Seven Months of Ipsy Glam Bags

Even though I haven't been blogging I was still taking pictures of my monthly Ipsy Glam Bags.


November:

Marc Anthony Oil of Morocco Argan Oil Volume Shine Hairspray, J. Cat Beauty Wonder Lip Paint, Starlooks Gem Eye Pencil, Be A Bombshell Cosmetics Eye Base, and Temptu S/B Highlighter.

Notes: The hairspray is amazing, it smells good and works really well without being heavy or crunchy. I haven't tried the lip paint yet, I'm a little intimidated by it! 


December:

Beauty Without Cruelty A.H.A. 3% Facial Cleanser, Sexy Hair 450° Blow Out Heat Defense Blow Dry Spray Mini, Cailyn Cosmetics Just Mineral Eye Polish, Tarte Delux Lights, Camera, Lashes 4-in-1 Mascara, NYX Cosmetics Butter Lip Balm

Notes: The A.H.A. Facial Cleanser is great! I hated the Butter Lip Balm, it felt and worked great but tasted absolutely disgusting. I shudder just thinking about it.


January:

(Malin+Goetz) Mojito Lip Balm, Pacifica Natural Mineral Coconut Eye Shadow, Coastal Scents Liquid Eyeliner, Elizabeth Mott All Over Shadow Brush, Velvet 59 Lipgloss

Notes: The Mojito Lip Balm is glorious!! I used some of my Ipsy points to get another one. I had never considered spending $12 on lip balm before, but I will definitely be ordering some when I run out. The Velvet 59 lipgloss is also really great. It smells like roses! Oh, and the other side of this bag is white.



February:

Emite Make Up Professional Eye Lash Curler, Eva NYC Up All Night Volumizing Spray, Mitchell and Peach Fine Radiance Face Oil, City Color Cosmetics Creamy Lip Stain, ModelCo BLUSH Cheek Powder.

Notes: The Face Oil leaked all over the rest of the stuff. It's weird, I've used it a couple of times and haven't seen any miracles. They eyelash curlers are great! The lip stain is also weird, it's matte and almost feels gritty. I can't decide if I like it or not. The color is great though!

March:

Boo Boo Cover Up, Pixi by Petra Mesmerizing Mineral Duo, NYX Cosmetics Butter Lipstick, ACURE Day Cream, Pur-Lisse Beauty Pur-Delicate Gentle Soymilk Cleanser & Makeup Remover

Notes: The Butter Lipstick is great and I definitely recommend it! The Day Cream is nice, and has a very pleasant citrus-y smell. I was really excited to try the Boo Boo Cover Up, it's a concealer that is actually good for healing. You can put it right on a gnarly zit and it actually helps it go away while covering it up. The only problem is that I was sent a Medium Shade and it's way too dark on my super pale skin. I might actually buy some of this for myself, but it's $20 so I'll have to save up first.


April:

Mullein & Sparrow Mini Lip & Cheek Tint, Starlooks Satin Finish Lip Gloss, theBalm Cosmetics NUDE Dude Eyeshadow Single, Hikari Cosmetics Blush, Hey Honey Good Morning Honey Silk Facial Serum

Notes: I love the actual bag this month, it's definitely going to be my Summer purse! The lip and cheek tint is a nice lip balm, but so far I've been too scared to put it on my face. The blush is a little darker than I would have picked for myself, but I'm naturally pretty red and don't usually wear much blush.

May:

Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Lip Pencil, Bare Republic Naturals SPF 30 Mineral Face Sunscreen Lotion, Luxie Beauty Tapered Blending Eye Brush 205, BellaPierre Cosmetics Mineral Gel Eyeliner Pencil, Pixi by Petra Beauty Bronzer

Notes: A WATERPROOF EYELINER!! I usually don't wear eyeliner in the Spring and Fall because my allergies leave me with watery eyes. I am SO excited about this! I'm also pretty stoked about the lip pencil. It's clear! That means I can use it with every one of my lipstick shades! I'm not thrilled with the bronzer. It's really shimmery, I think I'll probably be using this as an eye shadow. Even in the Summer, I prefer to rock the pale look. Bronzer isn't really my thing.

October Ipsy Bag

October's Ipsy bag didn't come in time for my birthday, but it was worth the wait!

Left to right: Épicé International Purifying Exfoliant, ModelCo VOLUMEYES Extreme Black Mascara, Noyah Lipstick in Deeply In Mauve, Ayres Patagonia Body Butter, Nicole by OPI in On A Gilt Trip (an Ipsy Exclusive!).

Two notes about this awesome bag: First of all, I did a little swatch of the nail polish on my thumb and it is spectacular! It's a matte gold that is begging to be an Art Deco, Egyptian, or Christmas design. I am loving this.

Second: The Ayres Patagonia Body Butter is DIVINE!!! It's thick, rich, and smells like an absolute dream. It's jasmine and rosemary, but it's not overwhelming or too floral at all. I'm not even sure how to describe it, but it's wonderful!

I know this is a small post and I haven't blogged in a while. I've got a couple of posts I'm working on and a few more in the tubes! Bear with me, please!

September Ipsy Bag

I received my September Ipsy bag on Tuesday, but I was too distracted to post about it.

You see, my dearest lovely friend graduated from Esthetician School on that day. It's a wonderful accomplishment, but it also meant that she was moving back to her home state of Washington. I was thrilled and proud, but also sad. There were too many emotions going on to worry about makeup.

I'm so proud of you Kristin! 

I also have to confess that this month's bag had a product that I gave away before I could get a picture of it. It was Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair! Deep Conditioning Mask for hair. My hair is short, non-damaged, and non-colored, so this was completely wasted on me. I handed it over to a friend with long hair that she dyes, so it went to a good home.

So here's what this months bag looked like after I gave away the conditioning mask:

Sorry the quality is so bad. I had a hard time with the lighting this time. 

First, let me just say that I love the actual bag. My 13 year old begged me to give it to her, but I'm keeping this one! It's buttery soft too, I've been using it as a purse the last few days!

Here's what it contained: NYX Hot Singles Eye Shadow in Rehab (Now I just have to try a smokey eye look!), Pacifica Natural Water-Proof Eye Pencil in Fringe, a Crown Brush brand Infinity Shadow/Crease Duet Brush, and Cailyn Art Touch Tinted Lip Gloss in Basic Instinct (I am in love with this lip gloss. It goes on with a gloss wand, but it looks and feels a lot like a lipstick. And the color looks great on me! I went to the Cailyn site and not only did I get a full size to try, the retail price is $19! That means the $10 I spent on this months bag was well worth it!!)

I seriously love Ipsy! Remember if you want to get an Ipsy subscription you should do me a favor and sign up through my link. Then I get points to put towards free stuff! Woo hoo!!

http://www.ipsy.com/r/69qo?sid=ipsypoints&cid=general

August Ipsy

I've been a little out of the loop. The past couple of weeks have been really busy for lots of different reasons that I'll have to go into later.

My Ipsy bag for August came today and I just want to take a second to post about it.

Left to right: Lord & Berry Silk Kajal Kohl Eye Pencil, Absolute Lip Balm in Green Apple (I just got it today and I already love this stuff!), Urban Decay Perversion Mascara, Manna Kadar Cosmetics Sheer Glo, and Glamglow Youthmud Tinglexfoliate Treatment.

So far this is the first bag I've received that's not flat. This poor thing got a little squished in the mail, but I think with a little time it'll pop back into shape. Betty has already claimed this one for her school pencil pouch!

Remember, if you want to sign up to get your own Ipsy bag use my link and I get points! http://www.ipsy.com/r/69qo

Experimenting

I got a new polish in July's Ipsy bag and I decided to play around with it a little.

The polish is Models Own Red Sea - Splash. The Models Own website listed it as a top coat, so I decided to do white tips underneath so I could see what the Red Sea looks like on bare nails and over a white base. I used my curvy "V" tip guides, and in an attempt at doing an accent nail I painted my ring fingers all white (I used Pure Ice Pretty 'N Patriotic.)

I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out, it kind of reminded me of strawberry syrup. I decided since this was all about experimenting I'd use the Sally Hansen Big Matte Top Coat that I bought a few weeks ago but never tried.

That did the trick!! Putting the matte top coat on toned down the shine of the polish but the glittery bits still catch the light and sparkle! It turned out really cool looking. Unfortunately, it was even harder than usual to get a good picture.

The polish was what I'd call a jelly. It looks more red on my natural nail and more fuchsia over the white base. One coat looked really streaky, but two covered nicely. 

Now that I've discovered that matte top over glitter looks so cool I'm definitely going to have to try some other combinations! Models Own has an Aqua color with similar glitters that I might have to get too! 

Show & Tell

Monday and Tuesday's mail brought fun stuff!!

First I got my new glasses from Zenni! Two new pairs of sunglasses and a pair of regular glasses. Zenni was having a sale, buy two get one free. That's why I was able to get three pairs, the total came to about $35!

Regular Glasses:

They have a stained glass look. I like them a lot. I think they're more subtle than the black frames I usually wear.

Blue "Wayfarer" Sunglasses:

A nice, traditional pair of sunglasses in a dusty blue color. When I smile my cheeks lift them up a little.

Black Cats Eye Sunglasses:

These are my favorites! The style would be way too over-the-top for me to wear as everyday glasses, but I think they are just perfection as sunglasses! I love them!! I don't want to take them off!



Tuesday's fun delivery was my Ipsy bag for July! Lots of goodies this month!

Left to right: bareMinerals 5in1 Cream Eyeshadow in Barely Nude, Pur~lisse Essential Daily Moisturizer spf 30, Models Own Nail Polish in Red Sea, Pixi Beauty Mini Tinted Brilliance Balm in Unique Pink, and Clear Clinic Laboratories Vanished Clear Spot Treatment.


I also wanted to show off my henna. It got better looking, and I wanted to capture it before it starts to fade.

This is what it looked like on Saturday night when the henna fell off:

This is what it looks like today, nice and brown:

I love how it looks! Candice really outdid herself this time.

June Ipsy Bag

I've been so busy I nearly forgot to post about this month's Ipsy bag!

This month's haul was pretty great! I mean, a Rebecca Minkoff bag? Are you kidding me with this?! 

I am most excited about the Be A Bombshell Mascara and the NYX Butter Gloss. I needed new mascara so that was just perfect timing, and it's excellent! As for the gloss, it really does feel like butter! It's a nice pale color, and it doesn't get as sticky as some of the other glosses do. 

I'm also pretty happy about the OFRA Eyebrow Pencil. To be perfectly honest, my eyebrows are a little sad.  Let's just hope this gives them the help they need.

The bag also had some perfume, Realtree for Her. Thing is, I'm not really a perfume kind of girl. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with the sample yet, but it's probably going to find a home with somebody else. It smells good! I'm just more of a body splash person. I feel like all the other products I use already have so many scents that adding more on top is just overkill. I'd rather just smell clean. 

The last piece in this month's collection is a bottle of Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray. I gave this to Betty, for two reasons. First of all, she has gorgeous natural waves and I thought it would be a lot of fun for her to play up on that. 

Second, I chopped my hair off. 

Well, I went to a salon and had a stylist chop my hair off. 

Your guess is as good as mine as to why my lips are blue. I didn't edit this picture except to crop it, and my lips weren't blue when I took the picture. Weird.

I was really hating my other cut. There was nothing specifically wrong with it, it just didn't feel like ME. I felt like my hair was making a statement that I just didn't agree with. As if I was trying to be edgier than I actually am.

Ipsy

I mentioned in the first post I did about my nail addiction that I signed up for Ipsy, this is the post where I get to tell you all about it. (In the spirit of full disclosure, if you click on that link and sign up for Ipsy then I get points towards free stuff. That doesn't color my opinions at all.)

I know it's been a long time coming, but I wanted to get a few months in. I wanted to be sure that I really do love it and that it wasn't some kind of fluke the first couple of times.

I love it!!

As I said before, Ipsy is a subscription service that sends out beauty products in a cute bag every month for a flat rate of $10.

Ten dollars is totally worth it. They don't cheap out on the products. Some of them are trial size, but even the smallest container of product that I've gotten is enough for many uses. A lot of the stuff I've been getting is full sized products. Some of these full sized products are worth more than the price I pay for the whole bag! For example, in my May bag I received a full size bottle of Nailtini polish (which I already blogged about) I was curious, so I looked it up and found that it sells for $13 a bottle and that doesn't even include the shipping.

I don't wear a lot of make up, but I do enjoy it. Even if I didn't wear make up at all I'd still love Ipsy. In addition to the make up and nail polish, I've been shipped hair supplies, sunscreen, moisturizer, a mud mask, and even a make up brush.

Here's the break down of the four months I've been subscribed and everything I've been sent! (Quick note: I was cleaning up my Google Drive and accidentally deleted a bunch of my pictures. I had to recreate March, April, and May. The pictures aren't as good, and some of the products look used because I've been using them!)

February:

A cute pink bag containing: POP Beauty Plump Pout Mini in Fuchsia Freesia (Love it!), skyn ICELAND Fresh Start Mask with Ice Age Mud (haven't used it yet), City Color Be Matte Blush in Fresh Melon (also haven't tried it yet), Zoya Nail Polish in Odetta (used it and liked it a lot!!), and a pair of J. Cat Beauty Eyelashes and Eyelash Glue (Used them with mixed results. The product is great, my technique... not so much!).

March:

This bag was made by an artist especially for Ipsy and is a representation of city streets. I've been carrying it around as a wallet, I totally adore it. It held: Pixi Beauty Flawless Beauty Primer (used it once, didn't notice much difference), bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipstick in Get Ready (LOVE IT!! This tube has lived in my purse. It's tiny, but perfect!), NYX Love in Rio Eye Shadow trio in Segredos de Giselle (Also love and used many times!), and Chella Indigo Blue Eyeliner (used it and thought it was cool, but not for every day).

April:

Betty totally called dibs on this bag. A rock and roll theme was right up her alley! I kept the fun stuff inside: Big Sexy Hair Root Pump Volumizing Spray Mousse, Starlooks Luscious Longwear Lip Pencil in Naked, Elizabeth Mott pop! goes the shadow in Champagne, Dr. Brandt Microdermabrasion, and Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil travel size in Black Velvet. (I haven't used any of this stuff yet, but I'm looking forward to it all!)

May:

This leafy bag had fun stuff that's making me long for sun and sand: Hang Ten Classic Sport SPF 50 sunscreen, Pacifica Mineral Eye Shadow Duo in Moonbeam and Unicorn, Nailtini Straight Up Color Nail Lacquer in Champagne (already blogged about this one!), Pur~lisse Pur~Moist Hydra Balance Moisturizer, and a Crown Brush Pro Blending Fluff Brush.

I'm having a lot of fun, every month is like Christmas! As you can see, I'm getting some really quality stuff for a really reasonable price.

Champagne Nails and a haircut.

My last manicure chipped, so instead of a Sunday manicure I had one on Friday.

I actually took the nail polish off on Wednesday and just painted my nails with two coats of OPI Natural Nail Strengthener. I just couldn't decide what to do this time. There are so many ideas buzzing around in my head but nothing seemed right.

Turns out I was waiting for a reason! My May Ipsy bag came on Friday and included a bottle of Nailtini Lacquer in Champagne. Talk about serendipity!

Two coats of OPI Natural Nail Strengthener and two coats of Nailtini Lacquer in Champagne

I really like the Nailtini Lacquer, but I'm not sure how I feel about the color. Sometimes I think I like it, then I see it in a different light and I'm not so sure. It's a pretty shade of copper-y beige, with a pearl glimmer. I just don't know if I like it on me. Feel free to let me know how you think it looks, I'd love some honest feedback.

There is another thing I'm not sure how I feel about.

I had my hair cut on Tuesday. I wanted to go much shorter for summer. I took a few ideas into the stylist, told him I wasn't afraid of going short, and then told him to do whatever he wanted.

It looked great when he was done, after he blow dried and styled it. I totally loved it.

The after pictures were taken by Joshua, the super talented stylist who came up with this look.

I did a little tweaking in the car and liked it even more.

But now that I've had it for a few days I'm not sure how I feel about it. I wore it today with no product in it at all and that's clearly not something I can do.

Eric told me it looks like something bad happened to my head, "Something that wasn't supposed to happen." Shanon said it looks like something from the 80's a la Cyndi Lauper. It's definitely much spikier when I don't have stuff in it.

I'm thinking it's a little more avant-garde than I'm used to. As it stands right now, I think I'm going to grow it out for a while and then go in for a simple pixie cut. Then again, I'm also considering dying it light blue with dark blue accents.... I do know I need more time to play with it, so don't be surprised if I post more pathetic selfies!

Nails

Hi.

My name is Heather and I have an addiction.

I am obsessed with nail polish.

I've always liked my hands, and I consider them by far my best feature. They're small and dainty, but my fingers are nice and slim. Usually though, I just leave my nails bare or paint them clear. If I was feeling particularly sassy I might go for a light pink or off white. My nails are kind of soft and polish chips really easily. Chipped nail polish is one of my pet peeves, so I stuck with things that don't show chips easily.

Now that has all changed.

It started with my darling friend Kristin raving about Nail Thins on her Facebook page. I'd seen them on Etsy and even had some saved in my favorites, but wasn't sure about actually buying them. Once I got the endorsement from Kristin (my make-up guru) I just knew I had to try them.

Nail Thins are these little decals that go over your nail polish and come in about a kagillion different designs. I was immediately sucked in with the Harry Potter set. I mean, come on... I had to have those. They are super easy to use, and they look amazing.

Remember how I said my hands are small and dainty? Well, freakishly tiny would also be accurate. The Nail Thins I got were too big for all but my thumbs. (Insert sad face here.) This is not where the story ends though, no way. I messaged Jenny, the Nail Thins lady and mentioned that I thought it would be cool if she offered smaller sizes for little girls and people like me. Not only did she agree that it was a good idea, she also sent me smaller replacements FOR FREE!! Seriously, you guys need to go get some of these.

Anywhoo... The nail thins look cool on their own but they really "pop" when they're applied over polish. The Harry Potter decals got me thinking, and I thought it would be super cool to get blue and bronze so I could have Ravenclaw nails. (Because Pottermore put me in Ravenclaw and we all know that Pottermore is the authority on such things.) One thing led to another and I found myself collecting enough shades to have all the Hogwarts houses. I don't have a picture of my first attempt, because it was such a complete disaster, but I am undaunted and will try again!

The next step to my complete addiction came in the form of more peer pressure. My friend Bethany (who I met through Kristin!) posted on her Facebook about a site called Ipsy.

Ipsy is a really cool subscription beauty service. You fill out a profile on their site, and for $10 a month they will send you a cute little make-up bag with 4-5 different beauty products. I'm going to dedicate a whole blog post to them in the future, so stay tuned for that. The part that's relevant to this post is that in my first bag I got a bottle of purple polish, Odette by Zoya. It's completely unlike something I'd normally buy, but it looked really good with my skin tone. One more step on the road to addiction.

I also invested in some decent base coat and top coat. They definitely add to how long it takes to do my nails, but my manicure now lasts at least a week. When I was just using two coats of polish I'd be lucky if I got two days! Spending time doing my nails doesn't seem like such a waste when I can get it to last so much longer! Plus, having so many coats of polish on my nails makes them stronger. I have far fewer rips and breaks. Such a nice bonus!

Add in all the cute nail ideas I've been finding on Pinterest and you end up with a full blown obsession. I've been to Ulta more times than I'd like to admit, and my polish collection has grown to alarming proportions. I've been having a lot of fun coming up with new polish combinations! I plan to post new pictures when I'm particularly proud of my creations, consider yourself warned. My addiction has also affected my children. Today I forced Betty to sit and let me do her nails! Is there rehab for cosmetic addictions? (I'm actually updating this while she's drying between coats. If her nails turn out cute I'll try and get a picture.)

Even Joey is getting in on the action. He wanted blue nails, so he got blue nails. For the record, I didn't force this on him. He practically begged me to paint his nails while I was doing mine.

This is what my nails look like today. I started with one coat of OPI Natural Nail Strengthener as a base coat. I then did two coats of Essence Color & Go in 146 That's What I Mint! (It might look blue in the picture, but it's actually pale green.)

When that finally dried I did two coats of OPI Let's Do Anything We Want! (Muppets Collection! Woo! Love those Muppets!) This particular glitter polish was rather hard to deal with. There are large white pieces that want to settle to the bottom of the bottle. I had to shake up the bottle between every nail. You can see those white chunks best on my pointer finger in the picture.

The Cardinal Rule of glitter polish is that you want to dab on the first layer of glitter. If you brush it on like regular polish you won't get an even distribution of glitter. So, that's what I did. Once the first, incredibly thick layer was dry I added another layer.

This all took hours. Letting things dry between coats is a total pain, but at least smudges don't show with glitter polish! My normal M.O. is to surf Pinterest while I'm letting coats dry. Thank goodness I can still work my mouse with wet nails!! I waited until the next day to add two layers of OPI Top Coat.

I really like the mint green and pink sparkle. It's got a cheerful, Sprintime-y look that I'm kind of craving right now.