Starting these Ipsy bag posts… man, what a challenge. I never really know what to say, but I guess one of the best things I can talk about is how my month was and how this bag made me feel. One thing I really want to emphasize is giving yourself little gifts throughout the month; while you’re building your career, or taking care of your child, or whatever… you deserve a few things for yourself.
And I want those things to be worth it. So month to month, the one thing I look for in every Ipsy bag is value. Is this bag both valuable monetarily and also to my life? Do the products make me feel good? Or do they make me feel blah?
So often, my Ipsy posts have been reflections of how I’m doing that month. Some of my saltiest reviews came when I was not feeling so great.
For a little context: the last few months have been some of the hardest of my life. I’ve struggled a lot, but I find myself doing better and better as time goes on. But December and January were definitely rougher months in the scheme of things—and honestly, November too.
With that being said, lately I’ve needed my self-care items to be even bigger than before. I’ve needed my therapy sessions; I’ve needed my bubble baths; I’ve needed my evenings to be quiet. Sometimes, I don’t get those things. Sometimes, self-care is just going to bed early or making an extra pot of coffee or closing my office door for 5 minutes to silently scream.
Not to give it all away quite so quickly, but this month’s Ipsy definitely felt like a bit of a let down. The last few months definitely have. But this month’s in particular is very disappointing and I’ll hit why on those specific items. Let’s get started, shall we?
You can read my past Ipsy reviews here. If you want to try Ipsy, you can sign up using my referral link here.
1. Glow Recipe Blueberry Bounce Cleanser, $3.19 value
I love the Glow Recipe, it’s such a great brand, but as I’m trying to repair my skin’s pH barrier, I’ve become more and more picky about cleansers I use. This one has a lot of pure soap ingredients—and it foams in a way I find slightly repulsive, for lack of a better word. The texture is akin to snot. There, I said it. It’s snot-like! It’s a snot-like cleanser and I don’t want to wash my face with it and despite being called “Blueberry Bounce Cleanser,” it smells like a Dollar Store.
I don’t like it! There!
I’m relegating this little sample tube to my travel bin; I think it’s OK for pH (I haven’t noticed any serious issues cropping up), but the weird smell alone is enough to make me avoid it. I give it a solid 3/10 in terms of how much I enjoyed it.
A full size tube is 160 ml and costs $34 (WHEW!). This sample tube is only 15 ml, making it’s value around $3.19. If I was nice, I would have rounded up to $3.20, but… I didn’t.
2. Luxie Fan Brush, $18 (Not Pictured)
I fully forgot to grab this brush while taking photos and didn’t notice until I was editing afterwards and wondering where my 4th item was. Then I remembered, “oh yeah, I got a 4th fan brush.”
You read that correctly: my 4th fan brush.
I have so many fan brushes, I expect to find all my cleanser samples fanning my blush samples in my bathroom any day now. (The blush samples are the kings of all the samples I receive, natch.) I have fan brushes coming out of my eyeballs at this point, which is funny only because no one needs a fan brush. It is the most useless brush. I don’t even wear highlighter anymore! What else is a fan brush used for? That’s right, nothing.
0/10. It is pretty. But… 4 fan brushes, guys. I’ve gotten 4 of them.
3. Urban Juve Lip Balm, $10
I love a lip balm moment, but guys. $10 for a lip balm this big?? For comparison, the Glossier Balm Dot Coms come in a 3 pack for $30, making them $10 a piece. And they have 0.5 fluid oz (which is HUGE!) This little lip balm has… 0.14 fluid ounces. Sorry, but that’s highway robbery. It’s not any different from Burt’s Bees either, it just has hemp in it!
If I’m going to spend $10 on a lip balm, it better be the size of a Moon Pie. I’ll take Glossier’s tubes of lip balm, but they’re on thin ice anyway. $10 for a Burt’s Bees size tube? Girl. 0/10. It’s just minty! It’s not even special!
4. Finding Ferdinand Lipstick in Very Berry, $6
You’ll be shocked to learn that I love this lipstick. Yes, I said it! I love one thing in this bag! And it’s this lipstick. It’s tiny, it’s cute, and it comes in a clear component that literally made me squeal out loud. I like it! What can I say? It’s a nice, bright berry color and perfect for spring. The formula is a little more dry than the average lipstick, which makes it more long lasting than a high shine formula. And at only $6, it’s pretty reasonable for a sample size that you can carry in your purse with ease. I give it an 8/10.
A full size is valued at $30 and the mini is $6. You can buy a set with both for $33 (savings!)
5. REALHER Eyeshadow in Victorious, $3.11 value
So, this shade is apparently in the Conquer from Within palette, but to me, that looks like a completely different color. Mine is a shimmery, pink-brown (I’d describe it as a dusty pink with a gold sheen if I was pressed). That looks like a straight champagne. They describe Victorious in the palette like this: “Metallic light slate. Perfect color to add a touch of highlight to inner corner of eye, or to work over entire lid.”
Ipsy, in comparison, describes it like this: “Rose gold is a universally flattering shade that’s always on-trend—this super pretty, shimmery color will quickly glam up your beauty looks, but it’s versatile enough to wear during day or night.”
Metallic light slate and rose gold are… not the same color whatsoever. So is this the same shade? A different one? With the same name? I don’t know!! Is this an extra that they slapped a random sticker on that they just needed to get rid of? God, I suspect so.
Either way, I did use the cost of that palette to calculate the cost of a single shadow.
Apparently, you can buy this brand in Neiman Marcus. Remember when Neiman Marcus was name dropped in like every song in 2004? What a weird time to be alive that was.
All that being said: I think I’ve received this same shade of eyeshadow about 40 times from Ipsy and I still am not going to wear it. It’s a perfectly fine eyeshadow, but… it’s not new! Ipsy, stop it with the brown-pink eyeshadows! It gets a 5/10: not awful, but I’m not going to wear it, so…
Final Thoughts
The total value of this bag is… $40.30. Womp womp. That’s pretty low. That may be in the running for one of the lowest valued bags I’ve gotten in… quite a while, actually.
If you can’t tell, there were some bummers in this bag. I don’t know why, but I get really annoyed when the cost of the bag is dependent on one item. An $18 brush does not a high value bag make, monetarily or enjoyment wise. I don’t need an $18 fan brush because I’ve already been sent 4 $18 fan brushes! That single brush ups the value of the bag significantly, but the other items are all valued at less than $10—except for the bizarre lip balm, which is so offensive at $10 that I actually find myself getting keyed up and mad.
Did this bag make me feel good? Honestly, not really. It was just sort of another thing, you know? I do love the make up bag—what blogger doesn’t love a bit of marble, huh?—but besides the lipstick, I wasn’t excited to use anything.
Here’s to hoping next month brings me a little bit of joy. I need it, y’all!
