Hi all! Very excited to go over all my IPSY for this month! Found some new favorites- and have had no time to update my blog with everything going on. But I’m here and ready to spill about some great products ^-^
IPSY chose two items for me this month, like normal; the first one is from Fenty Beauty, which is amazing – like not only is the product amazing, but so is the brand. I have always loved any product I’ve received from them. This one is the Stunna Lip Paint in the shade Uncuffed.
She means lip paint. I have never owned anything like this and I absolutely love it.
So the first thing is always the packaging, and Fenty doesn’t disappoint. It’s a gorgeous design, almost like a quill pen in an inkwell, like you feel like you’re dipping in to write or something. It’s luxurious and feels heavy and esssspensive O,O And the actual wand is very small and precise with a short stick and a little round angled bit for application.
The product itself is a paint. It actually feels like an actual paint. It went on with such a crazy amount of pigment, like you could actually use these to paint on canvas. Insane.
The actual application was tense because it was one of those, move and you’re dead kind of things. But the product was so smooth and I actually had an easier time than I was thinking I’d have.
It dried down into a really nice soft matte that didn’t hurt or feel sticky or dehydrate my lips, and it stayed on for the entire day. I was actually looking on poshmark to find a more nude color because the only thing is, it was too red for me. I prefer more bronze and nude tones for my lips, or at least a more gentle pink. This wasn’t exactly cherry red but it was a lot redder than what I usually go for. That being said, I’d love to continue using it into the holiday season when the red lip is more common and maybe I’ll feel less out of place.
[Update; I just went and looked for a more nude online, just to see, and I’m noticing that Uncuffed isn’t really that red. So maybe I’m just a wuss].
Anyway. These lip paints retail for $26, which is not bad imo. I’m not currently in the market for any more because I lowkey have issues with my lips very often, but if I didn’t, that would be something I’d spend for a product this excellent.
The other item IPSY picked for me is the Estate Cosmetics Fall Edit Eyeshadow and Pressed Pigment Palette. Honestly, I haven’t touched this at all. Looks boring and feels too generic. I’m planning to just Posh it and not waste my time. Sorry. It was just not that cute, not that enticing, and I’ve been busy.
Then I chose three items for my bag: The first one is from Natasha Denona, whose products I’ve been trying to experiment with more. It’s actually two items; Chroma Liquid Crystal Eyeshadows in the shades Disco and Space, a bright silvery reflective and a deeper black shimmer. These are wonderful and I’m so glad I picked them.
First off, the packaging is a little lackluster. The little jar is cute, but the wand doesn’t really pick up a lot of product when you dip it back in. I have to work really hard to get the product out in any usable amount.
That being said, once I got the product out, I was floored. I’ve tried a few different eye techniques with them, and have consistently gotten compliments. I use Disco in my inner corner and I get a lot of good feedback on it, since it’s silvery and sparkly and looks very wet. The texture also doesn’t itch my eye like some dry formulas do, like if I’m wiping my eye with my finger I only get a little squishy texture, nothing sharp or painful.
I also tried using Disco on the inner third of my eye with Space on the outer third and blending them together for a classic light to dark ombre, and that ended up really cute too. Space didn’t do so good when I tried to blend it out up to my browbone for a smoky wing, but it did good in the regular crescent shape I was going for initially.
I have gotten a lot of compliments on just having Disco in my inner corner and I’m really excited to keep trying it out. I haven’t used it anywhere else on my face because it’s so blinding, but maybe just for a photo, or a fancy date night next time I have one of those.
This set retails for $25, which I would consider a good price if the packaging was a little better. Have to experiment more with different eye looks, but all in all very glad I got them.
The next product I chose was the Malin + Goetz Resurfacing Face Serum. I didn’t like this serum very much as it burned and stung on my skin. I feel like it might be because I exfoliate very regularly to deal with my milia, and this serum could be better for someone who doesn’t exfoliate often, since that can definitely cause sensitivity. Even one day that I didn’t exfoliate and just shaved a little of my face, it still burned.
Now I totally understand that some products have more active ingredients that may feel warm or tingly, but this burned. The texture was fine and the fragrance was fine but like rule one of skincare, no burning.
I don’t have a lot more info on it since I did not continue use, but if I recall correctly this is the second miss from their brand and I probably won’t add any more of their items onto my bags for now. I gave this to a friend who liked it, so all’s good.
The last choice was the Pur xo Nabela Refresh Brightening Cleanser. I’ve heard of the brand but never tried it, so this is a good start.
The packaging for this cleanser is a regular flip cap squeeze tube, nothing special, and the fragrance is super sweet like warm sugar vanilla or something. It’s also got a good texture, very bubbly and not a cream cleanser. I feel very clean after using it, although maybe a little stripped and dry. It’s been good for before I put a mud mask on. I don’t have a ton of other feedback on this, it’s just a face wash and I plan to continue using it.
Pretty happy with the base box and choices, just a couple I won’t be using. Time to talk about the items I added on:
I selected seven items this month and have enjoyed using most of them very much. Let’s try something new and go from least to most liked, that’ll be fun.
The item I liked the least of the ones I added was the Dermalactives Ultimate Glow Jojoba and Lavender Body Scrub. I was super disappointed in this because I selected it to refill a scrub I had at home that was just running out, and it fell flat.
The packaging is a cute little jar which you can see the product through and a white turn cap. It’s easy to get my hand into the jar and get a good scoop out. The fragrance is not my favorite, it’s like it can’t decide if it wants to be sweet or floral or what.
But what really disappointed me was the texture. On a scale of 1 to 10 on an abrasive scale, I’d give it a 1.5. I can technically feel a tiny bit of scrubbing, but mostly it’s just a weird smelling jelly that doesn’t leave me feeling particularly exfoliated. It does leave me smooth like a nice body wash, but I prefer a scrub that really gets the layers of dead skin off.
Definitely wouldn’t recommend this unless you’re incredibly sensitive or just want a scrub that doesn’t really scrub. I added it on for $12, but I wouldn’t pay that again or whatever it’s worth.
I also added two sheet masks from Glowiest: the Youthful Glow and Peachy Glow. These were alright, a little thin, and the serum inside them was refreshing and cool. I wear sheet masks for a chunk of time throughout my evening, so I like when they have stickier serum.
Since they were one time use items I can’t really give a thorough review of long term effects, but I’d purchase these again on the website if I saw them, they were good. I still like my FaceTory ones better, but these were nice.
The packaging was perfectly fine, not super easy to open though.
It’s not really fair to put the Truffle Eye Serum by Byroe next, but to be honest I’m not sure where else to put it.
It’s a nice eye serum, lightweight, cute squeeze tube packaging, but nothing about it really jumped out at me. I wrote in my last post that I have been trying to get better about eye creams cause the crinkles are coming, so if nothing else I’m glad to be able to consistently use it.
It’s a gel-like texture but not what I think of when I use the word serum, more like just a gel cream. Which is fine of course, like I’m sure other people would call that a serum maybe.
I added it onto my box for $12 and I’d probably repurchase if I saw it again, I enjoy it and it’s cooling and absorbs fast.
Next is the Anastasia Beverly Hills Deluxe Magic Touch Concealer. I’ve never used anything from this brand before and this concealer was in a mini size, and I thought why not give it a go?
I don’t currently wear concealer regularly, only when I’m maybe going out for the night and want to really contour and highlight my face. When I do use it, it’s just to brighten a little under the eyes and on the nose and that’s really all.
The packaging is cute and again it’s a sample size so I can’t speak on the actual one, but the mini one is pretty good. It’s a tip applicator that’s pretty large and pick up a lot of product. I’m sure this is the same applicator that’s in the regular size because it’s way too big for the little sample.
The shade I got was 2 (fair) which is perfect for me because I’m very light skinned in the fall and winter. This was one or two shades lighter than my foundation which helped brighten.
The formula is good too, not super heavy but also not super light, just a good pigmented concealer and it blended over my foundation very well and didn’t budge for the day. I added it to my box for $4, it was in the deluxe sample category. I probably wouldn’t purchase it at full price because concealer isn’t something I do every day, but I’m glad to use this one up.
Moving on I also purchased the Buttah Skin Tea Tree + Aloe Exfoliating Scrub. This one is a little different, but it made it pretty high on the list anyway.
So it came broken and had spilled all over all my other products. It was like it had shipped with a pair of scissors and they had just made several cuts into the body of the packaging, so a lot of my other items were unfortunately coated in the product. I was able to fold the packaging over at the opening and clip a binder clip over it to keep it in place, and this way I was able to squeeze and still have product come out the correct end.
I decided not to get on IPSY’s case about it because it rarely happens that there are any issues with my box and honestly I’ve been busy.
Anyway once I’d figured out the packaging and how I was going to deal with that, the product itself was awesome. I have actually used something basically identical before from The Body Shop: they came out with something called the 3-in-1 wash.scrub.mask which was tea tree as well, and the texture and fragrance are so similar.
The idea with this product is it’s a face wash, which you can exfoliate with if you like, and can also use as a mask and leave it on. It’s very tea tree and very cooling, and I’m enjoying it a ton. It’s like getting a flashback to a product I used to use.
I added it to my bag for $12 and I’d def repurchase at that price, maybe even a little more.
We’re getting there. Next is the LYS Beauty Higher Standard Satin Matte Cream Blush in the shade Self-Love.
I’ve recently been loving cream products, even in the heat, because they keep it pretty cold at my work. I was excited to see this brand too because so far the products I’ve tried from them have been amazing and I needed more cream blush.
The packaging for this brand is super unique and I know I talk about it every time so let’s just say, Triangles. Instead of squares. The unit cartons are cute, the actual components are sleek and modern.
Anyway. This cream blush is so good. My fingers warm it really well and it melts onto my skin with decent pigment but nothing that you need tons of effort to blend out. The shade also compliments my skin tone really well and I’ve been using itt pretty consistently when I’ve been able to do my makeup.
I added it onto my box for $12, which I’d spend again for sure. I’m going to try and get more items from this brand, I think they have some great ideas.
And last but not least! My favorite item I added this month is the Age Repair Gel Masque from Grown Alchemist. This mask really took me back in time and reminded me of a mask I have missed a lot.
The brand Grown Alchemist is unknown to me, but their website is very unique. Their packaging seems to have two distinct styles, which somehow work together. They don’t seem to be focused on any particular marketing like vegan, natural, blah blah. They just seem to want to sell their stuff.
The packaging is a regular squeeze tube with an easy to open cap. It’s made of some very firm plastic, so once you’ve used a lot of it and you have to start squeezing it down, it won’t probably be super even. It’s not that soft plastic that will just bounce back to its form, so I started folding it down as I’ve used it. Which is fine, just a little less easy to use.
The product itself is magnificent. It’s a thick gel cream with a nice scent that spreads on my skin very easily and doesn’t feel incredibly sticky or dry down. If you’ve ever tried the Glamglow Thirstymud, this felt a lot like that. Could feel it nourishing my skin. It stayed on as long as I needed it to, I even slept with it on one night because I just forgot it was there. After using it my skin felt incredibly hydrated and bouncy, especially after the times I’ve left it on for a consistent amount of time.
I would absolutely repurchase this and use it consistently, it feels like one of those products you just can’t use too much of. I was able to add it to my box for just $12 down from $54, but honestly $54 isn’t bad for the quality of this item. When I need more I’ll still probably try and find it on Poshmark, but still. I might buy it if they’re running any sales soon.
And that’s it for IPSY in October! I’m sorry this post is a little late, but I’ve decided it doesn’t make sense spending the first few weeks of a month just twiddling my thumbs waiting for my products and then racing to see if I can write and edit all the posts on time for the end of the month. I think it’s better if I let one of the boxes run into the first week of the next month to give me some more time.
Keep an eye out for my next Kinder Beauty post, which will be later than usual due to an issue with their suppliers and getting the box out on time.
See you guys soon!
Dani