Ipsy June 2014 Review

This review technically isn't late because I did not receive my June Ipsy bag until July (more on that in a bit), or at least that's what I'm telling myself to feel less guilty about how late this really is. For those who don't know or are new to my blog, Ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription program that send you 4-5 deluxe or full sized beauty items (typically makeup) in a makeup bag.

I've been getting bags since April, so this was my third bag, although I'm reviewing bag 3.5 today. My original June bag came damaged so after contacting Ipsy Care about it they sent me a brand new bag. While they weren't the fastest customer service I've ever dealt with, they weren't the slowest either so I'm not complaining. It just meant that I didn't get my June Ipsy bag until the first week of July, which was a bummer obviously.

The theme for this month was "Pretty in Paradise", and as you can see I got 5 items, 2 of which were full sized. Now my replacement bag is slightly different than the original, they sent me a different mascara than originally came in it. I should explain what exactly happened before to my original bag. The vial of RealTree perfume broke open in transit and dissolved whatever it touched. Not like made the paper soggy, I mean actually dissolved it. As I review each item I'll tell you what state the original one came in, some of them were surprising.

Let's start with the bag for this month, which was designed my Rebecca Minkoff. I wasn't familiar with her prior to this, but apparently she's a famous designer so many people were super excited to see what she'd come up with. The bag has what I'm calling a pineapple plant design on it, with a red interior. I really liked it and am currently using it for the makeup I keep in my purse. The original one came to me soaked in perfume and stained by everything that had dissolved. I couldn't salvage it and it was giving me a headache from the smell so it went straight into the garbage which really sucked since it was such a nice bag.

RealTree perfume, I'm not even sure where to start with this. First, the company that makes it is a camo print producing company. Yes, you read that right. If anybody can make a logical leap from camo to perfume please let me know, because I am scratching my head over here. The smell was awful, like something you'd find in a truck stop bathroom. And it dissolved half my bag the first time around so there was NO way I was putting it on my skin! I'll value it at about $1 and if anybody want it I have the vial from the second bag still. No promises it won't melt your arm off.

Marc Anthony beach spray was the item I was most nervous about. As I've mentioned before I'm deathly allergic to coconut and early reports from people claimed there was a coconut smell with this. I never heard back from the company but I'm not dead so I guess there's no real coconut in it. For those who have never used a beach spray, it is basically a texturizing hair spray to give you beachy waves. I really liked this product, it worked well for my super long hair although the staying power wasn't great. My original one came usable, all the damage was purely cosmetic. The writing on the bottle came partly off and the Ipsy card transferred onto it so the bottle looks like a rainbow puked on it. Ugly but usable. This is 1.52 fluid oz putting the value at about $3.18, a full sized one is 4.2 fluid oz and is $8.79 on Walgreens.com.

I got a deluxe mini of the Elizabeth Mott It's So Big mascara in my second bag, which I haven't opened yet so I can't give you a personal review. This has really got reviews on the few sites I checked out so I'm excited to try it, but I like to have only one mascara for home opened. I should be opening this in September so stay tuned for an actual review later. A full sized is $19.99, so my deluxe mini has a value of about $8.48. That's a high value for a deluxe mini!

In my first bag I received the Be A Bombshell Lash Out mascara, which created quite a bit of drama on the Ipsy page. This mascara smells bad, like burning tires bad and for a large chunk of the people brave enough to try it the formula made there eyes red and irritated. BaB issued a note on their Facebook page saying the product was completely safe and the smell was due to not having any perfume in it, but I know Ipsy sent some people the Elizabeth Mott mascara as a replacement (which is more than likely why I got that instead of another BaB mascara). The one I received in my original bag came with the outside coating on the top melted off, which was both gross and surprising. You can start to see the damage in the picture, the top of the cap has a slightly different texture than the rest of it. The mascara is still usable, and I'll probably give it a try just to see if it hurts my eyes or if it is usable. On a side note, the BaB website lists this as out of stock currently. Not sure if that is because of all the negative publicity or just coincidence. This was a full sized item and had a value of $15, so it was a big ticket item in my original bag.

The item I was most excited about was the Ofra Universal Eyebrow Pencil. Making your eyebrows look good is serious business, and while I'm happy with the product I'm using now I'm always open to trying new things. The color is a dark brown, so I'd recommend using a light hand while applying. The formula is waxed based, which helps keep hairs in place. Overall I'm really happy with this item, minus the price. This is a full sized item so the price is $13, which isn't horribly high but the product I love is only $3 sot that's a huge difference for me. The eyebrow pencil that came in my bag was only about half usable, the perfume dissolved the coating and the actual product on the inside from the bottom up about a third of the way.

As you can see from the top swatch, the eyebrow pencil is pretty dark with a bit of a red tint. I would not recommend it for blonde haired individuals or people with light colored brows.

The item that most people were excited for was the new NYX Butter Lipglosses, and I think everybody got one but I could be wrong. I got a nice neutral color called Creme Brulee and I'm in love! The formula is nice and smooth with only a touch of stickiness. As you can see from the swatch above, it is a soft pink that once applied to the lip really mellows out. I wear it about once a week and I'll probably pick up a few of the other colors later at some point. My original one was usable, just covered in black stuff from the mascara that melted so I've got two of these. This is a fulled sized item with a value of $4.99, which I think is really affordable.

All total June's bag came to a grand total of $30.65, which is triple the price of the bag! The only item in this bag that was a bust was the perfume, which was such a low value it really didn't effect anything. My only real issue with the bag was just how long it took to get a usable bag.