Purchased by me
This is my FIRST review of the Ipsy Glam Bag in almost 10 years! Back then, there were a ton of subscription services and I was subscribed to probably five of them with a few brands like Glossybox and Birchbox sending me boxes to review. I was also receiving a lot more press samples so all of that combined left me overwhelmed and frankly, uninspired to review and use the products inside. I have not thought about signing up for anything since FaceTory until I took some time off at the start of this month and realized that I missed these little surprises and mini sizes of brands I haven't tried before! With the exchange rate and shipping, this box ended up costing about $27 CDN so not the cheapest, but is it worth the surprise of trying new things? Maybe! And, what's nice is that I can pause it anytime and resume with ease!
Founded by Ximena Gallegos, Just Ximena is a cruelty-free, Latinx-inspired beauty brand that I had not heard of before (hence, why I prefer the Ipsy bag vs. Topbox since there is more brand variety). Their featured product is a 2g deluxe sized (I feel like this is full sized for me!) powder highlighter in "Sparkling Champagne" meant to give that "Miami glow" all year round. You can see from the swatch below that there is quite a bit of pigmentation and the texture was super soft and smooth! I have been using it to highlight my cupid's bow, underneath my brows and tip of my nose and have been enoying it because a little goes a long way!
I do not believe this size can be purchased on its own, but on their website, their highlighters come in a palette of four shades for $28 CDN.
I cannot see the gram weight on the website, but my guess is that this highlighter has a value of about $7 CDN.
Another brand I have not heard of! Kiss & Smink is all about simplicity with makeup and what was included in April's Glam Bag was Lip Aura lip oil which delivers a hint of colour in a smooth, non-sticky formula. I was actually wearing this all day because it felt so comfortable and plush on my lips and it smelled like candy!
The shade I received was the naturally pink "Peony" and in a FULL SIZE which retails for a whopping $31 CDN!
Goldfaden MD Body Surge Hydrating and Restoring Moisturizer
Now, this brand I have heard of thanks to seeing this brand in previous beauty boxes years ago and I didn't think too much about this body moisturizer because it didn't look that interesting, but when I used it I was floored with how GOOD it smelled! It is lightly citrusey and isn't greasy at all while being fairly hydrating It would actually make a fantastic hand cream! The full size of this body cream is 147mL at $65 USD giving this 20mL sample a value of $8.84 USD.
The international flat rate shipping charge on the Goldfaden MD website is $39.95 USD so I don't think I'll be picking this moisturizer up any time soon which is kind of sad because it was honestly quite a pleasant surprise!
Elizabeth Mott Vitamin C Cleanser
Elizabeth Mott has been featured in my previous beauty box reviews, but as the brand is not readily available in Canada, it has been awhile since I have used anything from this Korean beauty-inspired brand. This cleanser smells SO GOOD! Just like oranges which I know isn't necessarily a good thing when it comes to vitamin C product, but as this is a cleanser, I'm just washing it off right away and it's such a treat when the cleanser smells delicious! This had a gel consistency and wasn't the least bit drying. I would really love the full size of this! This 15mL deluxe size retails for about $1.70 USD.
E.L.F. Cosmetics Liquid Poreless Putty Primer
I must be the only person on the planet who hasn't tried this yet, but I think because of that, receiving a full size of this much-talked about primer made me really enjoy this month's Glam Bag! Having never tried the original solid putty primer, I can't say if the liquid version is better, but from just using this last few days, I have enjoyed it! It has a moisturizer-like texture and the dry-down feels silky, but not in the silicone-way. The finish it leaves on my skin is smooth and a great canvas for both my pressed powder and liquid foundations! I received the full size which retails for $14 CDN.
Final verdict: Factoring in a 30% exchange rate for the body moisturizer and cleanser that did not have Canadian versions of their websites, the total value of April's Glam Bag was $65.70 CDN. I've always said it all comes down to what YOU as a subscriber find valuable and though I was not expecting the lip gloss to be $31, I'm still happy with the contents of what I received and will opt in for the May Glam Bag. I also thought the bag itself was cute and very spring/summer appropriate so stay tuned for next month!
If you feel so inclined to try Ipsy for the first time, feel free to use my referral link or head on over to www.ipsy.com!
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