Another month, another Ipsy bag! I really like the bag this month – I’m a sucker for anything green and leafy. It’s also a cloth bag this time so that’s… moderately interesting? (Honestly I really have no idea what to do with all of these bags.)

Let’s dive right in.

This was definitely the most exciting thing in my bag. The chubby stick lip craze that seems to have swept the beauty world for the last year or two was just something I never really got into. My first exposure was the Revlon Balm Stains and I was not a fan of those. Those ones fade really funny, slide around on my lips and they feel really waxy/hard to apply.

That being said, everyone keept going on about the matte balms, but I held off on buying them because I didn’t need/want anymore. So I was definitely happy to get this for “free” in my bag. The colour is a bit tame, but obviously this makes it easier to please everyone who may get this colour.

And I have to say… this is awesome. Revlon‘s matte balm in Elusive is a damn showstopper. It goes on smooth, dries down to an almost transferproof finish (not right away though, you may want to blot a little to get it that way) and it stays PUT. I tried this without a primer because I was feeling lazy and it definitely lasted several hours. It even lasted through a semi-greasy lunch until I swiped at my mouth with a napkin to tidy up and it all came off then. The other side of this is now I want EVERY SHADE.

I don’t really have much to say about Hang Ten‘s Classic Sport since it’s a sunscreen and I haven’t had the opportunity to use it yet, but unlike a lot of people who got this in their bag, I’m more than happy to test this out. I usually stick to SPF 30 but I’ll try this out when I play soccer throughout the summer and see how it holds up compared to my usualCoppertone Sport sunscreen. I also like that it comes with a safety seal on the tube and that it’s not even remotely close to expiring which I know has been a concern with beauty box samples before.

Eva NYC is a brand I’m completely unfamiliar with. The instructions for their Therapy Session Hair Mask say that it can either be used as a deep conditioning mask, or an every day conditioner. Now, I’m not really sure what the heck the difference is since I leave conditioner in my hair for about five minutes every time I shower anyway. It left my hair feeling no different than any other conditioner so I didn’t feel like it was particularly special.

I’ve known of the brand Pacifica for years, but had never tried their products. As far as I’m aware, they’re well known for their lotions and butters, so I didn’t really know what to expect from this eyeshadow duo. It doesn’t help that they don’t seem to sell single or duo eyeshadows on their site – they’re all in palettes.

Anyway, this duo (#2?) turned out to be a dud in my opinion.

The white-gold shade is really patchy and chunky. The purple takes a lot of swipes and packing in order to get any kind of decent colour pay-off. In the end, the pictures really look better than I felt it looked in person, but by the end of the day the whole thing had faded and I didn’t even think it was that pigmented to begin with. So I basically went from a soft smudged out look (unintentionally, I just could not get enough colour to come off on my lids) and ended up with a faded out muddle of a look by the end of the day. Boo.

I was a bit surprised to get another microdermabrasion scrub in my bag since I got one just last month (however, I was so pleased with my previous sample that I sure wasn’t going to turn my nose up at this one!). I didn’t have anything in particular to use this derma e on so I just used it on my upper arms in the shower since I have a few random dry spots there. It felt exactly the same as the Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion scrub, although this one smelled rather lime-y (a positive for me!).

Ipsy May 2014 Breakdown
(all prices in USD)

• Revlon Colorburst Matte Balm in Elusive ($8.99, full size)
• Eva NYC Therapy Sessions Hair Mask (60 ml @ $4.80, full size is $40 for 500 ml)
• Pacifica Natural Beauty Duo #2 (they don’t sell single or even duo eyeshadows on their web site, so I’m taking a complete price guess here based on their palette price ~$10)
• Hang Ten Classic Sport SPF50 (30 ml @ $2.20, full size is $12.99 for 177 ml)
• derma e Microdermabrasion Scrub (28g  @ $16.25, full size is $32.50 for 56g)

BAG TOTAL = $42.24

My Thoughts

I’m a little indifferent to this bag. I’ll certainly use the hair conditioner, sunscreen and microdermabrasion scrub up, but they’re not really things I would get super excited about. The eyeshadow is something I’m really happy to try out, it’s just a shame that the pigmentation is a bit of a dud.

The Revlon matte balm is an amazing product though – I’m really happy that was included in this bag because my disappointment with their balm stains had turned me off chubby lip pens entirely.

Anything you love or hated in your bag?