Review: May Ipsy Glam Bag

Good morning! I'm skipping the Neverending Pile Challenge for today because I don't have any untrieds that fit the theme. Instead, I'm going to show you what I got in my Ipsy Glam Bag this month!

If you haven't heard of Ipsy, it's a $10-per-month beauty and skincare subscription service. Each month you get 4-5 full size or sample size products. You can review each product to help Ipsy customize your next bag. You also get exclusive deals from all the featured brands each month. Here's my referral link if you're interested!

You might remember that I was slightly disappointed in last month's bag, but luckily this time Ipsy got back on its game! I only had one real dud, and it's a doozy. I'll start with the good stuff though...

1. Nailtini Straight Up Color Nail Lacquer in Bloody Mary

Nailtini Bloody Mary. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Yay, nail polish! I've known about Nailtini for a while but never actually owned any until now. Bloody Mary is a vibrant scarlet that I would call a crelly or very thin creme (you can still see my nail line a little after two coats). It's a bit darker in real life than it appears in my photo. The formula was thin but not too runny. The brush was a little wide for my tastes--I think if you're going to go with a wide brush, you should pair it with a thicker formula that stays in place on the nail, or people will make a mess of their cuticles (as I did). On the whole I would try Nailtini again, although with a more exciting color than red!

2. Hang Ten Classic Sport SPF 50

Since we're rapidly approaching summer (although it still feels like April here today), I was glad to try some new sunscreen. This stuff is a more natural take on sunscreen and has lots of organic ingredients. I especially like the fact that it uses only natural extracts for fragrance; it has a nice subtle tropical scent that's a far cry from the usual overwhelming fake coconut smell of most sunscreens. And it was definitely less greasy than your average sunscreen. I tried it on my arms and could barely tell I was wearing anything. Good stuff!

3. Pacifica Mineral Eyeshadow Duo in Celestial/Opal

I have been on an eyeshadow kick lately, especially for warm neutrals, so I was excited to get this duo. (Note: I'm not actually sure which shade is Celestial and which is Opal, so let's just assume the pink one is Opal, OK?) They're "coconut-infused", whatever that means (there's no coconut in the ingredients list, so I'm assuming it's some coconut derivative). Sadly the color payoff on these shadows was not great, as you can see from my swatches. Opal is a peachy pink shimmer which you can just barely see on my arm, even though I slathered it on. Celestial is a light warm brown with metallic gold highlights. I had a lot of fallout on my cheeks from this one.

Here's a crappy picture of me wearing these shadows over primer. I used Opal on my inner eye and browbone, and Celestial on the middle of the lid--on the eye the brown kind of disappears and you only see the gold, so I used an additional brown shadow on the outside corner to round everything out.

So these eyeshadows were not too exciting, but I will probably still keep them around for subtle looks.

4. Pur~lisse Pur~moist Hydra Balance Moisturizer

I love trying out new moisturizer! Even though this is for "normal-dry" skin and I'm on the oily side, my skin tends to be dehydrated due to my acne treatments, so I love super hydrating stuff. This moisturizer has a gel-cream consistency, spreads on very nicely and feels great. It doesn't sink in completely on me, but I wouldn't say it feels too greasy. The scent is very light and reminds me of my grandma for some reason!

I should note that despite the natural additives it boasts (if you can't read my bad picture, it's got "blue lotus, white tea, soy proteins, sea silk, lupine peptides"), this isn't an all-natural moisturizer. But it does avoid a lot of unpopular ingredients like parabens, petrochemicals, and artificial colors/fragrances. Those natural additives are supposed to do all sorts of good things for your skin long-term, which obviously I can't comment on.

The full-size product is a whopping $55 for 1.7 ounces, so even though I like this moisturizer, I won't be buying it anytime soon.

5. Avene Thermal Spring Water

OK, time for the most bizarre product I've ever gotten in a subscription box. Kindly direct your attention to the ingredients list...yes, this is a spray-can of water. An 18-dollar spray-can of water. It is supposed to sooth irritation after cleansing, skin treatments, sunburns, etc. and otherwise be all-around good for your skin. I read through their entire brochure attempting to find out what made this water different from...y'know, regular water (special minerals from the spring?), but somehow they managed to completely avoid saying anything concrete about how this is supposed to work.

I dutifully tried this product anyway (several times!), for the sake of my gentle readers. I sprayed it on my face after cleansing, let it sit for a minute, then patted dry as directed. Of course, it felt nice and cooling on my face, but so would tap water. I don't have sensitive skin, so maybe I'm not the target audience for this stuff, but I didn't notice any actual effects on my skin. I was surprised to read so many positive reviews on Amazon, and I wonder if there really is something to it or if it's just the placebo effect (I mean, it's French, so it must work, right?).


OK, so aside from the overpriced water, I was satisfied with this Ipsy bag. Don't forget you can use my referral link to sign up if you're interested!