Review: January Ipsy Glam Bag

The products in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Hey gang! I know I missed reviewing the past few Ipsy bags, but I managed to get this month's done! (In case you don't know, Ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription service that costs $10 and is somewhat customizable. Feel free to use my referral link if you want to try it!)

This was a decent month; I'll definitely be using up two of the products, and probably trashing another two.

1. Eco-Beauty Good Day. Day Moisturizer

This is probably my favorite product in the bag! It feels light and non-greasy, but definitely provides moisture. It has a light natural cucumber scent and contains hyaluronic acid along with several plant extracts that are meant to have anti-aging properties. I also appreciate that they didn't send a teeny tiny sample size. Although the full size is pretty pricey ($40 for 50 g) so I'm not sure I'd shell out for it.

2. Hikari Mechanical Eyeliner in Storm

(Boy, I'm getting really tired of getting eyeliners in my Ipsy bags. Even if I used eyeliner regularly, I'd still have way too many by now!)

This is a metallic gunmetal eyeliner with a twist-up dispenser. The color looks like it could be nice, but I had a really hard time getting it to draw evenly on my skin. It was barely showing up unless I pressed very hard. Judging from the reviews, a lot of people had this problem, so it's not just me being dumb!

3. Manna Kadar Cosmetics Sheer Glo

This was the other let-down of the bag for me. It's an all-over highlighter cream that's supposed to "provide a youthful glow and dewy finish". Now, my life goal is to make my face less shiny, so anything that makes me more "dewy" is a bad thing.

So the swatch above shows the stuff before it's blended in. It has a pink tint with little gold flecks that are impossible to photograph. As far as I can tell, the pink pretty much goes away once you blend it (although I'm already very pink, so it's hard to say for sure). I put it on under my makeup, and at first I definitely looked shiny (er, sorry, "dewy"). Once I got the rest of my makeup on, I couldn't tell that I was wearing a highlighter at all. Plus, it gave me that grimy feeling I associate with liquid makeup (I switched to powder makeup a long time ago for my oily skin). So, yep, into the garbage.

4. Pacifica Natural Mineral Coconut Eyeshadow in Treasure

This is the second time I've gotten a Pacifica coconut eyeshadow in my Ipsy bag. Last time the shades were disappointingly faint, but I think they did a better job with this one. It's a bronzey gold metallic and it definitely showed up well on my lids. I also appreciate that Pacifica tries to avoid including some of the yuckier ingredients that can show up in other eyeshadows. I'll probably wear this again.

5. (MALIN+GOETZ) Mojito Lip Balm

I was surprised how much I like this lip balm. It's in liquid gel form and has a nice subtle, not-too-sweet fragrance. It goes on very thick and velvety, although I've found it can get sticky over time. It adds some shine too. I don't recognize most of the ingredients, so I couldn't say if it's actually doing something good for my lips, but it definitely feels nice. The one thing I don't like about liquid lip balms is that I feel like I use too much, and the full size is $12, so I won't be buying more.

The products in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Review: October Lip Monthly bag

The products in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Hi guys! Today I have a review of a subscription bag I just decided to try out for a few months. Lip Monthly sends you a variety of lip products each month, plus one other beauty product. It costs $10 per month, but you can get a discount if you buy multiple months in advance. Here's my referral link if you'd like to try it out!

The one downside to this service compared to other ones I've tried is that it isn't customizable, so they don't take your skin tone or other preferences into account. It's still a fairly new service though, so this might change in the future.

The theme for October's bag was "the nude lip". Alongside a lipstick, they included multiple lip care products, as well as an eyeliner to use for a smoky eye look. Unfortunately the star of the bag didn't really suit me, as you'll see!

1. Starlooks Lip Sugar

This product didn't come with an ingredients list, but it smells and tastes like brown sugar, so I'm assuming that's the main ingredient. It works pretty much as advertised to exfoliate your lips and doesn't feel overly rough. A little goes a long way. Will definitely use again.

2. Noyah Classic Lip Balm

(Yes, it's spelled Noya on the tube but Noyah everywhere else.) This is a very simple, all-natural lip balm that feels really great and moisturizing. It contains only coconut oil, beeswax, olive oil, and stevia for sweetening. It's also kosher, if you're into that. That said, I do think the balms are a bit overpriced ($4) so I'm glad I got this one for less. (Although I have mountains of homemade lip balm here, so I never need to buy lip balm again.)

3. J.cat Fantabulous Lipstick in Honeycrisp

Here is the promised nude lipstick of the bag. I confess, I always thought "nude" lipstick matched the color of your lips, but this one is actually more like flesh-colored (for me anyway). I can see how this could look good with a really bold eye look. Unfortunately, this particular shade is much more yellow than my skintone, so it ended up looking really weird on me.

(Sorry, indoor pic.)

I wasn't too impressed with the formula either--it wasn't very opaque. Definitely won't be wearing this one.

Bottom to top: J.cat Honeycrisp, Look deVine Pinot Noir, L.A. Girl Blue Metallic

4. Look deVine lip shimmer in Pinot Noir

As you can tell from the above swatch, this product adds just a slight tint and shimmer to your lips. I tried photographing it over a lipstick, but you really couldn't see it. I would mainly use this as a lip balm, because it has a ton of natural oils and feels great. It also has a rather strong grape scent. Additionally, it contains resveratrol, which is found in grapes and is supposedly good for you, but there isn't any clear proof of its benefits in humans.

5. L.A. Girl Eyeliner in Blue Metallic

This is the one non-lip product in the bag. It's a standard pencil eyeliner. As you know, I'm not a big fan of eyeliner, but I tried it on and it seemed to work decently. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good photo of it.



OK, so I was happy with 3/5 of my first Lip Monthly bag, and that's decent for a subscription service. I have three more prepaid bags coming, so I'll let you know how they are!

The products in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

NEW products at ALIQUID Lacquer!

Good morning! I'm really excited to tell you about my second set of ALIQUID Lacquer polishes, now available for sale!

First up we have three polishes in the Re-Gifted Collection. I made a bunch of polishes as gifts for friends and family this winter, then Trudy picked three to put in the store!

ALIQUID Lacquer Exploradora. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Exploradora was originally made for a relative who used to work for Dora the Explorer (apparently she's a real taskmaster). It's a tan crelly with magenta hexes and small black glitter. I've made this crelly (and the others) more or less opaque in two coats, since I hate having to use a ton of coats with glitter polishes!

ALIQUID Lacquer Gargoyle. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Second up is Gargoyle, an homage to Gargoyle Magazine at the University of Michigan. It's a grey creme with white, gunmetal, gold and copper flecks. Looks like stone!

ALIQUID Lacquer A Pun on Teal. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Finally we have A Pun on Teal. I made this as part of a Secret Santa swap in a nail group I belong to. We're always joking that teal polishes need to have a punny name (like this one, for example), so I skipped the hard part of actually thinking up a good pun. This is a green-leaning teal crelly with matte glitters in multiple sizes and colors.


In addition to the Re-Gifted collection, I've also made a polish to go along with Pantone's Color of the Year for 2014, Radiant Orchid. (Thanks to Jessica at Be Happy and Buy Polish for encouraging me to make this!)

ALIQUID Lacquer Stop and Smell the Orchids. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Stop and Smell the Orchids is a Radiant Orchid-style purple crelly with purple, white and fuchsia glitters, plus white, blue and purple flecks. Super sparkly!


Finally, I made two new scented lip balms that both smell divine: chai and mint citrus!

Go check out the new stuff at my shop! The polishes all retail for $9 (15 ml)/$4 (5 ml) and the lip balms are $2 (or $5 for three). Trudy and I hope you like everything!

Announcing...ALIQUID Lacquer!

Hi everyone! I have a huge announcement for you! This will explain why I haven't been posting quite so much lately...I've been busy creating nail polish!

That's right--I've opened my own shop for indie polish, ALIQUID Lacquer!! I'd been daydreaming about making polish for a long time, but it always seemed like a pipe dream. Then one day I decided to buy some sample pigments and suspension base...and there was no turning back after that!

Let me show you the polishes I've made. The name of my first collection is "Happy Birthday to Me" because my birthday is coming up in a few weeks, and what better way to celebrate than to make some birthday-themed polishes?

ALIQUID Lacquer Make a Wish. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

The first one is called Make a Wish. It's a blue-grey creme with red and copper flecks, gold/green flecks, blue flecks, and a green-to-red shimmer. It's subtle but pretty! (opaque in 2-3 coats)

ALIQUID Lacquer Carrot Cake. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

#2 is Carrot Cake, named after one of my favorite kinds of cake (our wedding cake was carrot!). It's an orange crelly with copper micro glitter, two sizes of white hex, and green dot glitter. (nearly opaque in 2 coats)

ALIQUID Lacquer Quiet Night In. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.

Finally we have Quiet Night In. This is a blackened purple jelly with tons of flecks of various sizes and colors (including gold, peach, pink, blue and indigo)! Super sparkly with topcoat! (opaque in 3 coats)

In addition to the three polishes, I'm also selling handmade lip balm. I have perpetually chapped lips, and I've tried every commercial lip balm out there. I've been frustrated by the lack of inexpensive balms that aren't made of petroleum products and other filler chemicals. So I whipped up my own balm using mango butter, beeswax, apricot kernel oil and olive oil! It has a luxurious feel and is long-lasting. It has a vanilla scent that isn't too overpowering.

Please give my shop a look and like my Facebook page! As a thank-you to my faithful readers, you can use the coupon code PARTYTIME to get 10% off your order until December 8 (my birthday!).

Keep an eye out for blogger reviews of my polish and GIVEAWAYS!