Thinking of You: Ipsy, December 2014.

 Oh hello Ipsy.

This bag came about a week ago, but between the dealing with children right before the holidays, at school, and planning a wedding in March, I've just been so busy, that I barely have time to check my mail. I haven't even opened half the Christmas Cards I've gotten so far. So I do apologize for the delay. 

Anyhow, Ipsy costs ten dollars a month, and for that ten dollars, you get a makeup bag full of samples and full-size products every month. Your bag will almost always be worth more than you paid for it, and at the same time, you get to try out all sorts of products.

This months theme was "Thinking of You", which I suppose seems appropriate with it being December and holidays and such.

I will say, I did like the bag this month, it's black and simple. 

First up, a precision beauty eyelash curler, worth $5.00.

Verdict: Curious

I've always seen eyelash curlers as some sort of Medieval torture device, so I've never actually owned one. They terrify me. But now that I have one, I'm sort of curious about it and want to try to use it without worrying about pulling all my eyelashes out. I'll let you all know how that goes.

This was what was in the bag.

Beauty Without Cruelty, facial cleanser, worth approximately $3.00.

Verdict: Indifferent

I don't mind facial cleansers. I'm always looking for stuff that can help me face and my skin. So I don't really feel happy or upset about getting a product like this. I would've preferred makeup, but it's not an unwelcome product.

Nyx butter lip balm, in marshmallow, worth $4.00, full-size.

Verdict: Like

Who doesn't want chapstick in the winter?

It's a nice nude color, so it doesn't really give my lips any color, and it smells really good. It smells like Marshmallows.

Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara, worth about $10.00.

[it's about half the size of a full-size product, which is worth $20.00]

Verdict:  LOVE

I love mascara samples. Thanks to Ipsy, I don't think I've bought mascara in over a year because I'm constantly getting samples of it :)

Pixi Fairy Dust, worth $10.00, full-size.

Verdict: Okay

 The color is so nude that you can barely see it on my skin, at all. 

If I had a choice, I would've chosen a different color because there's not much I can do with this color, and some of the other colors on the website like gold, snow, and copper appear to me more.

It's not a bad product, I used to buy stuff like this all the time, only my choices were more bright and glittery colors, I'm just not a fan of the color that I got sent.

[they used to sell these at Claire's, they were these stackable glitter pots and they were awesome! This product sort of reminds me of those, just less glittery and shimmery.]

So....

The grand total of this month's bag is: $32.00

More than three times what I paid for it.

I didn't hate this month's bag. It was much better than some of the recent bags I've gotten from them in the past few months. 

So if Ipsy appeals to you, by all means, check them out.

And:

 to all, who celebrate....

As for me, I'll be on a plane heading to NJ tomorrow to spend a week wedding planning!

See you next year ;)

 

Julep: Trick or Treat Mystery Box

Before I get into the brink of this entry, I'd just like to take some time to write about how awesome Julep's customer service is. I was expecting this box on Friday, and when I when to check on the delivery status of the package, it said that the package was being returned to sender because no such address existed. I was confused, I've gotten millions of packages here from Julep and other places... Maybe Fed Ex was fed up with me because my apartment accepted a package addressed to me, the other day, where I totally put the wrong apartment address, and they didn't want to delivery it, but the office people recognized my name, and made them leave it here... who knew...

So anyways, I called Julep up on the phone, told them what happened, and they had no problem resending my package to me, no questions asked, and told me to expect it sometime this week. They were so nice and sweet to me.

Then this showed up in the mail today:

 I'm not quite sure if my picture accurately portrays how beat up that box is. It's re-taped back together, bent in, and my address was wrong... I don't know what happened, the last number was left out, and hand-written in, and I got it today. No wonder they wanted to return it to the senders...

But in the end, the vanishing box, still got here. I think my replacement box got sent out yesterday, so we'll see if I get another box. If I do, it'll be interesting to compare the contents of the two boxes. If I get repeats, no biggie, I promised our landlord that I'd give her some of my doubles, which I have several of, as it is because she's interested in sampling their polish since she sees how many packages from them I get a month. 

The first look at the Trick or Treat Mystery Box.

Now, tons of people were PISSED OFF [me included] about the lack of "jewels" in the September Jewel Heist Mystery Box, and were quite vocal about to Julep on their facebook.

Julep  said they learned from the feedback, and were eager to make a more pleasing Mystery Box, so even though the Trick or Treat Mystery Boxes would be recycled colors, they would be more theme related. So I was eager to see what it would contain. I was expecting a lot of oranges, yellows, greens, and blacks.

Ajani took a liking to the box it came in.. He's still in there, and doesn't seem to be leaving any time soon.

from l to r: Payton, Leah, Roc Solid, and Millie.

They were my "Trick or Treat" add on and mystery color. 

Payton, Bombshell, is a bright mint green. I feel like my nailpolish collection lacks some good green color polishes, and green is my favorite color, and I'm very happy with this color.

Leah, IT GIRL, is a shimmery green. It's a different shade of green than Payton, as you can see in the picture, and it has a greenish silver shimmer. I like it.

Roc Solid, IT GIRL, is sort of a teal colored gray. It's very much a me color. 

Millie, Boho Glam, is a cross between gray, blue, and purple. It's also very much a me color.

Love these four colors, they're the sort of colors I tended to buy in bulk when I used to get my cheap drugstore nail polish back in the day. 

Verdict: LOVE THESE COLORS

Four colors, each worth $11.20, at maven prices, total value, $44.80, definitely way more than I paid.

The inside of the big box.

Nail mask, worth $2.o0

I have never used one of these and never plan to use one of these. I'm sure they're great, they're just not really my thing. 

Verdict: FAIL, only because it isn't a "me" product.

Julep's Blank Canvas Eye Primer and Candy Corn, worth $17.60.

I have nothing against eye primer. I've used it before, although I tend to use strictly Urban Decay's eye primer, but I think I now have a total of three of these Blank Canvas Eye Primers... so maybe it's time to switch loyalties? 

I just rarely have a time, where I can sit down, and really work on making my eye makeup look pretty. I'm too busy. For school, I put on enough eye liner and mascara to make me NOT look like a corpse, and run out the door. 

And my friends group consist of a bunch of awesome geeky nerds, who care far more about what MtG cards they're going to get in their booster packs than what my makeup looks like, so I don't really have any social opportunities where I can really find a reason to dress my makeup up. Therefore, I just don't really have a reason to use primer.

Verdict: Like, just don't have much time or reason to take advantage of such a product.

The Candy Corn is already gone.

Verdict: LOVE[D]

 Luxe Care Hand Creme, worth $16.00

Hand Creme is useful. I swear between Julep and Ipsy, I'm never ever going to have to buy hand creme ever again. 

Verdict: Neutral, I don't love it or hate it.

Brilliance Glycolic Hand Scrub, worth $18.40.

I'm intrigued by this product. I totally prefer a hand scrub to a hand creme. As a special education teacher, everything I do is very "hands on", so it'll be a nice little treat for my hands that I can use to wash school  off of them, and I always love the way exfoliating products feel on my skin when I use them.

Verdict: Very Curious

from l to r: Beatrix, Valerie, Josephine, & Faye.

Beatrix, bombshell is awesome. It's a black polish with thick chunks of silver glitter in a pool of rainbow glitter. It's very much a me color. 

Valerie, bombshell is a turquoise with a gold shimmer in it. You can also see the gold shimmer in my picture. It's also very much a me color.

Josephine, IT GIRL, is more of a navy color than my picture shows. It may be a really good color for my wedding since my bridesmaid dresses are all navy blue.

Verdict: LOVE THESE COLORS

Faye, boho glam is a shimmery golden sand color. It's not the ugliest color I've ever gotten, but it doesn't wow me either.

Verdict: Meh

Again, four colors, worth a total of $44.80.

Total:  $98.80, with Maven Prices.

Well over what I paid for it, and I'm actually very satisfied with this box. I love basically all the nailpolish colors that I received, and I wasn't wowed with all the beauty products that I got, but there's really nothing [except maybe the nail mask] that I would call a waste of space. So Julep did redeem themselves for the Jewel Heist Fiasco with this box. Everything fit nicely, for the most part, with the Halloween theme, and I very much like the selection of products that I got in this box.

Ipsy, August 2014, Beauty Schooled.

Hmm, I don't even remember getting a notification about my bag being mailed, nor do I really think I saw any spoilers, so I had no idea what to expect from Ipsy this month.

Ipsy is only ten dollars a month, and every month they send you a makeup bag full of products that are based on your profile. The bags consist of full-size and sample size products. I've found their makeup bags make amazing pencil cases for my massively huge pen and sharpie marker collection.

This is what was in my pink bubble mailer.

Perversion Mascara from Urban Decay, worth about $11.00 because it's a generous sample size and I'm estimating it to be about half of the full-size product, which is worth twenty-two.

I FUCKING LOVE URBAN DECAY,  they're my favorite makeup company. I love their Perversion black 24/7 eyeliner... Hell I love all their eyeliners. I love their naked palette. So this product alone made my bag amazingly awesome. I can't wait to wear this. 

SrtiVectin  Present Perfect antioxidant defense lotion,  worth $8.67 based on the price of the full-size product in comparison to the sample.

I'm always looking for an anti-aging skin product, so I'm eager to see if this product works, although it's quite a small sample, so I'm not sure I'll be able to see much of a result. Also, I don't know if I'd want to spend $59.00 for a full-size tube of it because I'm cheap like that.

Jersey Shore Sun Mongogongo Nutrient Defense, full-size, worth $5.50. 

I never say no to free chap stick, and I like how this chap stick is all natural and organic. 

MANNA! sheer glo, shimmer lotion, worth maybe $3ish dollars?

On my hand.

Blended on my hand, as you can see, this is not a good color for me. It make me look like I have a second degree burn that matches the one I have on my wrist from burning myself on the salmon tray after we cooked dinner tonight. 

Bronzer products just aren't my forte.

I have absolutely no interest in this product.

J Cat Flying Solo Eyeshadow in Half-Naked, full-size, worth $2.29.

I love the cute little applicator and mirror on the bottom of the compact.

Swatched on my hand.

This is a nice nude color. It's the perfect base color for a neutral every-day teaching look. It's nothing special, but I surely don't mind having more neutral shadows. 

Total: $30.46, about three times what I initially paid for it.

I was quite pleased this month, I'm thrilled about my mascara sample, that just made the entire bag for me, and I surely don't mind some more eye shadow and chap stick.

So check out Ipsy, it really is one of my favorite subscriptions.

Ipsy: Sensationally Sun Kissed, July 2014

This is what Ajani thought of this months Ipsy bag. He did not approve. 

The theme of July's bag was "Sensationally Sun-Kissed", which makes me think of skin and tanning products that I want nothing to do with. 

I didn't HATE this month's products or anything. I just wasn't overly wowed or anything.

But before that. Ipsy is a ten dollar a month subscription bag service that sends you a mixture of beauty products, skin care, and nail products, and other random stuff. The products you get are supposedly based on a survey you take when you join the site, but I'm not sure I would trust the accuracy of that survey. They all send all the makeup in a special bag for each month. It's nice to have makeup bags lying around for travel and stuff.

There's usually a waiting list, but I think you can skip the line if you add them to facebook and become a fan or something... well that's what I did... sometimes the waits are long, sometimes there aren't, sometimes there is no wait. It all depends.

Moving onward.

THIS BAG IS FUCKING HIDEOUS! 

It is so ugly. It looks like bright pink whoopee cushion.. or a pillow that a third grader makes in art class or something. It is SO UGLY! 

Bare Minerals 5 in 1 BB advanced performance cream eyeshadow, worth... I'm not sure? The full-size is $18.00... So this is probably 1/4th of $18.00, if I had to estimate, so... $4.50, approximately?

I think the color I got is Radiant Sands or Divine Wine... My swatch is actually very different in person than it looks in picture. It's much more coppery and shimmery, which make me think it's Radiant Sands over Divine Wine. 

I like the product and it looks good with my skin tone, and I like nude colors, mainly for work purposes, so this is a product that I'd experiment with. 

 Pix! Tinted Brillance Balm in Unique Pink, full-size, worth $8.00. I don't really see how this is tinted, I tried to do a swatch on my skin and I couldn't see anything except maybe a slight shimmer?

The other color that went out was a much darker red, so I can see how that would be tinted. But mine is very much a transparent color, at least on me.

It's basically chapstick. I have nothing against chapstick.

Whet Nailpolish, not full-size, but almost full-size, worth $9.00. A full size is .05 and my sample size is .03.

 The labeling  and description on their box amuses me greatly because it sounds like one of those products that you would get in an "adult" themed box meant to turn on your partner and bring our your wildest desires... Of course... maybe that's the point? BUT ANYWAYS.

My color was facetious, a very bright but dark blue. I'm pretty sure I have colors just like this, but I never say no to nailpolish :)

Whet Nails does have some interesting nailpolish colors with unique names, if you're curious.

Hang Ten Deep Tanning Oil, worth $1.00. The full-size is 8 oz and the sample size is 1 oz.

I don't mind getting sent tanning oil. I do use tanning oil if I'm just reading at the pool.But I tend to go more for oil with 15 spf as opposed to 8 spf, which is what this sample has.

I haven't been much into the pool lately though. Weather in Texas is bipolar and we get a lot of thunderstorms- even now it looks about ready to storm-, and the pool has been very crowded since summer school let out.

I'm going to Schlitterbahn next week, on a mini vacay with the fiance, and this is much too little SPF to use at a water park, all day, in the scorching sun.

So... Not sure if I'll use this product? I may, if I go to the pool for an hour or so. Or I may not. But I don't hate it like some people seem to.

Lavilin JoJoba skin soother gel cream, worth $3.15, a full-size is a huge tub basically.

Oh hey.. it just started raining, told you Texas weather is weird.

Anyways, this product is interesting to me. As someone, who gets sunburns [and not from tanning oil, I tend to get them on my face, where I use real lotion], and painful sunburns, at that, I'm always looking for products to soothe my skin. So, I'll stick this in my bag, when we go to Schlitterbahn and see if it can make a difference.

The total value of my bag was: $25.65

Not the highest value bag I've ever gotten, but not the worst either, it still more then double what I initially paid for it.

This bag wasn't awful, just wasn't my favorite, compared to other bags I've gotten, in the past. But hey, you can't expect every bag to be perfect.

So if you're interested in Ipsy, feel free to check them out.

Wantable: April 2014

My April Wantable box came a few days before my surgery, which by the way I survived. It's been two weeks since my surgery, and while I don't know if I'm cancer free [though the oncologist seemed very confident after surgery] yet, I'm doing okay. 

I have pain on my stomach, where I have 5 incisions [I had it done via a robot and laproscopically] and bruising and swelling associated with that. But other than that, I'm mostly okay. The pain sort of feels like when I do way too many sit-ups at the gym, and I'm achy. I can't really bend over too well. But really, I survived.

But I digress...

 

Wantable  is one of the pricier subscription boxes, at $36.00 per month, but unlike the others, you can literally pick what products you like and don't like. And you can always get ONE box for about $40.00, but the subscription saves you some dough.

They also have an accessory box and an intimates box. I get their makeup box... Or rather I got it before I canceled most of my subscription services prior to surgery to save money until I'm working and making money again.

This was the first look at my box.

A Retractable Kabuki Brush from Real Techniques, worth $10.00.  The brush is pretty nifty, you turn the handle and it either grows or shrinks back into the container. However, I think if I resubscribe to Wantable, I'll put tools under "dislike" because they just haven't sent me any tools that I actually find useful. 

Hex nailpolish from Liberty Republic, worth $14.00. I really like this color. In fact, I painfully painted it on my toenails today [bending over with five stitches in your abdomen... not the most comfortable thing ever] and it looks awesome. It's a cerulean blue with silver glitter, and it's nice and thick, one coat was all I needed. 

Eye Cordial Frothe from Tini Beauty, worth $18.00. It's an eye-shadow base. It's sort of a yellowish white color. I don't really like the color. I'm not sure if I'll use it. I might, or I might not. But I'm "meh" about this. 

Extreme Volumizing Mascara Black from Sorme, worth $14.00.  I actually used this mascara yesterday, when my fiance took me out for dinner and I felt a desire to look human and wear makeup. It gave my lashes some nice definition, length, and color. It's not the BEST mascara I've ever used [that honor goes to Golden Rose from my original Wantable box back in like December], but it's a pretty good mascara :)

Opaline Cream Eye Definer by Three Custom Color, worth $22.50. It's a very nice and dark color that would make a good eyeliner. I haven't tried it yet, but I do like black and darker colored eyeliners, so I'm sure it will eventually be used.

The total value:  $83.50

WAAAAAYYYYY over what thirty six bucks I originally paid back when I was actually earning money.

It's not the best Wantable box I've ever gotten, but it's not the worst either. I've already used two of the products, and may or may not use a few more. 

So if you feel so inclined, check out Wantable.