This is my first month as an Ipsy subscriber. Being in Canada, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pay the additional $4.95 USD just for shipping (the bag itself is $10 USD which includes the cost of shipping if you’re in the USA). However, after seeing years worth of Ipsy haul videos on YouTube filled with so many good things, I finally decided it was worth it.

When I originally looked at spoilers for my bag, I was little “meh” about it all, but I have to say I’m pretty happy with what I got in my first bag! I had the opportunity to test out all the products before I made this post, so you’ll not only see what I received this month, but you’ll also get an idea as to whether the products are actually any good.

Enough talking, on with the goods!

---

The first item didn’t fit in the blue makeup bag, but was just sitting inside the foil packet.

In spite of the fact that I absolutely love makeup, I’m really not one to purchase many makeup brushes. Reason being that I dislike spending my money on tools. I’d rather spend my cash on actual products! So because of this, while I have enough brushes to bust out a look, the reality is that I just don’t have a wide variety of them. All this to say… I was really pleased to see a brush in this bag (especially since my bag also came with foundation). The photo above makes it looks smaller than it actually is (it actually looks like a MAC 232 above, hah), although this IS a smaller face brush. Coastal Scents‘ Small Foundation Brush is a synthetic brush and this is full size, which thankfully means no shortened handle. It’s also pretty densely packed, which is not something I expected for a $5 brush.

As you can see in the shot above, it definitely is sized for the face. I do like how it applied my foundation, but I’m not a fan of flat brushes to apply my foundation. I tend to prefer larger buffing brushes if only because it takes me less time in the morning when I’m trying to get my butt out the door to work. That being said, I’ve only used it once so I’ll give it a few more tries and see if I can adapt to using flat brushes. If it doesn’t work out for me for foundation, I’m sure I’ll find another use for it.

I’m completely unfamiliar with MICA Beauty so this is an all new experience for me. The first thing I did was look up this tinted lip balm to find out how much this retails for and my eyebrows just about shot off my face. This little 4g pot sells for $30 USD. Now, I don’t know who is actually paying $30 for this because that is an extremely high end price for something being touted as a tinted lip balm.

But is this really a lip balm? Not so much. This is more like a potted lipstick. The sensation of this is unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. It’s smooth and… well, it’s not slick, but it’s not creamy either. It’s not uncomfortable… it’s just totally different than anything I’ve ever worn on the lips.

I received the colour Natural and it looks pretty brown in the pot but goes on the lips rather rosy. It’s rather shiny when first applied, but it dries down to a satin finish. This does not feel remotely like a lip balm to me. When it dries down, it tends to make your lips feel like they’re shrunk a bit and yet it’s not utterly uncomfortable to wear. The dry down will actually help increase the longevity of the product. You’ll be able to touch your lips without transferring any colour – it isn’t until you actually rub your lips where you’ll notice a colour transfer. I don’t feel it’s particularly moisturizing, but it didn’t dry out my lips either.

I didn’t wear this for a great deal of time (only about an hour or so), but I do really like the shade. If I can get used to the sensation of the product, I’m sure I’ll end up keeping this in my desk at work for the days when I forget to bring in a lip product.

Nourish Organic‘s Lightweight Moisturizing Face Lotion with Argan + Rosewater is indeed a pretty thin moisturizer. It feels incredibly liquidy, which doesn’t give me the feeling it’ll be moisturizing enough. It took a bit of rubbing to get the product into my skin, but it did sink in eventually. However, once it dried, it made my skin feel slightly tight, almost as if it had formed a shell over my skin and it needed to be cracked. I realize that sounds incredibly dramatic, and it’s not like it formed an entire plaster over my face, but it didn’t feel great. I’ll finish up the deluxe sample, but I wouldn’t ever purchase this product. Also… this smells like apricots even though the product says it’s the argan and rosewater variety. Odd.

I received the Pomegranate Extract scent/flavour of the Absolute! Make-up Cleansing Tissues in my bag. They claim to remove all makeup, including waterproof mascara. Since I wear waterproof mascara daily, I was more than happy to try these out after a day at work.

So I came home yesterday and swiped off my makeup. And rubbed at it. My foundation came off without a hitch, but I did have to rub a decent amount at my lashes, including a lot of wiggling of the tissue *on* my lashes. It’s not something unusual for a makeup removing wipe, but it’s not something I particularly enjoy doing. In the end, they did work, but not as good as some other wipes I’ve used (Neutrogena springs to mind).

The other thing about these is that they smell kind of off. I don’t know if it’s just relegated to the pomegranate scent, but they initially smelled like an alcoholic froufy drink… and then the more I rubbed it on my skin the more nauseating the scent became. I’m glad there’s only ten in this pack because the smell of them would do me in if I used many more than that. I wouldn’t re-purchase these with my own money, but I was happy to try them out and I’ll finish up the package.

This was incredible! I’ve heard about Yaby before, but didn’t own anything by them and don’t ever recall seeing them in stores. I was a bit skeptical about receiving a foundation because blind colour matches can be almost impossible. But this shade in Buff is a PERFECT match for my skin right now. It also looked and felt incredible on my skin. It was one of those moments where you step back from your mirror and go “whoa”. It was THAT good. I also like that the foundation is so small (although this is a full size tube) and has a nozzle end. This makes this the absolute perfect foundation for travelling with and I intend to save it for those occasions.

Keep in mind that ounce for ounce, this is a very expensive foundation. Since the full size tube is only 8 ml (versus the normal 30 ml in most foundations), if you were to buy a full ounce of product, as most foundations come, this would set you back about $50 which is on parr with high end foundations.

To me, this foundation actually feels pretty similar to Revlon‘s Colorstay. It seems to have the same long lasting effect and it does make my skin feel a bit tight (not an issue for me now that I’m a bit more used to wearing foundation, but it is a bit annoying around the 12 hour mark). I love this and I would definitely repurchase this when I run out. As a side note, I was pleased to find out that Yaby is actually a Canadian-brand, developed in Toronto!

Ipsy January 2014 Breakdown

• Coastal Scents Small Foundation Brush – $4.95 USD (full size)
• MICA Beauty Natural 24 hour Tinted Lip Balm – $30 USD (full size)
• Nourish Organic Lightweight Moisturizing Face Lotion Argan + Rosewater: 0.5 oz for $6.47 USD (full size is 1.7 oz for $21.99 USD)
• Yaby Liquid Foundation Natural Finish in Buff – $13.55 USD
• Absolute! Make-Up Cleansing Tissues – Pomegranate Extract – $2.49 USD

BOX TOTAL: $57.46

My Thoughts

I do have to say box’s overall monetary total is greatly inflated because of the tinted lip balm – I really don’t know who would pay $30 for that, it seems totally out of line. Regardless, I am really quite pleased with this bag. I enjoyed getting a new brush and I was SO HAPPY with that foundation that those two right there made the whole bag for me. The moisturizer wasn’t to my liking, nor were the wipes, but that’s really just a personal preference. The lip tint was interesting to play with although not a complete winner for me.

I’ll definitely be staying subscribed to Ipsy in the coming months. It really is a steal at $14.95 USD (for Canadians, $10 for Americans). If you’d like to sign up and would like to give someone a referral credit (I receive points I believe, not compensation of any kind), you can use my referral link.

If you received something different in your bag, let me know what you got and whether or not you like it!