Ipsy Review – March 2014
Ipsy is a monthly beauty and makeup subscription box. Each month you get full size or deluxe-sized products, plus a cute makeup bag. I always recommend this makeup subscription to anyone asking which boxes to start out with – the price point is great ($10) and the value is always excellent!
The Subscription Box: Ipsy
The Cost: $10 a month (free shipping)
The Products: Full size and samples of makeup and beauty products. (Plus a makeup bag!)
Ships to: US and Canada
Check out all of my Ipsy reviews and the Beauty Subscription Box Directory!
bareMinerals Marvelous MOXIE Lipgloss in Rebel – .07 oz Value $9
NYX Love in Rio in The Brazilian – FULL SIZE! Value $6
I think this lipgloss is my favorite item in my Ipsy bag this month – it has a wonderful mint scent, and the shade is neutral, shimmery, and only a little bit sticky.
Chella Indigo Blue Eyeliner – FULL SIZE! Value $24
Klorane Soothing and Relaxing Patches – Value $6 total
I love the Chella highlighter pencils, so I was happy to try the eyeliner. I like the thin precision marker tip for the application, and I think I’ve been able to pull off a look that isn’t too blue-eyeliner. (Also – there have been SO many eye patches in subscription boxes lately!)
Verdict: I paid $10 for this bag and received about $45 worth of makeup and beauty products from Ipsy this month. I’m pretty much always happy with Ipsy – the value is great, and I love that everything is full-size or deluxe sized.
What did you get in your Ipsy bag the month?
Written by Liz Cadman
I got the Be a Bomshell eyeshaows, BareMinerals lipstick, Pacifica body butter, and the Nicole by Opi nail polish. I already purchased a sand nail polish from OPI in a light blue color so this went in the friend pile. The eye shadow also went in the friend pile only because I own too many and have those colors already. Otherwise I would have kept it. I’m trying to have some control. I have yet to try the lip stick on but I want to give it a try. I’m glad I got lipstick instead of a gloss. I am tired of pink/nude lip glosses. I feel like everyone gives those out. Let’s get some bold colors!
Grabbed this out of my mailbox today. I officially have way too much makeup haha! Definitely need to start wearing it more. I got almost the same bag as you: lipstick instead of gloss and a face primer. Excited to try out the blue liner!
I’m a little jealous of your eyeshadow colors, I received some colors that were a littler brighter. I like browns better. I also am jealous of the lip gloss versus the lipstick I received, although the shade isn’t obnoxious, so I’ll still use it.
I only got the lipstick, eyeshadow and eyeliner, though. Only 3 items this month.
Have you looked in your “Glam Room” on the site to see what you were supposed to receive this month? Everyone should get 4 products and you need to contact them!
I unsubscribed after one IPSY bag because I was absolutely uninterested, unimpressed, and un-everything else with the February bag including the type of products, available colors, as well as the brands. Since then I’ve been eyeing other peoples Feb bag and newer March bags and I feel like I was a little hasty in my decision. I resubscribed and I’m impatiently awaiting for April and the coordinating bag to arrive!
I usually will always give a new to me sub a 3 month try – in my experience it takes that many to really see the combinations of items and whether or not it’s worth keeping! Can’t let one bag bad spoil the potential 🙂
This month made up for the last 2 months. When I think about it too, I really do use the majority of the products I get. I just wish they would get a better system for matching people with colors.
This is the first month I feel like I hit the jackpot with any box / bag – and I had two Ipsy subs this month. My bags ended up being identical (even with far different profiles), but this time it was perfect for me. I got TWO of the 2.5 oz. Pacifica Indian Coconut Body Butters. I finally understand the Pacifica raves – I’m not letting either of them go – I put one on each floor! I also got the Bora quad (so I’m swapping one), the Bare Minerals lipstick (and had just received the lipgloss – so I’m swapping one of those), and I’ve already swapped one of the OPIs for the Chella liner. I more than got my money’s worth this month – I feel like I got the best of the bag options, and being able to swap for the Chella was just icing. Seriously, that Pacifica is to.die.for! My husband couldn’t quit nuzzling me last night!
P.S the bag this month was SO CUTE!
I cancelled Ipsy after getting the February bag but saw the March bag and resubscribed! I got the Bare Minerals lipstick, the PIxi Primer, the be a bombshell eyeshadows and the Opi nail polish. Overall this was one of the best bags I’ve ever gotten! I was hungry for some actual makeup since alot of boxes I’ve received lately have been skin products.
I tried the nail polish and it’s so cute. Cant wait to try the eyeshadow and the primer. Go ipsy!
I cancelled Ipsy after my first bag (Feb) because none of the products worked right for me – but after a lot of Instagram and blog snooping I’ve seen a lot of bags from Feb and now March that have convinced me to give it another go! Fingers crossed for April!
PS. I too skipped the waitlist by posting to FB but I hate having stuff like that clogging up other peoples TimeLines so what I do is click the settings button on the pop up when they ask to post so only I can see it.
So jealous that you got the gloss! I gave my eyeliner to my sister because I don’t wear eyeliner and she has blue eyes and I couldn’t tell she was wearing blue liner! Seems like a great product! She’s getting more product than me lately, but hey I can’t complain! What I do keep I use up!
That’s why I cancelled my Ipsy subscription – I was giving everything to my daughter in law. I am happy with BB5 and Glossy Box right now for my beauty fixes.
I too got the bareMinerals lipstick, NYX eyeshadow, Chella blue eyeliner, and Pixi primer. I’m not sure who is counting that lipstick as full size – it’s like those sample ones Avon used to have or maybe still has. I am not a lipstick person, more of gloss, but I tried it out and like it. It smells like chocolate – must be made w/ cocoa butter – and it softens lips. The eyeshadow looks blah in the package but looked really good on me. I’m not even willing to try the blue eyeliner – makes me have flashbacks of Mimi from the Drew Carey Show just thinking about it. The primer is okay. I’d say overall, because this was my first Ipsy bag, I’m happy. It’s only $10 so hard to complain. I’d equate it to a gift with purchase package you get when you buy Department Store cosmetics (although Clinique/Lancome bags are way more awesome). I also would say the sizes remind me of the checkout area of Sephora.
You should try the eyeliner! The way I have been using blue and green eyeliners (not together) is by lining just the lower lash line (with tear line if I want a more dramatic look, or just beneath a lashline for day time look) and smudging it in a smoky fashion. You have no idea how many compliments I get! The trick is lower lash line only and smudge smudge smudge. I usually make the colored line meet my regular black eyeliner (that I use to line my upper lid lash line) in the outer corner of my eye. Just experiment and see what you like. 🙂
Oh, but I just looked at the eyeliner and it’s not a smudgeable one. Oops, sorry… but if you ever get a soft pencil eyeliner, try it!!
You should still at least try the eyeliner. I had the same thought about it being garish looking, but it looks sooo good on. I have brown hair and brown eyes, and it made my eyes pop. Really can’t tell its blue either. Looks dark on me.
I got the Be A Bombshell eyeshadow, the bare minerals lipstick, the chella eyeliner, and the vita liberata tanning lotion. I honestly loved ebrrythibg. The shadow blends well and didn’t crease on me, the lipstick is a nice pinkish red and feels great on the lips, and the eyeliner is such a pretty color, easy to use, and stays put. Ive only used the tanning lotion on a test spot on my arm so far. It has nice immediate color but most washed off in the shower the next day. Im sure it’s buildable color but im not even sure there’s enough in the bottle to cover m
It didn’t let me finish my comment lol. What i meabt to say was i dont think there’s enough in the bittle to cover my whole body one time let alone twice to see if the color really comes through.
Why was I under the impression we always recieve five items? I went to my glam room and saw I was getting the lipstick, NYX eye shadow, chella eyeliner, and pixi primer…hard to feel disappointed when it’s such a good value! But just like any other sub you are going to have “good” months and “freaking amazing” months!
Like a lot if others I got the NyX eyeshadow, Chelle blue eyeliner, pixi primer, and the bare minerals lipstick. I get really bad acne using anything with cones (dimethicone) so I could only try the lipstick. (The subscriptions are still worth it for some of the wonderful products I can try before anyone questions that.)
I really would have rather received the gloss because I just so rarely will wear lipstick though. The lipstick was a good quality but was a blah shade on me so I ended up taking it off. I think I just have better luck with glosses working AND I can more easily throw them in my purse.
I’ve had better months with both Ipsy and Birchbox but this March was a little blah on both.
I’m always surprised that when I love the month’s glam bag, everyone else is unhappy with it. I got 4 full size items, one of which (like everyone else I believe) is a Bare Minerals lipstick, so not a drug store brand (and I do NOT like gloss so anytime there is lipstick instead of gloss, I’m a happy camper, plus the color is nice, a not to bright pink). Also got the polish (I love special effects finished like this), the Pixi primer (which I haven’t tried yet), and the Be a Bombshell eyeshadow trio (bright colors but they blend pretty well and are useable for me). All told, for $10 I think the bag was amazingly good!
Well, I got the lipstick, eyeshadow, primer, and OPI nail polish. I don’t really want nail polish because I already have Julep. I don’t like the eyeshadow colors, but I can’t say I was disappointed because the value is always good. I’m a sucker for the cute bag!
I have Julep, too but I can never have too much polish. Especially a rough coat/special effects polish. Julep’s special effects are almost all glitter-based, with the exception of a glow in the dark top coat, a black latex finish polish, and the satin finishes (which I adore). So I like to mix it up with other brands to keep things interesting. The color is very nice on, as is the finish. Very spring themed! The bottle shape is kind of odd, but I could still cram it into my polish rack, lol
I was a little disappointed when I opened my Ipsy this month. I got the bareMinerals lipstick, NYX eyeshadow, Chella blue eyeliner, and Pixi primer. I think the most frustrating part for me is that in my quiz I specifically have lip gloss selected and lipstick deselected (because I never wear lipstick and only wear gloss) and I have primer/BB/foundation products all deselected. It feels like they aren’t taking my preferences into account at all when selecting which products to include. :-/
I’m on the fence with ipsy. I wanna cancel because I keep getting disappointed with their stuff. Either the quality is just not there or there’s so much glitter in their stuff. However, I’m afraid that once I cancel, they’d get better. I got the primer, NYX eyeshadow, moxie lipstick, and the eyeliner. The only thing I liked was the eyeliner. The primer made my oily skin greasier! Everyone of my bags have included a pink lipstick/lipgloss and I asked for no NYX makeup on my quiz and they sent me the eyeshadow, which is very disappointing.
This month was my first ipsy bag, and I’m pretty happy with what I got, but wish I got the lip gloss instead of lipstick.. and the eye patches instead of primer..
For $10 though, I’m not complaining. I went on and took my quiz again and left off lipstick (really don’t wear it too often)
I got the Nyx eyeshadow, Chella eyeliner, bareMinerals lipstick, and Pixi primer. The eyeshadow I’m not wild about simply because someone just gifted me a UD palette and it just doesn’t compare. 😉 I love every Chella product I’ve ever gotten, and even though blue eyeliner is pushing it for me I think I like the pen format.The lipstick I got works well on me, almost a nude, and I might just use the promo code on the bareMinerals site for another color. I can always use more primer so that will be put to good use.
Of course, once I have unsubscribed, they send the cutest makeup bag AND a blue eyeliner after months of black ones… ahhhhhh….. 🙂
I got almost the exact same box! Instead of the lip gloss I got the lipstick and I got pixie primer and no patches also my eyeshadow is bikini bottom and I got the eyeliner. This was my first bag and I loved it!
Emily, if this is your first bag, can you tell me how long you had to wait to get off the waiting list? I am thinking about signing up but I wonder how long it’ll take.
Thanks!
Ashley, this is my first bag and it took about a month for me but I opted to connect it to my facebook to get off the waiting list sooner. I got an email asking me to do it. I would sign up for the waiting list if you think you’ll want to do it.
I was on the waitlist for my first bag (around December/January) but decided to activate the Facebook sharing. I never actually use Facebook except for contests and things so I don’t really care what’s on my page. That got me off the waitlist instantly.
Ashley, when I signed up I was able to bypass the wait list completely by liking them on facebook and I think letting them post some message to my wall. I couldn’t care less about facebook, so it seemed worth it to me to skip what I hear can be a pretty long wait (sometimes several months) There was a specific link involved though, so maybe either check Ipsy FAQs or google how skip ipsy wait list.
Oh my goodness, sneaky burrito and I must have been typing at the exact same time! I love how there is a kindred spirit out there who also only uses Facebook for contests and such.
Man!! It figures the month that I get fed up and cancel my Ipsy they have an awesome bag finally!! And I mean just the actual bag, not what’s in it lol.
And the bag doesn’t have a horrible chemical smell! 🙂
To be fair, February’s bag didn’t smell for me either. It was January’s (my first) that was awful for me. I put it in my linen closet and every time I opened the linen closet, I’d be like “what is that awful odor?”
I think the bag is cute this month but I like bright colors so pretty much anything with colors like that, I will like.
I got the Bare Minerals lipstick (kind of a dark red but I like dark red), Be a Bombshell eyeshadow, Pixi primer, and the OPI nailpolish (light blue color, which may have been the only color they were sending out) with the non-smooth finish. I suppose if the finish is weird I can always just put topcoat on it. I’m pretty happy with my bag this month.
No idea what the value is on mine but it seems like a lot.
It’s supposed to be a rough finish polish (i.e., special effect). It looks like the OPI sand polish on. Just a word of warning though, if you don’t like it, a top coat won’t change the finish of this one.
Thanks. I can always use it on my toes, I guess. Haven’t tried it yet, though, so I might be surprised and end up liking it. We’ll see.