This is being posted later than I planned, but I wanted as always to test these products out for a good amount of time so that I could give you all a detailed review. Ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription service that sends you 4-5 products in a mixture of full sized and deluxe sample sized for only $10. You also get special discount codes for each month's brand. If you would like to sign up, please be awesome and use my referral link:
http://www.ipsy.com/?refer=u-h051r3lzwoa89xn . I should also mention that each bag has a theme. This month's theme was Beach beauty.
I love the bag its self for this month. It is a clear, waterproof plastic bag. It keeps with the beach theme, being a perfect makeup bag for the beach. In my bag I received a sampler palette from BH Cosmetics California Collection, a full sized Pop Beauty Pouty Pop Crayon, a sample sized Derm E Microdermabrasion Scrub, a sample sized Coola Mineral Face SPF Unscented Moisturizer and a sample sized Sexy Hair
Soy Renewal Beach Spray Conditioning and Texturizing Spray.
Here are my thoughts and reviews on each individual product:
Derm E Microdermabrasion Scrub
To start with, microdermabrasion.
Many people have no idea what this is. If you break it down it
basically means small skin abrasion. A micro derm scrub is a scrub meant
to get rid of the dry skin cells on your face to reveal newer, glowing
skin. This scrub has very small (and do I mean very small!) pieces of
Dead Sea salt and volcanic sand. It reminds me of a more broken down
version of Lush Ocean Salt. It smells really good, like lemons. It gives
a harsher exfoliation than Lush Ocean Salt. This scrub does as it
should
and makes my skin feel soft and wonderful. A little bit goes a long way.
I had my mom, who is in her late 40s try this. She has dry mature skin
and (finally!!) she is listening to my advice on skincare. After using
this scrub, she says that her skin has been less dry, it feels softer
and looks better. The sample size I got of this was smaller than
expected, but I was glad to try this scrub. It won't replace my beloved
Ocean Salt but I really did love it, my mom did as well.
Pop Beauty Pouty Pop Crayon
This next picture I know is blurry and it was taken in haste (I didn't have much time to take extra photos for this post). I am only posting it so that you can see what color this crayon actually is, since the lighting in the picture above makes it look orange when it isn't.
I
was most excited for this product in my glam bag. I have been seeing
these crayon shaped pigmented lip balms EVERYWHERE and I had yet to try
one! I received this in Coral Crush, a beautiful coral color (although
it looks pinker on me). On first thought when applying it feels
wonderful. It is moisturizing, as I expected it would be. It is also very
pigmented, which as a lipstick lover makes me happy. If you apply too
much it may appear a little streaky. They don't stay on long and will
come off when eating and drinking, so you'll need to reapply. This isn't
a problem for me, any time I wear a lip product I bring it with me
(even lip tars). I really want to get more of these, but these balms are
only available in a kit that costs $25. The kit only contains one other
color that I would wear so it doesn't make sense for me to buy it,
which is disappointing because I loved this and I want some more colors.
Sexy Hair Soy Renewal Beach Spray Conditioning and Texturizing Spray
Wow
that's a mouthful! I had never tried a Sexy Hair product, though I have
seen them raved about so I was happy to see this. I love texturizing
sprays (such as Not Your Mother's Beach Babe) so that was a bonus for
me. It comes in a pump bottle with a tab to position to open or close the bottle. The packaging is just like Beach Babe. The directions say this spray can be used over damp or dry hair. For
dry hair it recommends also spraying at the roots for volume. When used
on my dry hair, I sprayed to the roots and throughout my hair. I then
put my hair up for about 10 minutes into a claw clip. When I took it
down I have some nice, soft waves and a little volume at my roots. I haven't been able to try this on damp hair yet, but I'm sure it works just as well.
Coola Mineral Face SPF Unscented Moisturizer
It's
like Ipsy read my mind! I have been looking for a moisturizer with SPF
and what appears in my glam bag? This. I was extremely disappointed in
the travel size that I received. I wish it were bigger so I could've
tested it out more. This is a mineral moisturizer with SPF 20. It is unscented and not tinted. It blended well, didn't feel oily and it didn't leave any sort of white cast on my face. I wore this yesterday when I went to the fair that my town has every year underneath my makeup. It was a hot day, the sun was out and it was beaming as I walked from my house to the fair as well as many sections of the fair. On a day like this, I normally would've worn BB cream, but I wanted to test the protection of this product. I wore it underneath a foundation without any SPF and I didn't apply any extra moisturizer over it. It did moisturize, but I wish it moisturized better. The SPF protection is good. I spent probably four or five hours at the fair and I didn't get any sunburn. I feel that this protected my skin well. I liked it.
BH cosmetics California Collection Eyeshadow Samples
I
was really excited to try these, having heard about BH cosmetics a lot
though I had never had a chance to try them. In the sampler palette I
received three eyeshadows in Hollywood (deep purple color), San
Francisco (a sparkly brown) and Malibu (a gorgeous gold color). Here are
swatches of each color over Elf Essential Eyelid primer:
I was a
bit disappointed in these shadows. Malibu had great pigmentation, but I
feel like San Francisco was a little flat and Hollywood definitely fell
flat. Sam Francisco could've had a bit better pigmentation and the
pigmentation of Hollywood is horrible. When worn over primer on my eyes,
Malibu and San Francisco lasted all day. But when I rubbed the swatches
on my hand (which were put over the same primer) they wiped off
completely. If I could buy Malibu as a single eyeshadow, I would. I love
the color and the pigmentation. However since I wasn't fully impressed
by the other two colors I don't think I'll be buying one of the
California palettes.
Over all, I did really like this bag. Even though I wish some products were a larger size, it is great for what I pay. Also, I think Ipsy made everything travel sized so that it will fit in the bag to go to the beach. It is a great assortment of products that could be used at a day (or weekend) to the beach and it is perfect for travel.
