March 2015 Ipsy First Look

Ipsy is another $10.00 a month subscription bag.  You get about five samples in each bag.  Ipsy also has a point system, but their's isn't as good as Birchbox.  I got my first bag in September and my points are already expiring.  Yay -.-  It does come with a cute card about the theme, but it doesn't give you information on the products.

Ipsy does come in a bag and I usually think they have some cute ones.

Unfortunately, this is not one of those cute bags.  

Ipsy's theme this month was Floral Fantasy.  I like flowers.  I just find the bag looks like late '80s, early '90s bedding.  It's just not cute to me.

Okay, enough dwelling on the bag.  On to the good stuff!

Healthy Sexy hair

My first item was the Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Renewal Crème Oil.  It is supposed to speed up your blow dry time.  It's also supposed to soften and make your hair more shiny.  I'm not blow drying my hair a lot lately, but this will be good to have for those rare times I do.  It is $22.95 for a full size of 4.2 oz.

Mattifying Lotion

I really Dr. Brandt products.  I was ambivalent about Pores No More Anti-Aging Mattifying Lotion.  On one hand, I use matte foundations and really don't need to mattify.  I don't have large pores.  On the other, I am aging and summer is around the corner and it probably can't hurt to put this in my T zone at that time.  Or it could dry me out.  I dunno.  It is supposed to have apple stem cells that delay the ravages of time or something.  I certainly won't buy it, the full size is 1.7 oz for $60.00.

Nyx Butter Lipstick

I like Nyx Lipglosses.  I was excited to get a Butter Lipstick because I see them on YouTube a lot.  I just kept hoping I wouldn't get something warm toned.  Guess what?

I got the color Little Susie.  It's so pretty.  It's creamy, feels comfortable on the lips, and has about three hours of lasting time.  It's almost wearable for me.  But it's just a hint too salmon and I know it won't work for me.

I think this might be full sized and it's $6.00 for the full sized.  Which really isn't bad.

Chella

My next item was something I was excited about from the preview.  A highlighter stick?  Yay!  I so wanted to use it for the brow bone thing.  The Chella Ivory Lace Highlighter Pencil can be used as I thought, or under the eyes, down the bridge of the nose, on the Cupid's Bow, to keep lipstick from feathering or on the inner corners of the eyes.

But it's formulated for light skin.  On me it looks like I drew yellow lines on my skin.  I double checked my Ipsy and I'm listed as fair, so it's like it was set up to fail.  I do think this would be great for light to medium warm skin tones for a highlighter, it's creamy and blends well.  Or for people who are light skin toned and get blue circles under their eyes. It's just a terrible color for me.  It's $18.00 for the full size.

Marsk Mineral Eye-shadow

At this point I did not have high hopes for my last item.  Marsk is based out of Sydney and London.  It contains all natural, certified organic, ingredients and is Quality Assured Cruelty Free.

I got the Marsk Mineral Eye-shadow in the color Lucky Penny.  It is a darken copper with a metallic shimmer when swatched but when applied with a brush with a light hand isn't extremely noticeable.

Sifter makes it a little less messy.

If you pat it in with a flat brush?  It is very pigmented and you can see how metallic it is.  You don't need to wet your brush with this, but I did anyways, because you know, why not?  It makes it a tiny more shiny, but nothing too different from how it goes on dry.  As usual with pigments or loose eye-shadow, it's a good idea to do your eye makeup first.  That way if you get fall out, you can use moisturizer or makeup remover to wipe away.

This is a quality product.  However, it is $22.50 for 1.2 g.  You really don't need much, so this will probably last a long time.

At this point, I think you've already figured out who won this month.  Birchbox was pretty awesome this month and Ipsy really let me down.  I'm annoyed at getting products that aren't suited for my skin when I fill out that information.  I can kinda forgive the boxes for sending me warm toned things, but why isn't that on the questionnaire?

We'll see what happens next month!

So, the score is Birchbox : 1 Ipsy : 2.

* I also buy my Ipsy boxes with my own money.