This is, believe it or not, my first beauty subscription. I know, right? It's probably because I'm kind of a beauty snob and had such bad experiences with drugstore/lower-end products; why would I want to pay every month to get stuff I didn't want or wouldn't work on me? I'm happy with my luxury and prestige brands because they work with my uncooperative skin. I'd heard good things about ipsy, and I decided that I'd give it a try for a month or two to see how I liked it, hoping that I'd be impressed enough to keep it going.
The August Glam Bag was my first one after getting off the wait list in mid-July, so I really have nothing to compare it to other than my own expectations. All of the samples were pretty small, some a little bigger like the deluxe samples or 100pt Sephora rewards. The bag itself is okay; I'm not a fan of orange but it's cute.
ipsy August Glam Bag
- Klorane Dry Shampoo
- Jersey Shore Sun Lip Conditioner
- Dr. Brandt "pores no more" Primer
- J.Cat Beauty Eyeshadow in "Half Naked"
- Urban Decay Perversion Mascara
My first impression was "...meh" and it's still hovering around there. The dry shampoo seems interesting and will, at some point, be tried. I've always wanted to try one, so that's a positive. The lip balm and eyeshadow were my least favorites and will probably get zero to very little use (the lip balm...even though it smells lemon/citrusy...is more likely, just because I always lose and eventually re-find the ones I have and like). The one thing I was pretty thrilled with was the Dr. Brandt primer! It's something I had tried before and liked, even if it's not leaps and bounds above my usual Smashbox/Laura Mercier primers. I remember it being pricey after finishing up a sample, and primer lasts me too long to get anything larger than small travel sizes, so I never picked up the full bottle. The texture is really smooth and unique, and this will definitely be used and probably emptied.
Urban Decay Perversion Mascara
Now, the mascara. This was clearly the BFD sample in this bag. I love Urban Decay. They're one of my favorite brands. But mascara and I don't get along. It's always been me vs. mascara. I've tried everything from drugstore to Dior, and every single thing ends up under my eyes within an hour or so, waterproof or not. Diorshow really broke my heart because it looked stunning when I put it on, but I was full-on raccoon clown within an unacceptably short period of time. My lashes just hate mascara. I currently use...and love...Blinc, which is that weird tube mascara that some of you have probably heard of. It doesn't smudge under my eyes at all because it is a miracle product. Granted, you sacrifice some of the big glamorous lash look, but it stays put until I take it off and that's pretty impressive.
I decided to give the UD mascara a try and wore it to work today. It was on for 11-12 hours and the verdict is: definitely not bad at all! It smudges tons less than basically every other mascara I've ever tried. There's still some under my eyes, but a whole lot less than I expected, which is pretty darn impressive. Very little smudge, actually. Overall, if I weren't me with my eyelashes, I'd give it a two thumbs up and probably use it. I still prefer Blinc because it's completely smudgeless, and Perversion didn't give enough of a "bigger, blacker, badder" lash to overcome my need for apocalypse-proof makeup, but I'd rank it second above everything else I've ever tried. And that's saying something.
I'm going to give ipsy another month before I make a decision on whether I want to keep subscribing or not. Like I said, I'm very "meh" on this bag, but not unimpressed enough to not give it another try. Here's hoping that next month's Glam Bag is a stunner!
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