was never really interested in this new line, and didn’t have any expectations about the quality of the products. At first I swatched all four shades on the back of my arm, and as you can see, the color payout is very poor. These swatches were applied medium-handed, dry, using one swipe. Then I figured I might as well try them in action, and had to use all of my sample card for just one look. The end result is still very subtle, and I can hardly tell the difference between the three eye shadow colors on my lids, despite applying them in different spots. The blush felt very creamy to touch and at first it provided a nice tint to my cheeks, but the color faded a lot within an hour. Overall, I’m not impressed with either of these products, and I’m certainly not going to buy the palette.

The verdict: This was a fun Ipsy bag to play with, and I could really feel the Classic Beauty theme from the products we sampled. I’m especially looking forward to picking up more Cailyn lip balm colors, because it’s been a while since I was that impressed with a lip product. Their shipping rates are killing me, though, but I think I might give in and splurge after all 🙂

Are you an Ipsy subscriber? What did you think about this month’s bag?

Product	Retail value
butter LONDON Nail Lacquer Vernis in La Moss	$7.50
Cailyn Cosmetics Tinted Lip Balm in Big Apple	$19.00
NYX Single Eye Shadow in Nutmeg	$4.50
Elizabeth Mott It’s So Big Volumizing Mascara	$7.99
Starlooks Obsidian Kohl Eye Pencil	$12.00
[Extra] NYX Bronze Smokey Look Kit	$12.00
[Extra] em Career Life Palette Sample Card	???
Box Retail Value	$58.99