May 2014 Ipsy Glam Bag

Each month, subscribers will receive a beautiful Glam Bag with deluxe samples and full-sized beauty products. Members can watch and play along with the stylists with the same products that they are using. All for only $10 a month. 

When you sign up, you take a "beauty quiz" to let them know what you like. I guess Ipsy is kind of a social network-type beauty website, but I don't do all of that. There's also some sort of points system that I haven't quite figured out. You get 10 points for each review, but you usually need 1000 points to get some kind of bonus product, of which they only have 3 to choose from at a time. There are points for referrals too, but I don't badger my friends into signing up. If you would like to sign up, please consider using my referral link: http://www.ipsy.com/r/4q7r

This month's theme: Fresh Picks

Here's the bag this month. It feels more like the recycled fabric texture, which is different than the more plastic/vinyl fabric of the bags we've been getting. It's a great size too. The bottom expands a little so it's a great size. 

Here's what I got this month:

Pur~lisse Pur~Moist Hydra Balance Moisturizer: I was just thinking I needed a new night moisturizer for my face. It's sort of like a gel/cream formula. There is a slight smell but barely noticeable and just clean smelling. Feels nice. Don't know if it's any better than what I have, but it's nice to try.

Hang Ten Classic Sport SPF 50: Just in time for our 100 degree days here in LA! I just noticed that the back has tiny print that says "provided by COOLA" (or powered, or presented, not quite sure because it's too tiny) which makes me excited because I love the Coola sunscreen I got from Birchbox in March, so much so that I bought the full size, then bought the same thing for my mom. It's very creamy and spreads really well. A little goes a long way, and has that sort of classic sunscreen smell - which I was always ok with. It's a great travel size and I just read that it is water resistant up to 80 minutes. I actually don't use an SPF this high usually, but I'm sure I'll get some use out of it.

Pacifica Mineral Eyeshadow Duo in Moonbeam & Unicorn: Apparently this mineral eyeshadow is coconut infused. The description also says "gorgeous color pay-off", but it took a few layers to get to the levels on that swatch. The white is pretty nice, but I'm hoping the purple will be more intense with some primer.

Crown Brush Pro Blending Fluff Brush: I was just thinking I needed a good eyeshadow brush. This isn't as soft as the name suggests though. Didn't seem to work too well with the Pacifica eyeshadow - not sure if it was the shadow or the brush.

Nailtini Straight Up Color Nail Lacquer in Champagne: The color is very neutral, but shiny. I put it next to my bare nails to show how light it is. I love it. I don't have any color like it. The formula is very smooth and creamy and the color is actually very opaque with one coat. Since I'm back to having longer nails again, I decided to just paint the tips with this color and it just adds a nice shine. 

I'm actually pretty happy with my bag this month. There is less actual makeup than usual, but a nice selection otherwise. So many people complain about everything in their bags - it seems pointless to pay for a service when you know it will be a mystery, just to complain about everything. Don't get the bag then. My makeup and skin care selection has grown so much from trying all these products. I don't always like everything, some I've used once and never again, but I'm so glad I get to try them!

Benefit's Hello Flawless Review

I don't like wearing any sort of heavy foundation, it just looks fake on my and sits on my face. I do use a powder every day though, since my face gets so oily. I've started to notice that my powder doesn't really do anything for an uneven skin tone. I started to look into Hello Flawless by Benefit. A lot of reviews on makeupally.com raved about it for helping oily skin. I needed to return my Tarte Colored Clay CC Primer to Ulta and I figured, why not get this to try?

Description from Benefit.com:

Now in an improved magnetic-close compact, this famous powder cover-up glides on naturally sheer and layers beautifully for customized coverage. Perfect for any skin type, the silky formula comes with a newly designed brush AND a sponge for any degree of coverage you desire.

Packaging: A box. Thicker than most other compacts, but that's because it comes with a brush and a sponge for application. The pan of color isn't very deep, but you don't need to use much.

Price: Pretty steep. As is the case with most Benefit products. $34. 

How well does it work?

Day 1: No primer or anything. Used the sponge for application, except under eyes where I used the brush-about 8:30am. Check after lunch (maybe 1:30-2pm) and was a little shiny so I used blotting paper. Leaving work at 6:30pm, my face seemed pretty oily. We did have temperatures in the 80s so that's probably part of it. I dusted my Benefit Porefessional Agent Zero Shine over and good as new. 

Day 2: Used Coola's Tinted Matte SPF 30 sunscreen as a kind of primer, since it's matte and feels powdery. Same application as yesterday-about 7am. No blotting or dusting, but it wasn't as warm and I didn't work as late. Noticed the powder gathers between my eyebrows in those creases a little bit and in the low spot between my chin and my lips. Not too bad though.

Day 3: Used Benefit's Porefessional primer that I got a sample of. Review of that later. Used the sponge all over except under eyes and forehead. My bangs cover most of my forehead and that part seems to get the cakiest (not a word, I know...) so I used the brush for that today-about 7am. It's 2:30, so far so good. My face feels a little greasy, but not much. 

For now, I really like this product. That could change. It seems like wearing it with some sort of primer works better, which I think is the point of primer :) I wasn't sure about my color, which is why I didn't order it online. I went to Ulta thinking someone would be able to help me but I went on a Monday night around 8pm and there was all of 3 people working - one of them was a guy, who ended up ringing me up and was no help with the color. But at least I got to test the colors. I thought I was Champagne, but I ended up buying Honey. I think that will be a good choice once I start spending more time outside in the sun.