Ipsy Glam Bag Review

Hello blog readers,
It's been a while since my last post (as it always is, sadly I do not keep up with this as much as I promise myself I will). But, I recently received my Glam Bag from Ipsy and decided it was time I finally reviewed the service.

Ipsy is Michelle Phan's company, and for those just exiting a cave, Michelle Phan is the first YouTube millionaire, she makes beauty tutorials and general beauty videos.
Ipsy is a subscription service, you pay about $10 a month ($15 for Canadians because of the exchange) and every month you get a makeup bag filled with awesome mini-sized products to try. A lot of the time, they're not even that small and in the case of lipsticks, lipgloss, rollerball perfumes and nail polishes, they are full-sized.
When you first sign up, you do a little beauty profile (hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, skin type, likes and dislikes) so they can try send you shades and products that work for you. They charge you for your bag each month and you can cancel at any time without paying any fees. Don't like your first bag? Just cancel.
Check out their website for more details and information about subscribing!

There are a lot of beauty subscription services out there, but I'm going to say up front that Ipsy is the only company to really impress me with their service. I have tried Loosebutton (a Canadian company) and at first I liked their boxes but recently they changed it so that you only get 4 boxes a year and pay almost $30 per box. I thought the selection might be much better but I was incredibly disappointed with what I got and canceled. Mostly because they sent me something they had already sent me twice before and I had provided feedback on it saying how much I disliked the product. So frustrating!

Anyway, moving on to the Ipsy review. This is my experience with Ipsy Glam Bag!

First of all, the bag is so pretty! That's the first thing that sets Ipsy apart from other subscription services. With most other services, the products come in a box and eventually, however pretty the boxes are, you start throwing them away because otherwise you're just a hoarder with a bunch of empty boxes. Some people use them for storage but I think they just become clutter. 

These bags on the other hand are amazing! They are good quality and the are beautiful. You can use them as your travel makeup bag, keep one in your purse for makeup, receipts, coupons or whatever you need to store. Also because they are so cute, you can put some makeup or whatever you want inside and they could be part of a great gift!  My favourites are definitely the ones in the left of the photo. The bags are not always the same material. the nautical print one feels like waterproof material, the white and pink bag is canvas and the black bag is shiny plastic. 

Enough about the packaging, what do you actually get?

UD Moondust Shadow in "Zodiac"

The obvious star of the bunch is this full-sized gorgeous, shimmery, duo-chrome eyeshadow from Urban Decay! This exact shadow costs $20 on the Urban Decay website. So if you got this bag, you've already recouped your money in one high-end, full-sized product. Love it!

This swatches true to colour, with the same amount of shimmer you see in the pan, in one swipe. It's amazing. Which brings me to reason number two that Ipsy is great, this is part of a new line of shadows from Urban Decay that haven't actually been released yet! So everyone who got a May Glam Bag got to try them first. They also did that with the Urban Decay BB cream a few months back, it's an awesome perk.

Zoya polish in "Piaf"

This is a nail polish line you can only get in the US but I always hear amazing things about it. Which is yet another perk of Ipsy - since the company is based in the US you get to try products that are only sold there.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this colour, but there were about 8 colours they were sending out and I just pulled the short straw I guess. I might try it on my toes in the summer and see if I like it better.

PacificaCoconut Crushed Pearly Body Butter

I got a Pacifica body butter a few bags ago in a blood orange scent and I love it! I use it all the time, it's the best hand cream to keep with you. I was really excited when I got this. This smells like vanilla and coconut, so really it smells like heaven. It has a shimmer in it, which usually I don't like in creams, but this will be beautiful on skin in the summer for a little glow. I love these body butters so much I would buy a full size but this is yet another brand only sold in the US.

BB&W Candle in "Pumpkin Caramel Latte"

Pacifica Tahitian Gardenia Perfume Roll-On

This is a nice light floral scent. It's really convenient to throw in your purse or something. There was apparently a vanilla scent that was sent out as well. I kind of wish I got that one, because I LOVE the scent of vanilla. Hands down, my favourite scent. But this one is still really nice. However, if I super disliked it, there's a swap forum on Ipsy's facebook page where users can swap products they didn't like.

Yaby concealer in Honey

This was a cool addition to the bag. In a previous month, there was a magnetic palette and two eyeshadows sent out. This concealer (they match your shade based on the skin tone you indicated on your profile) fits right into the magnetic palette. I'm someone who suffers from really dark, purple under eye circles and I hate them. So I really loved getting this, because now I can throw this in my bag and touch up concealer if it wears off throughout the day. Also because this palette is magnetic, you can use it to keep bobby pins so they're not just floating around in your purse!

Juice Beauty lipgloss in "Pink"

This is a nice gloss. Not really sticky with pretty decent colour and shine. I'm not huge on most lipgloss so I wasn't overly excited about this but it's still a nice product.

Overall

I really love getting a glam bag every month! It's a great way to branch out into new products and try things you might now have tried otherwise. I also love that the price in on-par with other subscription services like it but in my opinion the range and quality of products you recieve are much better. Plus every month you get a cute new makeup bag! Even the shipping bag it comes in is cute- it's bright magenta pink. Tell me you wouldn't love seeing that in your mailbox. Every month, Michelle Phan and the other YouTube girls involved in this service (I think there are 5 altogether) each do a video using all the products in the current bag, to give you some ideas how to make the best use of your products. In case you're curious, below is a picture of some other products I've received in previous bags! 

L.A. Fresh makeup remover wipes, coastal scents eyeshadow quad, mirabella highlighter, 

Sation nail polish, Big Sexy Hair hairspray and Glam RX magnetic palette (same as one shown above).

I will continue to subscribe to this service because I have been incredibly impressed. I highly recommend you go over the Ipsy website and try out a bag! It'll be the best $10 (or $15 for Canadians) you'll spend that month! 

Hopefully you guys enjoy the review. If you decide to try out the service, comment or tweet me (TashaSinghs) and let me know what you think!

As always, thanks for reading,

-Tasha

Fall Friendly Eyeshadow Palettes!

Hello there readers,

As promised I have a post of palettes that I have collected that would make great fall eye looks.

These palettes can be used all year really, I just think there is something about them that makes them especially useful for doing fall makeup. I have a mix of high-end, drugstore, small and large palettes! 

I'm thinking of also doing a post about some really great dark fall appropriate lipsticks! Thoughts?

Anyhoo, on to the palettes! 

My first two palettes should come as no surprise. The original Naked and Naked2 palettes from Urban Decay (both $60) are just outstanding and I have raved about their quality before on my blog. They are absolutely worth the money you spend on them. If you're someone who likes warmer tones, golds and browns, I would say go for the original Naked. If you like cooler tones, in the way of silvers and taupes definitely get the Naked2. 

This is a well-loved palette of mine and I think it is amazing for the fall and winter time, especially for creating some great holiday looks for parties and what not. This is the Winterberry palette from Coastal Scents ($13) which is a website that offers amazing palettes at great affordable prices. It has a ton of wearable neutrals but also some great fall colours like the cranberry and the navy in the bottom row. You can get a really natural eye or a really dark smokey eye with this palette. 

The Lorac PRO palette ($55) has been everywhere lately and people just rave about this, so I had to try it! What makes this palette unique is that the entire top row of shadows is matte and the entire bottom row is shimmery. And the colours are well-thought out so you get everything you might need in one easy, convenient place. But it also has some unexpected colours like "Garnet" and "Mauve" that are really fall friendly. Not to mention this palette is so thing and light, it's incredibly travel friendly!

I love this palette! The Comfort Zone 8-pan palette from Wet'n'Wild is amazing and so affordable! The quality on these shadows is insanely good and the palette is under $5. There is some fallout with the shadows, so be careful to tap off you brush when using, but otherwise, I love this palette! Like many of the palettes in this post, there are some neutral, everyday colours but on the right side are some really great olive and forest greens to play with.

If you're trying to save space, this massive 88 Warm Palette from Coastal Scents ($24) is your best bet. It will most likely contain any neutral colour you need along with some darker, plum and brown shades in the bottom right hand corner. 

This palette is the newest edition to my collection, the Urban Decay Feminine Palette ($40). It has a great romantic, girly vibe to it. The "Bordello" shade (the first one, top row) is such a beautiful pinky mauve colour, it's so unique. I've used this everyday since I got it and it makes a beautiful feminine look or you could use "Gunmetal" to deepen it up. It's great quality, the lip gloss it comes with is great too, all around wonderful palette to have. Oh and as you can see in the top, right hand picture, the palette comes out of the case (it's magnetic, don't worry the magnet is very secure) so you can use the outside, zippered case to hold brushes or anything else! 

This quad is by far the bargain of the entire group! The Day 2 Night quad from e.l.f or eyeslipsface.com is only $1! And as you can see in the swatches, has great pigmentation. All four colours are coordinated so nicely to make a very soft neutral eye or a really great smokey fall look. This is definitely worth the money and great quality! 

I hope you guys enjoyed this post and will try out some of the palettes I mentioned.

Let me know how you like them in a comment or tweet me @TashaSinghxx

Thanks for reading!

-Tash<3

Review: Physician's Formula Nude Palette

Hello again makeup junkies,

I recently picked up a few palettes both drugstore and high-end and I noticed that recently there's a huge trend among most brands to release "nude" or "natural" palettes that contain a lot of browns, taupes, and champagne colours. People love palettes like that because they're easy to use, portable (travel-friendly) and convenient. Urban Decay has both the Naked and the Naked2 palettes, both of which I own and are fantastic and totally worth the money. However I recently saw a nude eyes palette from Physician's Formula and wanted to see if it was a comparable drugstore dupe.

I have to say the packaging alone is gorgeous! Light pink with a black lace overlay and bows, obviously I was in love. 

Colours range from light champagnes and pinks to medium browns and taupes with some darker browns and a black at the bottom. This is a perfect set-up for a nude palette because it give you enough options that you could also make a darker, smokey eye with it. It comes with an angled sponge-tip which you could use for some liner if you wanted. I think the palette costs about $10.

Bottom line

This looks strikingly similar to some of the high-end nude eye palettes I own so I had high hopes for it. Sadly, I can't say I love it. It could work for people with lighter skin than me maybe. But for my darker skin, the entire top half of the palette is not pigmented enough to even show up. The bottom half is alriiight I guess but I still had to pack it on. What I really didn't like is that these shadows were somewhat hard and I didn't like the consistency which made them harder to blend. It is probably also important to mention that all these shades are very shimmery and there are no matte shades in the whole palette which makes it harder to use on its own.

I have used mine twice at the most. I would use my Naked palettes any day over this. While I'm aware they are more expensive ($60) the quality is absolutely worth it. The shadows are creamy, almost like butter and blend beautifully. Not to mention, these palettes contain 12 shadows which makes each shadow only $5 a pop, not bad for Urban Decay. And hey, if you still can't bring yourself to spend $60 on makeup, I totally get it. Try an 8-pan palette from Wet'n'Wild (my absolute favourite drugstore brand for eyeshadow) called "Comfort Zone." Creamy shadows and great pigmentation and I'm pretty sure it only costs $4.99! So in the end, I would say MAYBE if you had really fair skin this could work for you. But if you have darker skin, don't bother. This will just sit in your makeup drawer. 

(It's occurring to me now just how many nude palettes I own. Maybe I'll do a post on all of my favourites, both high-end and drugstore).

Anyway, thanks for reading!

-Tash <3

Avengers Series: The Incredible Hulk

Admittedly, this is a super nerdy thing to do but I'm going to do it anyway.
So begins the series of eye looks using colours from all the different members of the Avengers!
I started with Hulk because he's the easiest (only 2 colours) and I have to work out the problem of not having any red eyeshadow for Captain America or Iron Man.
Credit for this idea totally goes to this picture I found on the best time waster website in the whole world:
themetapicture.com

Obviously there's the green, so I graduated from a sort of emerald green on my lid to a darker forest green in the crease and blended it out with a lime green towards my browbone. I used a TINY amount of black to darken the outer corner.

Lined my top lid with purple liquid liner. 

I tried to blank out my eyebrows and fill them back in with green. I failed because I was missing something important. But I will get it for the next look and have a little "How to" section about blanking out your eyebrows. 

I put some of the same lime green in my inner corner to brighten it up a little. Then I just curled my lashes and added mascara. 

My lower liner looks blue in the pictures but I promise it's purple in person. I used "Ransom" 24/7 eyeliner by Urban Decay and topped it off with a purple shadow. I rimmed my waterline and tightline with a black liner and added mascara to my bottom lashes. 

And that's the Incredible Hulk from the Avengers in an eye look. Can you tell I'm excited for the movie?

Thanks for reading

-Tash <3

Holiday Gift Guide 2011!

Hello everyone,
Unless my 9385589837 other posts about it haven't made it obvious, it is the holiday season!
Which most likely means you're going to spend some time shopping for gifts, which to be honest is such a pain the ass. So, if you're looking for some ideas for what to get the woman in your life, this might be a good place to start :)
I figure I'll sort the items by store or brand that way they're easy to find when you're out shopping.

Lush
Lush has a great selection of pre-wrapped gifts and their Christmas selection has so much variety. If you aren't familiar with Lush already, they make bath products like body wash, soap, shampoo etc. but they also make some really amazing bath stuff like bath bombs (balls of powder product that fizz and make your bath water silky) and bath melts (melt in your bath water super creamy) and bubble bars (make huge bubbles in your tub and makes your water silky).
 They have wrapped Christmas gifts at every single price point which is a nice plus so if none of the ones I link (ones I've tried or like the best) suit you, go to their website and you can find exactly what you want.

Christmas Tweets: $29.95

Courtesy of Lush.ca

This gift comes with a great selection of bath bombs, soaps, creams and bubble bars. It's a great price to try out a lot of Lush bestsellers and some limited xmas stuff too.

Christmas Candy Box: $45.95

Courtesy of Lush.ca

I got this box as a gift last year, but apparently they completely changed what's in it this year! Also, it was $10 cheaper when I asked for it last year. However, this year's box is just as good, filled with a lot of Lush goodies you could fall in love with.

Comforter Bubble Bar: $9.95

Courtesy of Lush.ca

A bestselling bubble bar that I have repurchased many, many times. It's big enough to use two or even three times. It smells like candy and bubblegum and sweetness. It makes your bathwater pink and silky with huge bubbles. Just break some off and crumble under the tap while filling the tub! :)

The Melting Snowman Bath Melt- $5.95

Courtesy of Lush.ca

I love this little guy! He smells fresh and clean, slightly like vanilla. It melts in your bath and makes the water creamy and so soothing. Plus he's so cute! But hurry, this guy is limited edition for just this year.

Cinders Bath Bomb- $4.95

Courtesy of Lush.ca

This smells like fresh citrus, very clean and bright. My boyfriend actually loves this one. It's great for any guy who plays sports and soaks in a tub to relax injured or tight muscles. There's nothing girly about the scent and it makes the bath much more moisturizing for his skin. Think about it ladies.


Sephora
If the girl you're shopping for is a beauty junkie like me, pay real close attention to this section- everything will be a hit with her.
*Note: all prices are in US because I can't be bothered to figure out the exchange rate. Sorry loves!

NARS- Yorokobi Super Orgasm Set: $39

Courtesy of Sephora.com

Filled with NARS best sellers all in their famous shade "Orgasm" -- any beauty lover would be overjoyed to get a blush, nail polish,  and lip gloss in this dazzling peachy pink shade with gold shimmer.

Urban Decay- Maripose Palette- $39

Courtesy of Sephora.com

Urban Decay quality and pigmentation is the absolute best and this palette comes with 10 beautiful shades that can make a gorgeous neutral look, a smokey evening look or a bright, colourful summer time look. It's so versatile and useful, I love mine. Any makeup junkie would really enjoy this.

Urban Decay- Naked Palette: $48

Courtesy of Sephora.com

The absolute blockbuster, bestseller from Urban Decay. This palette went out of stock for almost a full year constantly because of the high demand. And while I know $48 is pricey- if  you're looking for a more luxurious gift, this is ABSOLUTELY worth the money! I love mine and use it regularly.
*I know Naked2, the second naked palette has already come out. But unfortunately it doesn't hit Canadia Sephora's until late January. You could order online though. I still prefer the original one, better colours, better variety.

Sephora- LashStash: $45

Courtesy of Sephora.com

This boxed kit is great because you get to try out so many different mascaras for a great price. It also comes with a makeup remover and 2 full-size products. Sephora also has boxed kits like this for lip products and bestseller items.

Sephora- Collector's Edition Fragrance Sampler for Her: $75

Courtesy of Sephora.com

I know that $75 is kinda "ouch" on the wallet area but this is a great value. This kit comes with 10 fragrance samples (that come in mini versions of the actual bottles!) and it also comes with a coupon to go back to Sephora and get whichever of the 10 perfumes you liked the best! A great idea for someone looking for their perfect scent.

Your girl isn't into makeup?
Try getting her some gourmet tea! Tea makes a great gift that is personal and unexpected. Teavana and Teaopia are both great places you can go to get gourmet teas and great tea making accessories.

Not a fan of tea?
Maybe she's into fashion. Try Etsy, It's an online store and everything they sell is a one-of-a-kind piece. Meaning you can tell your girl, no one else will ever have something exactly like it. And it's really afforadable with great selection of clothes, accessories, housewares and cool vintage pieces.

I hope this gift guide was helpful for someone out there!
I will have another baking post coming up soon on my red velvet cookies with cream cheese filling. They are delicious and really simple to make. AND they are even vegetarian, so if you are or know a vegetarian this will be a great cookie recipe to share. :)

Thanks for reading!
-Tash <3