Birchbox set the bar for subscription boxes high this month.  But I totally sneaked a peak and I was excited about ipsy as well.

ipsy is also a monthly subscription that gives you roughly five samples a month.  It comes in a cute bag.  It is also $10.00 and allows you to refer friends.

The bag.

The bag this month was okay, it feels like a coated canvas.  It feels easy to clean.

The first item I was received was a blush.  Once upon a time, I was the woman who lived with one blush.  It was the Bobbi Brown Shimmer brick in Rose.  With my YouTube obsession and with my subscription services, that is thing of the past.  ModelCo is an Australian brand I've been able to try through said services.  There were two blushes that one could have received.  A peach one and this candy pink one.  It's ModelCo Blush Cheek Powder in the color Cosmopolitan.  As usual, blush swatches kinda...erm...are not the best.  But it's a pretty color, has a soft texture, and on the skin looks like a natural flush.  Perfect for Valentine's.  It's $22.00 for the full size.


My next product was a lipgloss that goes well with the blush.  If you watch From Head to Toe on YouTube, you'd know that she feels that it's good to match your blush to your lipstick.

So, I can totally zoom in more with my phone and focus than I thought.  Who knew?

The color I received was the Cargo Cosmetics in the color Anguilla. I love this sort of color.  It's a milky baby pink.  It's sort of odd on its own unless you really like a pale nude.  But over a lip color?  It's not bad.  I wore it over Frida today and it toned it to a cooler pinky peach that was very spring!  It smells remotely of petroleum jelly.  It is a little sticky but not highly so.  It contains vitamin e and jojoba oil.  The full size is $16.00.  It's supposed to be long wearing but I didn't find it to be.  It is comfortable and feels like it might be moisturizing.


My next item was a Rob Scheppy for 'tini beauty in the color pearl fizz.  Rob Scheppy is a professional make-up artist and paints the faces of the oft imitated Kardashians.  This is a color from the 'tini beauty palette.  It has eight shadows and is $39.50.  It is soft and very well pigmented.  The color on the site is called a pearly white.  It's more of a pearly champagne.  This is a staple color, but one I feel you can find in nearly every good palette.  If you love the Kardashians this might be something to own just because of him.  I think if I lived when Marilyn was alive and Whitey did a palette, I would own it, just because.  Not so much because of Marilyn because I'm more Audrey, but because Whitey was a make-up god.



As I've said many times over, I love masks.  There is something kid fun with glue and your hand about a peel off mask.  Hey Honey is brand started by a woman who wanted to simplify her beauty and felt that honey is a miracle item.  I completely follow that train of thought!   I'm looking forward to trying this mask.  Hey Honey Take it Off is loaded with AHAs but in small concentrations, meant to be worn on the face for about 20 minutes.  It's $35.00 for the full size, which is fairly normal for a mid range face product.

I don't like pink and I think this is gorgeous.

My last item was the item I was the most excited about.  I was also nervous about it.  I love make-up brushes.  But I went through my share of cheap brushes.  I'm ready to graduate to...investment brushes.  I received the Luxie Large Angled Face Brush 504.  I thought it might be flimsy and not apply blush well.  I was wrong.  It applied my blush in a natural way but not as pigmented as my Bobbi Brown that I've been using. It is vegan.

 I enlisted my boyfriend for some impartial judgement.  I picked three brushes that were very similar in shape for the softness test.  The contenders were; MAC 168 ($35.00), Sigma large Angled Contour - F40 ($22.00), and the Luxie Large Angled Face Brush 504 ($16.00).  Because of density, my MAC is my contour and the Sigma is my highlight/concealer setting powder.  He found that the MAC was the roughest, the other two were close but the Luxie was the softest!  For $16.00 this is a not a bad brush.  Plus, it's pretty.  It's more my sister, (Hi Sara!) than me, but I like this for blush, so far.  I'll probably try it for other things too.

The clear winner of this bag was the brush.  I think it gave my very good Birchbox a run for the money, but I know that I will use this long after I've used everything else.  I might even buy more Luxie Brushes!  So, I think, (by a narrow margin) ipsy wins again this month.

I've got some exciting blogs coming.  My Christmas/Valentine's gifts are coming and I based them on monthly favorites on YouTube.  I have Marlena March coming.  Marlena is the woman behind Make Up Geek and I thought that it was about time I tried that band wagon.  Do you have products from MUG you want me to try?  Let me know!