Ipsy April 2014 Unbagging! "Beauty Rocks!"

April 2014 Ipsy bag.

What is Ipsy?

Ipsy is a beauty subscription service. For $10 per month, subscribers receive a makeup bag filled with 4-5 beauty items each month. Some sample sizes, some full sizes. The item's values always add up to more than $10 so that you always get you're money's worth. You can subscribe on a month to month basis for $10 each month or subscribe for a full year for $110 (meaning one month for free).

If you want to check out Ipsy and sign up, just click HERE. (That is my referral link.)

With that said, here's what I got in my April Ipsy bag!

 First up! 

Coastal Scents Medium Shadow Brush

Coastal Scents Medium Shadow Brush, Full sized, Value $2.49

Ipsy Deal: 25% off any purchase

The brush is soft, no strays that I can see. I have a few shadow brushes, but it's always nice to have an extra one for when I'm lazy and don't want to clean them.

Turns out that some people received this exact same brush in a previous Ipsy bag. Those that did got an email from Ipsy telling them to let Ipsy know if they'd rather have 500 points or an extra item in their May bag.

Urban Decay 24/7 Velvet Glide-On Eye Pencil

Urban Decay 24/7 Velvet Glide-On Eye Pencil Swatch

Urban Decay 24/7 Velvet Glide-On Eye Pencil, Black Velvet, Travel Sized .03oz, Value $15

Ipsy Deal: Free deluxe sample of B6 Vitamin-Infused Complexion Prep Spray with $35 purchase.

I'm not impressed. Now, I'm sure that I'll use this. But it feels harder than usual for an Urban Decay liner. It took a few swipes to get a decent line. I have Urban Decay's liner in Perversion as well, and that one is incredibly smooth and takes one swipe to get a clear, black line.

dr. brandt microdermabrasion

dr. brandt microdermabrasion, Travel Sized 7.5g, Value $9.75

Ipsy Deal: 20% off the full sized microdermabrasion and free gift for first 10k purchasers

I'm sure that this will work just fine. It actually feels nicer than the exfoliant I'm using at the moment. But the full sized is $78. No. No no no.

No.

Elizabeth Mott pop! goes the shadow

Elizabeth Mott pop! goes the shadow swatch

Elizabeth Mott pop! goes the shadow, Champagne, Full sized .07oz, Value $12.99

Ipsy Deal: 50% of any purchase

I love champagne-y colors! It is the most loved color in my Lorac Pro. This is probably what I was most excited to get in my bag. It is a little powdery, but I didn't see much fall out while doing the swatch. Then again, I do my eyes first so that I don't have to worry about fall out.

Starlooks Lucious Longwear Lip Pencil

Starlooks Lucious Longwear Lip Pencil swatch

Starlooks Lucious Longwear Lip Pencil, Naked, Full sized .2oz, Value $14

Ipsy Deal: 20% off any purchase

I know it says that you can wear this by itself, but I don't think so. Putting it on my lips, it felt very drying, which is fine for a pencil. But I'd basically use this as a lip liner and put a lipstick or gloss over it.

The value of all the items in my bag is $52.23. Seriously, worth $10, don't you think?

Items in other bags:

• benefit lollitint .8fl oz
• Cailyn Tinted Lip Balm .14 oz in either Apple Pink or Acid Pink
• Cover FX Mattifying Primer with Anti-Acne Treatment .5oz
• Rainbow Honey nail polish 5mL in Midnight Fountain
• City Color White Gold Shadow & Highlight Mousse .092oz
• Demeter Jasmine Perfume Oil Roll On .29fl oz
• KISS Looks So Natural Lashes in Shy, Pretty, Flirty, Sultry, or Vamp
• Mary Kay At Play Jelly lip Gloss .32fl oz in Teddy Bare or Berry Me
• Sexy Hair Root Pump Volumizing Spray Mousse 1.6oz
• St. Tropez Gradual Tan Plus Anti-Aging Multi-Action Face .5fl oz
• Such A Tease So Seductive Lashes

Ulta 20% Off Haul!

Yes, I am still on a no buy, but every time I start a no buy, I'm still waiting on orders! After this, I'm just waiting on a NYX order from Hautelook, but they take forever to ship. So, we'll see when I get that.

Anyway! Here's what I got with my 20% off coupon at Ulta:

benefit's B. Right Radiant Skincare 6pc Intro Kit. Urban Decay's Naked Skin Weightless Ultra Definition Liquid Makeup.

Both came out to $54.75 (including tax) after the 20% off coupon. Plus I got their 3 piece sampler and a free set of perfume samples with a $25 purchase.

 benefit's B. Right Radiant Skincare 6 pc Intro Kit, $24.

From left to right: Total Moisture Facial Cream (.1oz),  Moisture Prep Toning Lotion (.3 fl oz), Foamingly Clean Facial Wash (.3oz), Refined Finish Facial Polish (.3oz), Triple Performing Facial Emulsion (.3 US fl oz), and It's Potent! Eye Cream (.1oz)

Now, I got this partly because I needed another $24 added to my cart to get free shipping. I hate paying for shipping. But does anyone else notice how cute these freaking bottles are! They are literally just a mini version of their full sized. The full sized bottles are nice, but these just make me go "aww" for some reason. I just love their packaging. Actually, I go on a packaging love affair with this haul.

For the past couple days, I've used the facial cream and the eye cream. I love the facial cream. Feels moisturizing, but not heavy. The eye cream, I haven't noticed a difference in my under eye area, but here's hoping.

Funny thing about the eye cream. I open everything and smell it (because who wants to put something that smells like poop on their face?). When I opened the eye cream, my first thought was "this smells like beer". And that first thought has not changed. Every time I open it, I just want to go out for wings while drinking the It's Potent! Eye Cream.

 Urban Decay's Naked Skin, $39

My love for Urban Decay continues. First, the packaging. Very sturdy and sleek. And a pump! Foundations need to all come with a pump, in my opinion.

I have trouble matching myself to foundations. I'm extremely pale with a cool undertone. Majority of the foundations I've tried, have warm undertones and make me look yellow. Guys, I don't want to look yellow.

So, I've wanted to try this since I found out that they specifically have cool and warm shades and actually differentiate between them. If you look at the numbers, the warm shades all end in 0 while the cool shades end in 5.

I waffled between the shades .5 and 3.5, but ended up getting the .5. Nothing like standing in Ulta, making my boyfriend look at the swatches on each wrist to help me choose. He's such a good sport.

 I said I was pale. Left is a swatch, right is blended in.

I wouldn't say this is a full coverage foundation right off the bat. But! I do believe you can build it up. So far I've only tried one layer on my face, but I'm loving it. It's a very lightweight foundation. No one wants to leave the house feeling like they're wearing a weight on their face.

 Free samples! (Free with $25 purchase) The site actually said 8pcs, but I guess they weren't counting the two "For Men" samples.

Guys, I'm no perfume expert. I like scents, but if you ask me to describe them, you're in a world of trouble. I smelled all of these and none of them made me want to throw up (or throw them out). I gave the two "For Men" ones to my mom's boyfriend. The rest went into my shot glasses with my other makeup (perfect perfume sample storage!).

More free samples! These are the samples I got when I chose Ulta's "variety sampler" pack. Guess they had some Matrix left over cause I got those same samples last time I ordered. Eh, it's shampoo and conditioner. I have straight hair, so I'm probably going to give the DevaCurl to my mother who has really curly hair.

All in all, I'm excited to try everything including the perfume samples.  I'm hoping that at some point I can start doing an "Empties!" post of things that I loved and ran out of. Pretty sure a lot of this will be in that post as well.

I've been lazy...

I've been a little lazy re: this blog the past week. But I'm back. The boyfriend and I are watching the Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary on Netflix, so I figured why not post while I listen. It's his favorite musical and I've only ever seen the movie (which, honestly, compared to this show, the movie was just bad).

Hand model: Nikki

My friends and I made a mall trip last Friday. A lot of time was spent in Ulta and Sephora. Above, we were swatching basically every red lipstick Sephora carried, attempting to find one that Nikki liked. Failed. But I'm sure we'll find one soon.

From Sephora, Ulta, and Walmart

From Sephora, I picked up Urban Decay's travel liner set. It comes with three of their 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencils. One each of Perversion, Smoke, and Sabbath.

Sabbath (far left) is a navy blue. Smoke is grey. Perversion is pure black. I've wanted to try their liners for a while now. I tend to have trouble with pencil liners since they tend to be too hard and drag my eyelids. These are insanely creamy. I'm not too excited about Sabbath since my green eyes don't tend to look good with blue liners, but I'll definitely try this out a bit.

At Ulta, I picked up a few NYX items.

NYX Butter Lipstick in Sweet Tart, which is a lovely pink. NYX Butter Lipstick in Mary Janes, an almost pure red. I feel like there's a tint of pink in it when I tend to look at it. And a NYX Hi Definition Photo Concealer Wand in Green.

For those that don't know, green concealer is used to neutralize redness. I don't tend to have much redness in my face, but get the occasional breakout. A little bit of green concealer underneath my foundation and bye bye red spot. This is probably my favorite green concealer I've used. It's very smooth and blends out extremely easily.

As far as the lipsticks, I already had one of NYX's Butter Lipsticks and loved it. They're much more moisturizing than any lipstick I've owned, but I do find myself re-applying more often.

First group of items picked up at Walmart are a few of Maybelline's Eye Studio Color Tattoo Eyeshadows.

From left to right: Pomegranate Pink, a shimmery pink. Painted Purple, not really shimmery but a very bright purple. I'm not entirely sure the name of the last one. Pretty sure it's Pure Gold.

Next was Revlon's Age Defying CC Cream in Light.

 
I've mostly been using either my Covergirl Tru Blend foundation or my Maybelline BB cream, but I wanted a little more coverage than the BB cream and a little less heaviness than the foundation. So here came the CC cream. Perfect. I've been wearing this basically every day for the last week. Very light on the face, but enough coverage that with a little concealer, my under eye circles are gone.

Next purchase was Lush's Bubblegum Lip Scrub. My cousin's girlfriend, who now works with me, also works at Lush, so she picked this up for me the other day.

I seriously want to just eat this out of the jar. Which, while it won't kill you, would give you a stomach ache. It's sugar. I know I could just make this on my own, it's all ingredients you can grab at the supermarket, but I'm lazy. This tastes great and works just as well.

And my last, but not least, purchase was actually made before everything else. But it's my favorite!

Olay Fresh Effects Everything Off! makeup removal wet cloths. I had to pick up some makeup remover wipes prior to last weekend since I didn't have any at the boyfriend's house. Only grabbed these because they were on sale at CVS. I've used Burt's Bees and elf's makeup remover wipes and was afraid that I'd never find a wipe that didn't kill my eyes no matter how "gentle" the package said they were.

These? These are my holy grail right now. My face and eyes feel perfectly fine after using these. Nothing stings, my eyes don't water, and they are so soft.

I love them. That's all.

So yeah, I picked up a handful of things over the last week or so. My no buy ended, NYX went on sale. I'm still going to keep myself on a low-buy at the very least.

Shannon out.