April 2016 Ipsy Bag First Impressions and Swatches

 

I cannot believe how quickly April is going by! My first year of university will be officially ending with finals week at the end of the month and I feel so unprepared. But I’m excited for the weather to warm up and for work this summer!

Anyway, at the tail end of last month I decided to choose a beauty subscription service. I love reading blog posts about them and I also love trying new make-up, so a subscription service sounded perfect for me. I chose Ipsy for a lot of reasons. For one, it’s a ten dollar monthly subscription whereas some beauty boxes are twenty. A few of my friends had Ipsy and were really happy with it. Also, when I checked out the site I loved that you had the opportunity to take a little quiz so that products will be more suited for your make-up wants and your skin, hair, and eye color.

This is my first month getting an Ipsy bag and I’m really pleased so far! It includes five products for the lips, eyes, nails, and hair. Three of the products are full sized and the others are decent samples. The bag arrived wrapped in pinkish-purple foil and the bag that was included is a decent-sized rainbow tie-dye print. I feel like I got my money’s worth and I’ll use all of the products.

Tarte Lipsurgence Lip Cream in Wonder (sample size)

When I opened this I expected it to be similar to the Clinique chubby sticks as they look very similar, but this is much more pigmented and less sheer. I really like the color, a reddish-pink, and I got quite a lot of the product to try out.

Adesse New York Organic Infused Nail Lacquer in Irina (full size)

I love the dark gray color of this nail polish! I think it’ll look great with a matte topcoat on top of it. I might save it for the fall months but it seems like a nice nail polish from a brand I’ve never heard of before. The brush is nice and big, how I like it.

Lab² Just Blending in Brush (full size)

Another brand I haven’t heard of before, I’ve been in need of some eye shadow brushes so this was a good product to receive. The bristles are synthetic and good for blending. It isn’t as soft as some other brushes I have but I’ll definitely still use it! I love the soft matte black handle, it feels like Nars packaging to me.

Moroccanoil Treatment (sample size, 10 ml)

I’m so excited to try this! I’ve always wanted to test out the Moroccanoil brand but I didn’t want to spend a lot on one product in case I disliked it. I haven’t used this at all yet, but it smells like vanilla and it is supposed to be put in damp or dry hair. I’ll use this during the summer when I’m hoping to start swimming again.

Ofra Eyeshadow Pan in Bohemian (full size)

This might be my favorite product that I received. I’ve heard of Ofra so it was nice to try one of their shadows! I also have a lot of empty space in my MAC pro palette so this was a welcome addition. The color is a pretty bronze and the shadow is richly pigmented and soft. Not gonna lie, I like this more than the MAC eyeshadow pans that I own. The color is one that I will use a lot and I think I’ll try more from Ofra! My only complaint is that the eyeshadow name isn’t written anywhere on the metal pan, and that it doesn’t seem to stick to my Pro palette.

                                                                  Tarte Wonder, Ofra Bohemian

Overall I’m really happy with my first Ipsy bag! I’ve noticed a lot of other beauty subscriptions seem to include mostly skincare samples so I’m glad this one is more beauty-centered.

Would you use any of these products? Do you have any beauty subscriptions?

Xx Katie