Ipsy Review – August 2015

ByLiz CadmanFeb 26, 2016 | 72 comments

Ipsy Review – August 2015 Glam Bag

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 think it’s one of the best value beauty subscriptions and a great way to build out your makeup collection on the cheap!

(FYI – Just like Birchbox, Ipsy sends out many different variations of their bag each month – so my review is just one of the bag variations you might receive!)

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

Ipsy Review – August 2015 Items

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

Delivered via: USPS

Check out all of my Ipsy reviews and the Beauty Subscription Box Directory!

Visit the Ipsy Swap Page to swap for any of the items you see in this review!

Ipsy Review – August 2015 Brigeo

Briogeo Blossom & Bloom Volumizing Blow Dry Spray - 1 oz Value $3.50

This spray is paraben and phthalate free, and designed to give your hair more volume when applied to damp roots before blow drying. I've only just sampled it on dry hair, so I can't weigh in on the effectiveness just yet, but so far it gets an A+ for scent. (I'd probably keep using it even if it didn't give me volume!)

LATHER Ultra Mild Face Wash - 1 oz Value $3.17

(Good to know for swaps - bottle has inner protection seal)

This cleanser is paraben and sulfate free, and made for sensitive skin. I like the scent, and the formula seems gentle to me - this is going in my travel bag.

Ipsy Review – August 2015 Trust Fund

Trust Fund Beauty Nail Polish in Elegantly Wasted - FULL SIZE! Value $15

I may be in the minority, but I almost always like getting nail polish in subscription boxes. (I don't think I've actually bought a nail polish bottle in years!) I like this dark lilac color, and the formula is 5-free and vegan/cruelty-free.

(Also - I probably spent too much time looking at the names of other polishes, but anyone else think the name of the white nail polish is pushing it a little?)

Ipsy Review – August 2015 Liner

Hikari Lip Gloss in Merlot - FULL SIZE! Value $13

This lip gloss gives a lot of color and a decent amount of shine too. It definitely gave me that stained lip look. (It's a smidge sticky though).

Starlooks Luxe Longwear Eyeliner Pen in Black – FULL SIZE! Value $19

This eyeliner went on so smoothly (I just sampled this in plum too). It's not too exciting though since it is just another black eyeliner in this subscription addict's collection!

Both swatched below:

Ipsy Review – August 2015 Swatch

Verdict: This box has a value of about $54. Almost every month Ipsy impresses me with what you can get for $10! Plus the makeup bag is so cute this month too! I think I'll use everything in this box - not sure if I'm in love with the lipgloss formula though.

What did you get from Ipsy this month?

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IPSY Glam Bag is one of the most popular and affordable subscriptions around, and our readers have selected it as one of the top beauty boxes for the last 5 years running! IPSY Glam Bag connects members with five makeup, skincare, hair care, and other beauty sample... read more.

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Posted in Beauty Subscription Boxes, Cheap Subscription Boxes, Makeup Subscription Boxes, Subscription Box Reviews, Subscription Boxes for Women

Liz Cadman

Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She's been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox, and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have, FabFitFun, and any box that features natural beauty products!

Read More By Liz Cadman >

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72 comments

Summer Bradshaw

I got this exact bag too and OMG it is my favorite. I especially love the Merlot lip gloss and plan to swap and buy it for real when I run out. Everything I love though!

Julie

Hi, i’m looking for a subscription box where I can get natural ingredients products. Would you recommend more Ipsy or Birchbox? Thanks!

[email protected]

Well I loved this months items. Everything was perfect for me its one of the best ones yet.

Hawk21

Mine is perfect for me too!

tricey

My first Ipsy bag and it’s identical to Liz’s. I think I’ll sub for the rest of the year just to collect some bags before I cancel lol. I don’t mind the nail polish names, I do wish I did not get a nail polish though. It’ll be going to my daughter who has tons of polish btw

Chelsea

Not going to lie, the Trust Fund nail polishes are a little inappropriate, but smart at the same time. They got you talking about their brand, regardless good or bad. The talking about risque names they use brought me to their site and although I didn’t agree with the names, I fell in love with some more shades.

On other note, I’m so glad to see someone else be as excited as I am to get a new nail polish in the beauty bags. It’s like Christmas for me to try on the new shade 🙂

Dianne

Wow! A lot of topics going on here! I’d like to chime in a few. 🙂

I didn’t realize that most of the products from Ipsy were made in China. I’m going to start checking each one now no matter where I buy it. I WILL NOT knowingly buy anything made in China that goes in my body or on my skin. I just don’t trust them with my health and well-being. I had thought that just because I was doing business with an American company it would be ok. Thanks for the eye-opener!

As for the “blow” nail polish and the other names? My feeling is that we are all being desensitized a bit by this rude and shocking behavior by companies to come at us as hard as they can. Honestly, that nail polish company just turned me off – I will never buy from them. That is a choice that we all make. Is this type of hype acceptable to you as a consumer? Not to me.

All of that being said, I have gotten about 4 Ipsy bags so far, and I loved them all. I liked the fact that I was getting full-size cosmetics and a cute bag for only $10. I’ve been a Birchbox subscriber for a bit longer, and although I love the fact that I get points to use (Just got the Lovely Day Special Edition box for $15 with points) I’m not really liking the samples too much anymore. Too much shampoo, conditioner, and skin creams.

Thanks all for the constructive and eye-opening comments. I guess that’s why we are all here! Stay Beautiful. 🙂

April

My last month! And I don’t regret my decision at all. Apparently I’m not the only one since they constantly have no wait list now. Irrelevant to me…I skipped the wait list in the beginning anyway with all that social media stuff by doing private posts viewable only to me and for the inviting Facebook friends part…I invited my cat and only my cat (yes, I made a Facebook page for my cat. lol) and that was it, and still got accepted. ahaha

Liz

Interesting. My ipsy bag was mostly different from yours this month. I only got the (full size) eyeliner above. My other products were a Tarte lip gloss, (full size) OFRA lip liner, Juara Tumeric Facial Mask, Marc Anthony Argan Oil Hair Mask. The bag is cute this month!

Nataile Brown

I got the same nail polish and hair volumizer. I love the polish and always like getting them in my bag. The other items I received were the JUARA facial mask, the Noyah lipstick (both super small) in a pretty peach shade, and the Skone lip liner. I won’t use the hair product or the lip liner because it’s a shade that never looks right on me. Overall, I’m okay with this month’s bag. Thanks for sharing yours!

Paula

Omg! I wish we could trade things because I am in love with the Briogeo volumizing blow dry spray! I usually use mainly all Redken hair products but after trying this blow dry spray I am HOOKED! The retail price is $15 on Amazon but I’d love to get my hands on some more of the 1oz bottles especially for traveling. If anyone knows of anyplace to trade/swap products, can you plz let me know!? I’m very disappointed in this months lipgloss, although it’s highly pigmented, I was sweating and it actually has been the ONLY lip product ever to run down my lips and onto my chin in streaks!!! Un-real! *If anyone wants it, they can have it! lol ~Paula

Lori

I got my first Ipsy bag last month and it was okay. I tried to give as much constructive feedback as I could and this month’s bag was awesome. Loved the items I got for $10 and the bag is so cute!

Anna

I loved my bag this month. I got a Lord & Berry lip liner in Nude, a full size eye pencil is Bosenberry ( a dark wine purple) my 7th can of dry shampoo( not all 7 are from Ipsy, I have other subs) the Jesse’s girl eyeshadow primer and a full Size Hikari lip gloss. Love the eye pencil, great color and the eye shadow primer is as good as some of the really expensive brands I have tried. I wore to work today and my shadow did not budge. I don’t use dry shampoo and I am running out of people to give it to! But my favorite was the Hikari lip gloss. I got a color called “Salsa”. It is the first red gloss EVER to look good on me. I have been looking for the last couple of years for a red that goes with my skin tone. So pleased!

Paula

If you want my salsa lipgloss I would trade ya if you had gotten any of the volumizing blow dry spray by Briogeo?

Leilana

Guess I’m in the minority, but, I love the names, they made me LOL! How else are you going to make white nail polish interesting? 😉

Liz Cadman

You make a good point! 😉

chris

I like crazy nail polish names too. It is fun to read them. 🙂

Alejandra

This was my 1st Ipsy bag.. So far, I’m loving it. I’ll use everything I received and I love the Hikari Lip Gloss, The metallic bag was awesome.. So far, so good for just 10$.

nana

I got almost the identical bag to Liz, except that rather than the nail polish I got City Color HD powder. I’ll be unsubscribing from the box.

The three makeup items I got are just generic Chinese products. Anyone can start their own cosmetic company by ordering a bunch of makeup from China, have their name printed onto the containers and starting up a website.

If you click on my name you can read my review of this box with my findings as to where the products actually come from and, in the case of the eye liner, under what other brands it sells. Indeed, this exact same eyeliner was featured in Ipsy last year, but under the brand name Skone Cosmetics.

Precisely why I don’t subscribe to Ipsy. $10 is too much for Made in China products…even if they’re full size. I wouldn’t feel safe using them even if Ipsy gave me the $10 to try them out.

Asya

Thank you for bringing this issue to the fore. I never ever use anything made in China as food or something that I apply topically (toiletries and make up), not even for my pets! Furniture, consumer durable-ok. And here’s why: I used to work as a Fraud Analyst for a big box retailer’s ecommerce division and we also sold case packs of non perishable grocery items. I noticed a spate of high value, high volume baby formula orders placed by distinctively Asian names, which were shipping to various hole- in- the- wall kind of offices. I was alarmed and started digging around to see why would ‘offices’ require baby formula! After playing incessant phone tags, I finally spoke to someone, who first pretended to be a mother buying in bulk but then after some intense questioning found out that they, in turn, were shipping these to Chinese mainland! Kind of unofficial export. I found out that baby formula, made in China, is not safe at all. Often adulterated and without any strict quality control, these have caused quite a number of infant deaths! So those, who can afford it, pay a premium to buy ‘imported’ baby formula. I decided that very day that if a country does not care for the kind of baby formula their manufacturers produce, they are least likely to care about adult consumables. That is why I do not care about e.l.f, BH cosmetics, the cheap drugstore stuff etc. I read your blog and just a suggestion, you may want to give the brand ‘essence’ a try for your daughter. Suits my price point and most of their products are made in E.U. I always check where it is manufactured, before I buy anything.

Kristi8209

Asya, that is very eye opening to me. I’ve vaguely thought about the fact that Chinese toiletries may be unsafe with no standards, but you really put it into perspective for me. I didn’t realize that elf was Chinese products. Hopefully not my beloved Loreal…their BB cream is the only one I’ll use and I love their voluminous collagen mascara.

chris

Yes, stores in my local area (in Southern CA with a large Chinese population) limit the amount of formula a person can buy at one time. Before they instituted this rule a few years ago, formula would regularly sell out completely from store shelves.

Some of my friends do buy formula now to send back to their families/friends in China. By the way, this isn’t just limited to baby formula although I think that is the most popularly requested item from what I can tell. Vitamins and supplements (from Costco, etc.) are high on this list as well.

nana

Thank you so much, Asya. I’ll give that brand a try. My youngest is just playing with makeup, but my older one has mastered the art of putting on makeup to make herself look exactly as if she wasn’t wearing makeup (she says she’s hiding her imperfections, but she doesn’t really have any) and I want her to be as safe as possible.

After reading your message I googled china baby formula (I remember there was a huge scandal last decade about adulterated formula, but I can’t remember the details) and I found an article form last March about how Chinese consumers are doing *exactly* what you describe. Click on my name to read it.

hallie

Nana are you aware of Estee Lauder and their horrid business practices? Its not always tge cheap generic brands that are bad.I’m agreeing with you btw in case it comes off as sarcasm lol

nana

hallie, I’ve heard that there is something unkosher there, but I have not researched it myself. I think the first Estee Lauder items I got came in July’s Allure box. I swapped the mascara and I put the serum to be used later and didn’t think much about it. However I do remember coming across Estee Lauder’s name in the list of companies that had their items stopped at the border for contamination and now I’m totally curious and will follow up and read more about this.

And you are right, it’s by no means just those companies that have a problem. It’s just that as much as I might have enjoyed spending a day researching just those 3 products, as a consumer I can’t really do that for every product I buy. So for me it’s much easier to say that I won’t ingest or use topically any items made in China (and I’m thinking of adding Mexico to that list). They are not the only items I avoid, of course As of last weekend, I’m also boycotting Amazon.com 🙂

KathyB

Great comments, thanks for sharing! I’m going to give them one more month, which will make 3 for me, and I’ll decide if I’m going to keep it.

Karri

Omg! Thanks for the heads up. I’m scared to ask, but how does the average Birchbox hold up?

nana

Birchbox has sent out some Chinese products, but not nearly as many. But then again, they send out small samples rather than full-size or almost-full size products. And Birchbox also sends less makeup. But one of the choices for next month that Liz just posted is POP eye shadow which is one of those brands that rely on generic Chinese cosmetics.

Personally I rather get tiny samples of products made in America than full size ones made in Asia, but for people who prefer the latter, Ipsy seems like a good choice.

Judi

The hikari gloss is sticky, but I sort of enjoy a sticky gloss. That’s one of those brands that’s in sub boxes pretty often, but I still wouldn’t mind getting more of. This month is the first Ipsy win for me in a while – the bag is cute and I’ll use 3 of the 5 products.

trace

This was my 1st bag. Like everything expecially the polish. And the bag is real cute. This will prob be one of my staple subs. I won’t miss $10 and it will be cool to get a little something every month, good or bad.

Chromecratic

Have to say that last month was a poor show for ipsy, but I love this month! I got the shadow brush, eyeliner, too faced primer, lipgloss and the volumizing spray. The brush was a bit stiff but that’s ok. That’s three full sized products I’ll be using, including the primer.

IDK, I mean, you are paying $10 a month, so you pay for what you get – size, quality and all. I certainly have no complaints here

Cindy

I quit Ipsy after four months (and the third month I skipped) because I never got anything good.

If anyone cares, apparently the waitlist is suspended for today so anyone can join. They must have lost a lot of customers since they’ve had this several times now. Or, they are just tired of people bashing them for the antics required to get on/off waitlist in the past.

Sara

I agree, Ipsy is consistently bad for me, but I keep taking the $10 chance every month I’ll get something great. I’ve had the no wait list thing on my Ipsy for the last two weeks it seems. I think they lost a lot of customers.

nana

Or they are manipulating their financials for business reasons.

chillybeans

It’s like they are trying to be like OPI with the names, but epic fail for me…OPI is fun, this is just tacky and gross

Abby

I agree, OPI names are so much pun! These are classless and gross. Excited to try the nail polish though.

Mailbox Junkie

I agree about the polish name. Its like you are scanning the names somewhat amused about their themes (like RBF) and then you come to Blow and your like huh. Not amusing.
On another note, I was super stoked the bag was plasticy/vinyl and not fabric like Julys bag. So much easier to keep clean!
I got the Doucce eyeliner, La fresh Night Cream, Doll10 blush, BWC leave in conditioner, and lipliner.

Liz Cadman

Agree with you on the bag fabric material – definitely a win! 🙂

Stephanie

Omg the name of the white nail polish is the most hilarious inappropriate name ever. Ha hahahahaha

Nikki

Well they do have one called Daddy Issues.

But I absolutely love getting polishes, too!

Sherita

This was my first Ipsy bag and I received the same things that you got Liz. I actually really like this sub so far and everything that came in it. The liner and polish came right on time as I am almost out of liner and in a nail color rut.

Toby

This is my last Ipsy bag. They are consistently disappointing.

Nerissa

Same here. I got some different products that were in the review, and they were very, very small. I cancelled my subscription.

Meg D

The nail polish names don’t bother me so much. . . at least not as much as some of the names J. Cat gave to their lip stains (one of which I see has been changed since I last checked – guess they got the message)!

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Ipsy Review – August 2015

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