Ipsy September 2014 Review

My September Ipsy bag finally arrived yesterday, and this is my last Ipsy bag. I've been frustrated with the shipping times and how often I get things I either can't use or don't want. Add in just how much makeup I have and Ipsy had to go. I'll be doing a look back at all of my bags later to do a breakdown on what I ended up liking and not liking.

September's theme was Street Style, to coordinate with New York Fashion Week I guess. I personally don't feel like any of the items really conveyed the theme, they were just random makeup items to me. Some of the items offered this month were also drugstore makeup I could get anywhere, so that was a bit disappointing for the people who received them. My bag wasn't horrible this time but it wasn't really me as you'll see.

First up is the bag. I like the simple design of it and I'm a sucker for studs so this was a hit. It's bigger than my current makeup bag so I'm switching over to this one. I know a lot of people received damaged bags so I'm glad mine showed up in one piece.

I have very long hair, so I use a lot of hair masks and conditioners so you'd think this Briogeo Don't Despair, Repair hair mask would be right up my alley. But I actually hate it, it smells so bad, very chemically. I'll try it later just to see, but unless it turns my hair into spun gold I will not be buying more. A full size is 5.25 oz and retails for $26, so my 1 oz sample is worth about $4.95.

This is actually the first time I've received a tool in a subscription box. This is a dual ended eyeshadow brush from Crown, and while it's really nice and soft I'm annoyed by it. With it being dual ended one side is going to get squashed up in my brush holder, which is frustrating. I may end up storing it in my eye makeup drawer if it'll fit. If I traveled a lot this would be nice for a travel bag, and it is a really nice brush, but the dual ended just irks me. This is full sized and retails for $6.99 on the Crown site, which looks like a discount makeup page.

Pacifica is not high on my list of companies I like due to their insistence on putting coconut in EVERYTHING, but this eyeliner is actually coconut free. There were two color options, a gun metal grey or a brown. I of course got the color I DIDN'T want, the brown. I'm a black eyeliner kind of girl unless I'm doing an unusual color so the gun metal would have been perfect.

The eyeliner is high quality and applied nice and smoothly, which was a plus. There seems to be a tiny amount of shimmer to it, but I don't think anybody is going to notice unless they're creepy close to your eyes. I'm trying to like this, I really am, but I'm just not a brown liner kind of gal. If I'm doing a softer eye look I'll use this but I won't be buying another one it's done. A full sized eyeliner is $11 and this looks to be about half that size so I'm giving it a value of $5 since the site doesn't say just how big a full sized one is.

This was one of the items I was excited to receive, an NYX eyeshadow single. I got Rehab, which is a dark forest green (perfect for fall), but there were 10 different colors offered and I'd have been happy with any of the colors. I didn't take a picture but the clasp is this cute little bow, which I love.

I thought there was good color pay off, easily buildable and once applied over primer it'll be even darker green. I've already worn it out and about and I love it, I can see myself picking up more of these for sure. This was a full sized sample and retails for $4.50 each so super affordable. And Target now carries them as well so they're easy to find, though I'll purchase mine at Ulta so I get points.

Cailyn is a brand I like, but I think whoever names their products needs to take a class in lip products. I got a lip balm that was solid lipstick and actually dried my lips out. This time I received one of their Art Touch tinted lip glosses, which is so not a gloss. It's more like a liquid lipstick, SUPER pigmented. Not sticky at all, which is a huge plus for me (wind plus long hair equals bad). There were two color options, a coral color or a red. I would have preferred the red, but the coral isn't bad.

On my lips it becomes a decent neutral color, though to be truthful it's more of a summer color than a fall color so I'm confused by their color choice. As you can see the color payoff is amazing and it slightly stains your lips I've noticed. The lasting power was closer to that of lipstick than gloss, it stayed on for most of my work the other day. I'll wear this quite a bit next spring/summer but right now it's not going to get used a lot which is to bad. This was a full sized item and retails for $19! Almost double the price of the whole bag.

All total I got 3 full sized items and 2 deluxe samples, so not bad in that department. But only one item is something I'm happy to use now and another will be great in a different season. I didn't completely hate this bag, but I'm glad it's my last. My total came to $40.44, so a very high value bag, though not the highest I've received.

Since I was canceling I decided to cash in my 500 points and get some bonus items. I picked the Miss Adoro set, which came with eyelashes, adhesive glue, and an eyeshadow duo.

Yeah....I didn't know these were real human hair so I'm actually a bit freaked out by these. I don't wear eyelashes so I was going to trade them anyways so it's not a big loss there. They look really nice though and are worth $1.99.

It's glue, not a whole lot to say here. This is worth $2.

I picked this set because I wanted this eyeshadow, and I'm a little disappointed. The colors looked much darker so I thought I was getting a gold and a pink champagne shadow duo, but in reality I got a sheer champagne and a light light light shimmery baby pink.

They will make a decent highlighting color but are not what I was expecting at all. Over my primer they just looked shimmery white so I'm majorly bummed. The color is called Fairy Tail and is worth $7, so not an expensive item at all. All total my bonus pack had a value of $10.99.

I'll write more about my overall impression of Ipsy at a later date and some more of my reasons for leaving, as well as a look at all 6 bags I received. Anybody else quite this month?