March 2018 Ipsy Review

Ipsy is a $10 monthly service that sends out 5 makeup, skincare, hair care, or fragrance samples (sometimes full sized) with a makeup bag. Items range from drugstore to high end and I’ll be honest, sometimes they vary in quality. I’ve been subscribed for 2 years now and I highly recommend it for makeup novices who are trying to build up a collection of products and tools at a reasonable cost or for those just wanting to discover new products and aren’t concerned with cost or brand names. This month’s bag was actually pretty neat. I didn’t care for the design much since it reminds me a lot of the design aesthetic of the early to mid ‘90s but Ipsy did include two markers to color in the bag along with:

Contour Cosmetics Lip Lit Pencil in Juju - $12.00 (estimated value)

Glossier Balm Dot Com in Rose - $4.67, Cruelty Free

City Color Cosmetics Glow Duo - $2.63

BRTC Jasmine Waterful Foaming Cleanser - $2.58

Tarte Sex Kitten Eyeliner - $9.52, Cruelty Free

The Contour Cosmetics Lip Liner was basically a giant steaming flop. I got the shade Juju, which is a nude shade for fair to light medium skin tones. On me: zombie lips. The texture was pretty awful. It was the waxiest, driest lip liner I’ve ever used. I was actually worried that I would break the bullet itself because it was that difficult to apply. The result was a dry, patchy streaky mess.

Glossier’s Balm Dot Com in Rose didn’t help at all with the liner application, but it does make a fine lip balm. It’s a very thick, barely rose tinted, heavily rose scented petroleum-based balm. Honestly, calling it  tinted would be very generous.

I’m not a highlighter person. Nor am I a bronzer person. I have neither selected on my profile, yet somehow it feels like I end up with a new one every two months that is either given away or repurposed as eyeshadow. Now, I realize this is hyperbole, but that’s how it feels. This month’s soon-to-be-repurposed item is the City Color Cosmetics Glow Duo which included a cream, lighter highlighter and a darker powder highlighter. I found the cream shade to be a bit too light which wouldn’t be too big of a problem if not for its inability to blend. It just kind of stuck to my finger and barely smudged around upon attempted application. Yeah, I use my finger for cream highlighters. Brushes don’t work for me and I haven’t found a spare blender I’m willing to sacrifice to the task.

 

The darker shade is way too dark for me as a highlighter but it could work as a bronzer, if I knew how to bronze. It blended well but it’s too dark/brown to work as a blush. I do appreciate the fact that this is a bronzer that can work for darker skin tones. For most people I imagine this duo will be only half used as the highlight will be too light or too dark, but I give the brand credit for considering both ends of the melanin spectrum and not excluding us darker skinned peoples. That I self makes me want to like this product.

I received the BRTC Jasmine Waterful Foaming Cleanser and this was a pretty hefty sized sample. The tube was actually full! I did not expect a cream cleanser to start. I actually expected a Clean & Clear type liquid dish soap type cleanser, so that was pleasant. It foamed so much that I’ve decided to designate this as the in-shower face cleanser though; I will probably need the high stream of water to easily wash it off in a timely manner. I also found this cleanser to be incredibly drying, similar to the aforementioned facial dish soap. All in all, hooray for a generously sized cleanser that cleans but boo to the crypt keeper level of skin tightening afterward. UPDATE: It’s still drying as shit even if applied minimally in the shower. I really need to overload on moisturizers afterward. I’m not sure if this product will survive the purge.

The final item of March was the Tarte Sex Kitten Eyeliner. I won’t complain about another black eyeliner because it will get use, period. At least not in this post. I will however point out that this is the tiniest automatic eyeliner sample ever, worthy of Birchbox status even. At least I have an easy product to kill off. I’m not the biggest fan of the packaging, it makes it difficult to handle but if you like hiding makeup products like a secret agent on the go then this might be the product for you. The formula is a bit drier than I expected but that makes it nearly ideal for tightlining without smudging. It works well on the waterline is you work quickly at smudging because once it sets you’re stuck with your decision. Upon looking up the value for this eyeliner I realized even the full sized item is minuscule. I may have to tamp down the tiny sample complaint.

Left to right: City Color highlighter (cream), City Color highlighter (powder), Tarte eyeliner, Tarte lip liner and Glossier lip balm

This is probably the worst bag that I’ve had in a long time. It actually bordered on being legitimately bad. In theory everything should have been useful: a lip liner, a lip balm, a highlighter/bronzer that can be used as a shadow, a face wash and an eyeliner. What knocked this down was the quality of many of the items. The lip liner was far too waxy and dry, the lip balm is practical, the highlighter is simultaneously too light and too dark, the face wash would work best on someone who’s face was made of Crisco and the tiny eyeliner is mediocre. Lord, I know it sounds like I’m never happy but March just wasn’t a great month for Ipsy. February wasn’t great either. The bag itself was pretty sweet though with its color theme and included markers. Though the design isn’t my style I love Ipsy for thinking outside the box on this one.