Finally, today I received my Beauty Army Box, so now I am finally able to write a full review on all of my October monthly subscription services like I promised. Embedded below is my video unveiling the products I received for my Ipsy Bag, and my Birchbox , go ahead and check that out if you haven't already and then following is my full, honest review on each product.
This month's theme was bombshell, and I absolutely loved it, this is my favorite bag so far, and it had the most makeup samples. The bag itself was an adorable black, white and red chevron bag, pictured below along with my favorite product of the month. This month's bag is the best one I have received since being a subscriber to Ipsy (MyGlam).
Be A Bombshell Eyeliner
http://www.beabombshellcosmetics.com/ $14
This eyeliner is my favorite product I have ever received from Ipsy. Since my signature look involves doing a cat-eye or winged eye liner I love to purchase eyeliners with the tips that are like markers, and this has a good sized one. I normally use either the Marbella or BH Cosmetics marker tip eyeliners but they feel like they dry out at times and this one always feels moist. This is the best eyeliner for making a precise / straight line. They offer these liners in black, brown and a purple-ish blue.
What's Your Type? "the body builder" Black Mascara
www.thebalm.com $19
This is my second favorite product since being a subscriber to Ipsy. As you can see this month they really wanted to provide us with good quality samples from good brands. I have always wanted to try products from TheBalm and just never really have had the chance to, and now that I have tried this I will definitely be ordering from them in the near future. Normally when I apply mascara I have to apply two coats for full coverage and volume, but with this mascara one simple coat does wonders and provides exactly the amount of volume I look for. Another wonderful quality this mascara offers is that it is CLUMP FREE, no more hassle with clumps is definitely enough to make it worth it. Also, it is long lasting it doesn't seem to fade or smear throughout the day, even when it's quite warm out.
Emani Minerals Primer
http://www.beabombshellcosmetics.com/ $14
This eyeliner is my favorite product I have ever received from Ipsy. Since my signature look involves doing a cat-eye or winged eye liner I love to purchase eyeliners with the tips that are like markers, and this has a good sized one. I normally use either the Marbella or BH Cosmetics marker tip eyeliners but they feel like they dry out at times and this one always feels moist. This is the best eyeliner for making a precise / straight line. They offer these liners in black, brown and a purple-ish blue.
What's Your Type? "the body builder" Black Mascara
www.thebalm.com $19
This is my second favorite product since being a subscriber to Ipsy. As you can see this month they really wanted to provide us with good quality samples from good brands. I have always wanted to try products from TheBalm and just never really have had the chance to, and now that I have tried this I will definitely be ordering from them in the near future. Normally when I apply mascara I have to apply two coats for full coverage and volume, but with this mascara one simple coat does wonders and provides exactly the amount of volume I look for. Another wonderful quality this mascara offers is that it is CLUMP FREE, no more hassle with clumps is definitely enough to make it worth it. Also, it is long lasting it doesn't seem to fade or smear throughout the day, even when it's quite warm out.
Eyeshadow
www.coastalscents.com $1.99 per shadow
Top Left: Vibrant Blue
Top Right: Deep Eggplant
Bottom Left: Candlelight
Bottom Right: Elven Midnight (this is not a typo)
I always love expanding my eyeshadow collection, in my opinion you can NEVER have enough good quality eye shadows. I have noticed on the website the pictures of the colors they have are not exact, there is a huge difference between the actual color compared to the websites picture, so be careful ordering colors you are unsure of because they seem to be darker/brighter in person. I absolutely love this little collection of shadows, the shade of candlelight is perfect to use as a highlighting color for my pale skin, and the elven midnight and deep eggplant are wonderful smokey eye colors, I have yet to use the vibrant blue but as you can tell it is quite bright. The eye shadows blend out well, and are highly pigmented, so what you see is what you get. I have purchased eye shadows before from Coastal Scents and I have never had a negative transaction, and have always loved the products I received.
Mirenesse Lip Bomb in Mirror Mirror
www.mirenesse.com $35.10
Holy Cow! I just actually checked up on the price of this stuff and really couldn't believe how expensive this stuff is, and in my opinion it is definitely NOT worth it. They offer this product on the website in two different shades of red, and I wanted to love this product so badly, I mean a red lip is part of my signature look, but no matter how many times I have tried this something always goes wrong with it making me believe it is not worth $35, now if it was somewhere near $10 I would deal with it and purchase again. First off the negatives, this lip product is very heavy and difficult to get a even application, and it also smears very easily for at least the first hour of wear, during the making of my video I had to stop at least 10 times to wipe it off of my teeth and away from the edges of my mouth, even though I applied lip liner also to help. I also have tried it without the lip liner and still had the same difficulties. Now the positives, the color is absolutely amazing, and I do believe that once it dries up it does last quite long, but back to the negative side, once I did get it off, which took quite a scrubbing, my lips felt very chapped and dry. Like I said before if this product was cheaper I would consider dealing with the hassle, but in my opinion it is nowhere near worth $35.
Pequi Oil Treatment
www.couturecolour.com $12 for .5 fl oz
Now when it comes to hair products my opinion never seems to match up with other people's reviews, maybe my hair is just odd or something, but I didn't notice too many differences while trying this. I do know that it does have a wonderful smell, and it is alcohol free which is always a positive, and it is suppose to help create softer and shinier hair, which it does a little for me, but mostly I have noticed that it makes my hair greasy.
This month Birchbox teamed with a company called Goop . Goop is a company that was created in 2008 by Gwyneth Paltrow to help share all of life's positives. The website itself doesn't give a real good definition of what exactly Goop is, but Birchbox stated that Goop is there go to for lifestyle inspiration. To sum everything up this month's box was lame and I am seriously considering canceling my subscription, some months are good but others are just horrible.
DDF Brightening Cleanser
This foaming face wash is suppose to help minimize uneven skin tone and reduce age spots, and it comes in a licorice scent. I have been trying this face was for about two weeks now, and haven't noticed any different in my skin. I use this every night before bed and I have to plug my nose to use it because the licorice scent is very strong and makes me sick, afterwards my face does feel clean, but I have notice it does nothing for taking makeup off. Since I have been using this my skin has been getting very greasy and has broke out worse than it has in years, after this review I do not plan on using it again.
Perfekt Lip Perfection Gel in Melrose
This is the one and only makeup sample of the month, and it is TINY. I have never heard of Perfekt Beauty before this, but I am always curious to try new brands, and the packaging is adorable. The lip perfection gel comes in 5 different shades, and is suppose to not only moisturize but provide good color and even application.
Mighty Leaf Tea Assortment
To be honest I wasn't really that excited to get tea, I have a MASSIVE collection of teas already, and I am not real fond of getting food samples from a beauty themed monthly subscription service, I would much rather a beauty product, especially this month because everything pretty much sucked. On the optimistic side I checked out the site for this company and I do like the fact that they have a massive selection of flavors and they do sell loose teas, not just tea bags. They also offer boxes that have up to a 100 tea bags per package for avid tea drinkers.
And finally I get to reveal what I ended up receiving from Beauty Army this month... This month in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month they are donating a portion of there sales to Strides Against Breast Cancer . Like I said in my video I did have problems with my account this month which caused my box to come later than normal, when I went to do my selections this month they were the same products I received last month, and no matter how I changed up my beauty profile I ended up with the same things. So, after that I got on Facebook and commented there in hope of some assistance and explanation and they responded back for me to email them which I did, I waited a couple of days and no response so I emailed again and once again no response.. After that I commented on Facebook once again and they commented back and gave me a different email address to try so I forwarded all my past messages and another new one to that email, and still NO RESPONSE, and I basically just gave up, I selected the favorites out of my selection that was offered and just dealt with it. I am hoping next month things are better and I get a good selection otherwise I will have to fight once again with there horrible customer service to get assistance, because I do typically really love Beauty Army. Okay, now onto my samples for the month, I will not be saying much about a couple of these products because I have wrote about them in past Beauty Army reviews.
Lipsi Aphrodite Powder
This is the second time I have received this sample, and the first time I wasn't even sure exactly what it was for until I did a little research on the website. Aphrodite powder is a face powder designed to absorb excess oils on your face to help provide glowing skin, it works pretty well but it isn't my favorite face powder that I have tried.
Paris Amour Bodywash
This is another product I have received twice, but I didn't mind getting this one a second time I actually just used up the last one. Like a lot of other products from Bath and Body Works this has a wonderful scent and that is the number one reason I love it. The scent is also long lasting, you can still smell it even after you are out of the shower and dry.
Emani Minerals Primer
www.emani.com $28
Once again a product I have received twice, and just like last time I love this primer. It is lightweight and provides a smooth base for applying makeup.
Blushed by Ruddy Water
The first time I received this sample I had a much more positive review, I loved the scent and the packaging was neat, but this time when I received it and opened the package to apply the wipe inside was dried out and the package had more scent to it than the wipe itself.
Skinn Cosmetics Twin Set Lipstick and Lip Gloss in Coral Poppy
www.skinn.com $13.50
This is the first time I have ever received this product or tested something from Skinn Cosmetics and I wasn't overall impressed. This duo has a lipstick end and a gloss end and comes in 13 different shades. For starters I love the color, but the quality of the product isn't really worth $13 in my opinion. I applied the lipstick in the morning before I left to work and in about 15 minutes it appeared cracked and clumpy and my lips felt and looked dry. The lip gloss itself comes in one of those applicators that no matter how hard you try to get some everytime you pull out the little wand it only brought out a tiny dab, and the gloss also didn't have much color.
Ineke HotHouse Flower Perfume
www.ineke.com $95
This is one of those fancy expensive perfumes that I can only picture old women in fur coats wearing. I put a little dab on my wrist to test the scent and I smelled like it all day, my son told me I smelled yucky. It is suppose to have hints of Earl Grey Tea, Cypress, Gardenia, Musk, Fig, and so on, and it smelled disgusting to me.
Overall this month my favorite subscription was the Ipsy Bag, besides that the products I received I wasn't too satisfied with. I am hoping next month's get better and you will see them as soon as I receive them. Once again next month I will do an unveiling video when I first receive my packages and then write a written review on here when I get a chance to test everything fully. Thank you!
-Bri Grim
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