Ipsy May 2015

Sorry for the very late post! I had a hectic several weeks, but I should be able to catch up and post regularly now! May’s Ipsy theme was Jetsetter! (Ipsy is a subscription beauty service which sends you five beauty products, either samples or full-sized items, for $10 per month! If you are interested in subscribing, feel free to use my referral link.) For this month’s bag, each subscriber received one of three possible designs by Breakups to Makeup! The full-size versions of these bags retail for $24 at Sephora. Although the design isn’t exactly my style, I do like the material and size. The outside material is canvas-like, while the inside is polyester. Also, its height seems to be a bit taller than previous bags. The color of the inside lining also differed; mine is a bright yellow-green.

The products and the bag I received this month!

Here are the contents of my May Ipsy bag:

• Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Lip Pencil in Ozone + Bonus Revolution High-Color Lipgloss in Failbait and Bittersweet, $15.00
• Pixi by Petra Beauty Bronzer in Summertime, $8.00
• BelláPierre Cosmetics Waterproof Mineral Gel Eyeliner Pencil in Ebony, $14.99
• Peter Lamas Detoxifying Citrus C Facial Cleanser, $6.00
• Alterna Haircare Caviar CC Cream, $8.50

Total value of my bag this month = $52.49

Overall impressions: This bag has a high value and good mix of products! I can definitely use everything, and I’m excited to try everything out. Plus, the bag is a refreshing change from previous bags in both style and material. Overall, I’m pretty happy. I would have liked to receive the Chella eyebrow pencil or the full-size Oscar Blandi dry shampoo, but beauty boxes are usually a gamble.

Urban Decay: 24/7 Glide on Lip Pencil in Ozone + Bonus Revolution High-Color Lipgloss in Failbait and Bittersweet, sample sizes

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Lip Pencil in Ozone + Bonus Revolution High-Color Lipgloss in Failbait and Bittersweet

Estimated retail value of $15.00 (based on sample size of 0.03 oz and full size retailing at $20.00 for 0.04 oz)

This was a sample I was excited to receive! While I have plenty of lip products from subscription boxes, this is the first lip liner I received. I still need to use it more to determine its effectiveness, but so far, I enjoy this product. It’s a nice size to travel with, and the color is clear, so it may be used with any color lip product. However, I don’t particularly care for lip gloss in general, and I dislike the blister packaging. But they were bonus items, so I can’t really complain.

Pixi by Petra: Beauty Bronzer, sample size

Pixi by Petra Beauty Bronzer in Summertime

Estimated retail value of $8.00 (based on sample size of 0.16 oz and full size retailing at $18.00 for 0.36 oz)

Even though this is a sample size product, it’s a very generous size that will last me for a while. It’s somewhat shimmery, which I don’t like (I would prefer a non-shimmery bronzer for contouring). I can imagine this would be multi-purposed as an eyeshadow as well. I’ve been wanting to try more bronzers as well, so I’m pretty happy with this sample.

BelláPierre Cosmetics: Waterproof Mineral Gel Eyeliner Pencil in Ebony, full size

BelláPierre Cosmetics Waterproof Mineral Gel Eyeliner Pencil in Ebony

Retail value of $14.99 (based on full size retailing at $14.99 for 1.8 g/0.06 oz)

The tip of this arrived broken off for me, which is okay since it can just be sharpened. I typically wear liquid eyeliner instead of pencil since I like the precision, so I will have to test this out and see if it really wears well. This is a full-size product, which is nice! Black eyeliner is always a staple for me.

Peter Lamas: Detoxifying Citrus C Facial Cleanser, sample size

Peter Lamas Detoxifying Citrus C Facial Cleanser

Estimated retail value of $6.00 (based on sample size of 1 oz and full size retailing at $24.00 for 4 oz)

I used this for a while when traveling a while ago, but unfortunately forgot it in a hotel bathroom… Oh well. For a citrus facial cleanser, it smelled less citrusy than I expected. It lathered pretty well, but I think my skin felt quite oily after using it, so it might have been too harsh for me (I usually use Cetaphil). I have a regular skin routine already, so I didn’t particularly care for this product.

Alterna Haircare: Caviar CC Cream, sample size

Alterna Haircare Caviar CC Cream

Estimated retail value of $8.50 (based on sample size of 0.85 fl oz and full size retailing at $25.00 for 2.5 fl oz)

I heard a lot of good things about this product, so I was excited to try it! One interesting thing I noted was that it seems to make my hair smell a bit smoky after using it? I’m not sure how to describe the smell, but it was interesting. This claims to provide 10 benefits, including heat protection, moisture, etc. I have a lot of hair products from boxes recently, so I’ll have to see how this compares to oils and other products.