November Glambag Review

Finally it is time to talk about this month's Glambag! This month's bag was a very special one. It is Ipsy's birthday month, so we got 6 products (normally it is only 5) including a full sized Em Cosmetics (Ipsy founder, Michelle Phan's makeup company) product. The theme was "Glam It Up", which is perfect with the holidays just around the corner.

I liked the bag for this month, it is a super cute little gold bag that doubles as a wristlet. I was a little surprised at how thin the material it was made out of was though.

If you would like your own monthly Glambag, please be awesome and use my referral link ( http://www.ipsy.com/r/1bhk )!

Here are the products I received:

                                  Em Cosmetics Waterliner intense color eyeliner in Teal Tease

Everyone received one Em Cosmetics product. This was the one product I had really hoped to get. I had heard so much buzz in the Ipsy community that I was extremely curious. I'm so happy that I was given the chance to try this.

The color I got was Teal Tease, a beautiful teal color. These eyeliners are automatic (twist up, no sharpening needed). It also does have a little sponge to smudge. It is very pigmented and glides on nicely. What really surprised me: it actually stayed on my waterline! For years, no matter what I have tried, nothing will stay on my waterline. This stayed on all day without budging. I definitely plan on buying more of these. I would love to try the rose gold one.

                                                  Be a Bombshell lip crayon in Hot Damn

I really love lip crayons, but I personally was a tiny bit disappointed in what I got. I received this lip pencil in Hot Damn, a bright red. Ipsy has sent me a few red lip products before and at this point I have more than enough reds. I wish I had gotten the pink color that some people had gotten.

As disappointed by the color that I was, it is not a reflection of the product. This actually is a good product. This was easy to apply, being in pencil form but a little more difficult than other lip pencils i have tried due to the shape.

It is well pigmented. Goes on smoothly. This particular color was matte. It wasn't drying at all and it is  very light weight. I nearly forgot that I was wearing it. After the product was on for 20-30 minutes I drank some water and there was 0 transfer, it stayed put. Although I didn't get the color I preferred, this is still a great product.

                                         Nailtini straight up color nail lacquer in Caviar Cocktail

Many Ipsy subscribers have complained about constantly getting Nailtini nail polishes. I somehow had gone this long without getting one. As this being my first, I am satisfied. The bottle is  nice shape and kind of unique. The Nailtini logo sticker is on the front of the bottle and the color name on the bottle. This is a good sized product. I had a little trouble opening mine at first. The cap on it was weird, possibly screwed on wrong. But I don't think that's the usual.

Caviar Cocktail is a beautiful metallic gunmetal color. It was welcomed, as I don't have any other nail polishes of the same color. It is very pigmented, went on smoothly. The first day I had been wearing this nail polish on 1 nail I had been rearranging some things in my home and I have 0 chips. But a few days later I noticed that the nail polish was completely gone from my nail! So I am unsure of lasting power, I will need to try this polish out again to be sure.

Starlooks Gem Eye Pencil in Topaz

I love glitter! So I was excited for this. Starlooks Gem Eye pencils are very glittery eyeliners. The particular shade I got is a beautiful bright silver. This pencil is super creamy, glides on and feels amazing. It does stay on. My only complaint is there is some glitter fallout.

Pixi Bronzer in Subtly Suntouched

Lately I have been getting into using bronzers, so I was happy for this product. I'm super picky when it comes to bronzer. I use them just for contouring. I am very fair, so most of the bronzers I have tried are too dark for me and don't blend into my skin as well as I would like. That or they are too orangey or with glitter.

This bronzer is perfect for me. It is matte, which is what I look for in a bronzer. It is a very light color and not super pigmented, actually pretty sheer. The color is a tad bit darker than it appears in the pictures above. The sheerness is great for you pale skinned girls like myself. I am alright using bronzers a bit darker to contour my cheekbones, but if I were to contour my nose everything was too dark. With this bronzer, it is the perfect shade! I can now contour my nose without it looking obvious.

I absolutely love this product. The packaging is great too. It comes in a nice simple screw top package. It doesn't take up much space.

GlamGlow Youthmud tinglexfoliate treatment

This I was super excited to try. I have heard so much about GlamGlow and I have been dying to try one if their products. This was the only non full-sized product I got this month. I was impressed at the size of the tube, as this stuff is very expensive. I used this the night before a job interview, I thought that would be as good a time as any to. The mask reminds me a little bit of Lush's BB seaweed mask. It has these little pieces of what I assume is sea weed throughout. It is this grey mask with that and some little beads to exfoliate. I left the mask on for about 10 minutes. It tingled for a while. It didn't burn, but it was a unique experience. It did tighten, when the mask was on I couldn't really move my face.

As I added water to wash this mask off, it turned into an exfoliating scrub. So this is really 2 products in 1. It left my skin feeling great! Extremely soft and smooth, I didn't feel any of the roughness or little bumps that I will get some time. If not for the very steep price tag ($19 for .5 oz, $69 for 1.7 oz) , I would definitely buy this.

Over all, I absolutely loved this bag. It is probably my favorite so far.

Weekly Beauty Tip #69: Prime your eyebrows

Apply an eyeshadow primer to your eyebrows before filling and shaping so that you will have a clean base to start with and your products will stay on longer.

Olay Fresh Effects S'wipe Out! Makeup removal cloths Review

A while back I showed all of the products that I won from an Influenster challenge with Olay Fresh Effects. I waited a while to review this product after really getting to test it out. I have been using these makeup remover clothes for months and now I feel I can give an adequate review of them.

The S'wipe out makeup removal cloths look like any other makeup removing cloth or wipe. They come in a pouch with a peel back resealable sticker for easy open close. I like this packaging because it is easy to just grab and throw into a bag. No matter how many times I opened and closed the bag, it would still reseal like new.

There is a scent to these, it is hard to describe what they smell like, but they smell good. The packaging claims them to be refreshing which they would be if it were not for one problem: they make my eyes burn! Oh, do they make my eyes burn. If It weren't for that, I would absolutely love these. They are really good at removing all makeup. After I bear through the eye burning agony, they do remove all of my eye makeup and when I use these on my face makeup, 80 -90% of it is removed. Sometimes I can deal with the burning as long as they clean well. I'm usually ok after waiting a minute and sometimes throwing water on my face.

I'm not sure if they would burn for everyone. If you buy these, I advise you to no use them around the eyes, they will not burn anywhere else (at least they don't for me).

Overall, I do like these wipes except for the fact that they burn my eyes like crazy. I am on my 2nd package of them, I'm unsure on if I will repurchase or buy something else.

Weekly beauty tip #68: Tip for stubborn pimples

If you have a stubborn pimple and an important event to go to, try poking a hole in an Advil (or generic brand) liquid gel and putting the liquid from it onto the pimple. It won't make it disappear, but it will help the swelling go down and help with the redness making it easier to cover up with makeup.

Weekly Beauty tip #67 Turn any eyeshadow into eyeliner

Mix some eyeshadow with an eyeliner or makeup sealer to turn any eyeshadow into eyeliner.



This can also work with water, but in my experience it doesn't last as long with just water. A great and cheap (also what I use) sealer is ELF Makeup Lock & Seal. It is this great little kit  that comes with a little bottle of the Lock & Seal, a small mixing pot and a brush.

You can also mix any setting spray, such as Urban Decay All Nighter, or ELF Mist and Set with eyeshadow and get the same result.

October Glambag Review

Yes, it is November and I'm finally reviewing the Glambag for October! I got my bag a lot later that usual. If you would like to get your own glambag, please be super awesome and use my refferal link ( http://www.ipsy.com/r/1bhk ). I'll give you a shoutout if you do. If you still don't know what a Glambag is, for $10 a month (plus free shipping) you get 5 beauty products full and deluxe sample sizes in a cute makeup bag. The bag values are always way over $10.

This month's theme was the art of beauty. The bag its self is white with pink writing on the front and a pink zipper. Ipsy (the company that makes glambags) purposely made the back of the bag blank so that your own artwork could be put on it. I of course, decorated the back of mine:

                                     I did this by just sketching it out and painting it with acrylic paint.

Anyway, here is my review of the products I recieved:

Zoya Nail Polish in Giovanna

 

I already love Zoya's nail polish. I had a few prior to this bag and was really excited to get another. Everyone received 1 of 3 nail polishes from the fall 2013 Cashmeres and Satins line. I got Giovanna, a beautiful metallic teal/green color. I honestly was hoping for one of the other colors (seemingly a purple and a pink) because I own so many green nail polishes. But this one was different than any other green I own and it is beautiful. 

I don't have many metallic polishes so this was a nice change. The formula as always is great. Zoya nail polish always applies opaquely and evenly. It also lasted as long as any zoya polish. I kept it on for about 5 days before removing (for Halloween) and I didn't have a single chip. Zoya is the longest lasting nail polish brand I've ever tried and they are allso free of the "big 5", the most harmful chemicals found in nail polish.

Bella Terra Mineral Cosmetics Mineral Shimmers in Navy 

I had never heard of this brand before. I thought it was just a typical mineral eyeshadow. I was in fact right that this is a loose mineral eyeshadow, but it isn't typical. It is very versatile, the Bella Terra website boasts that this eyeshadow is an 8 in 1 product that can be used as creamy eyeshadow, eyeliner, nail polish, mascara, matte eyeshadow, lip color, body glitter and hair streaks when certain bases are added to them.

I used mine as an eyeliner. I mixed a drop of Elf Makeup Lock & Seal (a great eyeliner seal) with some eyeshadow and applied as a liner. The color is more blue than navy, i expected it to be darker. But it is still lovely. It lasted all day. This is a pigmented eyeshadow, I did not need to use much of it.

Coastal Scents Medium Eyeshadow Brush

This one product I haven't been able to use. My mom saw this brush in the bag and immedietely took it. I can say when I felt it while taking photos for this post, the brush bristles are very soft and the handle seems pretty sturdy. It seems like a great eyeshadow brush.

Ole Henriksen Truth Creme advanced hydration

I got a small deluxe sized jar of this. It is a moisturizer. I actually really love it. A little goes a long way. It is very moisturizing and it smells really good. Many people don't like the scent, but I love it. It has a spiced orange scent. This product provides anti aging benefits, I'm not old enough to need or even notice any. This overall is a great moisturizer. I would totally buy a jar if it wasn't so expensive.

Sexy Hair Spray Clay Texturizing Spray

Ok, I'm just going to say it: I didn't like this product. at first I saw the word "texturizing" and thought sarcastically "great, another texturizing product" as I have too many already. But when I actually got this I was baffled...what is it that I actually use this product for?

The words Spray Clay really threw me off. There also weren't any directions on the can. I did a little research on how to use it and tried it out. I went to sleep in damp braids so that I would have some waves to work with (my hair is very straight) and I liberally sprayed. The scent of this is horrible and very overwhelming. It is a hairspray. I didn't notice any texturizing effects, but it did hold the waves all day.

If you want a good texturizing spray, but Sexy Hair's Soy Renewal Beach Spray or Not Your Mother's Beach Babe. They actually do what is promised and smell great.

Overall, this was a good bag although not my favorite. I liked the Truth Creme, the Zoya nail polish and the Bella Terra eyeshadow. Many sneak peaks for the November bag are already out, that bag looks like it will be great, at least for me. We will found out how good everything is at the end of next month or beginning of next month when my review will be posted, so stay tuned!