JUNE IPSY GLAMBAG REVIEW & BLOGGING WITH SHERMAN

Hello, all!

This post comes in two parts: one part gawking about makeup, one part gawking about kitten.

Here is part one: The June Ipsy Glambag Review.

I've been an Ipsy Glambag subscriber for a few months now, and I've had a lot of hits and a lot of misses. If you don't know what Ipsy is, it's a service that sends you a bag of 4-5 makeup/beauty/other products every month for $10. My first glambag was worth around $60, and I've been hooked ever since. Last month's May glambag was very... underwhelming to say the least, but Ipsy really redeemed themselves with this month's picks, or at last for me.

First of all, when you get your Ipsy glambag, it arrives in your mailbox in a shiny pink bubble envelope. That bubble envelope is usually the mail highlight of my month (unless I order something else online) because it's so friggin' cute.

I don't have a photo of all my products together. Sorry 'bout it.

This month's bag was a black (maybe dark navy blue) Rebecca Minkoff bag that has a pineapple-y, tropical pattern on it. It's pretty cute, but I don't know if I'll use it for other situations. The only two bags previous to this one that I've really loved have been February's plain pink bag and May's bag because it fits all my makeup brushes PERFECTLY. This one's not bad. I'm beginning to wonder what I'm going to do with all of my Ipsy bags. Goodwill, look out.

Marc Anthony Dream Waves Beach Spray

Value: ~$3 for sample size (1.52 oz), $6.99 for full size (4.2 oz) 

I'm not really one for fancy hair products, but I like this. The goal is to "create sexy, tousled beach waves all year long." I sprayed a little bit on my hair today, which I had flat ironed, and it gave them a beachy texture. It didn't look very good, but I can tell that if my hair had been damp it would have worked pretty well. My hair is naturally pretty beachy-wavy though, so I might have a one-up on those with fine, straight hair.

Verdict: Woo! I like this product and I would recommend it to someone who wanted loose waves.

NYX Butter Gloss in Eclair, 

Value: $5.00, full size

I'm really, really not a NYX fan. Every product I've had from NYX has ended up being pretty terrible, although I haven't really tried a lot. The eyeshadow I tried (from an Ipsy bag!) wasn't pigmented at all and it took a lot of product to get anything to show up on the skin. I hoped that maybe this Butter Gloss would make me think differently about NYX... but it didn't. The color is OK, but it's really really sticky. I'm picky when it comes to glosses, so I had high hopes when it came to this, but none of them were met.

Verdict: Dislike. I would not recommend this product to a friend. Sorry, NYX.

Jesse's Girl Waterproof Liquid Liner

Value: $6.99, full size

I really like this liner! I used it today to make a cat-eye and it worked really well. It has a very fine tip that's perfect for drafting out your eye and would work well on making a very, very thin line, but also can be used to make a thicker line too. I'm not very good with liquid liner, and this product worked really well for me. I prefer eyeliner pens, and this one is a good value that works very well.

Verdict: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend.

Be a... Bombshell Lash Out Mascara 

Value: $15.00 (full size)

This product was.. meh. My lashes are really long and curl pretty well on their own, but they're blonde, so I like really dark, pigmented mascara that gives a lot of volume and this didn't quite do the trick. I can see how it would work well paired with another mascara, but on its own it didn't work too well. Plus the packaging feels kind of cheap and not very sturdy. However, for someone who wanted a pretty natural mascara look, this would probably work really well. I like a lot of mascara and pretty dramatic lashes so this just didn't exactly do the trick. I do like that Ipsy is supporting indie makeup brands, though!

Verdict: I'd recommend this to someone just starting out with makeup, but I'm not a huge fan.

Ole Henriksen Truth To Go Wipes

Value: $9.00 (10 pack)

I was excited to see these in my Ipsy bag! I use makeup wipes every day to wipe off my makeup, and I'm always looking to try new brands. Typically I stick with either Burt's Bees or Forever 21 wipes, so I'm excited to try these out. (I haven't tried them yet. You don't get a verdict. Sorry.) Buuuuut, they value at $9.00 for 10 wipes, so at nearly a dollar per wipe, I surely hope they work well.


Total value of my this month's Ipsy: $38.99! 

Today's makeup look! I used the eyeliner, mascara and lip gloss from my Ipsy bag.

Overall, I really enjoyed this month's glambag. I liked seeing some independent makeup brands mixed in with some drugstore brands. Mascara, eyeliner and makeup wipes are some of my absolute makeup must-haves, so I'm excited to have some more of those to add to my collection.

While taking photos for this post, however... I had some difficulties. Thus, part two of today's post: Sherman.

Last month, our beloved family cat, Fez, ran away and never came home. This devastated my niece, Kylee, who was about to have her tenth birthday. On her tenth birthday, my sister brought home a kitten who had been abandoned by his mother.

Now, a month later, the kitten — now named Sherman — is around 10 weeks old and because he was so young when he was taken from his mother he is kind of an asshole. I can't find any better words for it. He's adorable and very social, but he also likes to cause trouble and bite you whenever he gets the chance. Sherman needs to adjust his attitude a little bit.

Today, I gathered some stuff for a super fancy improvised photo set-up, which involved ruffling around some blankets and throwing something plain (in this case, a pillowcase. ~~~fancy~~~) over it in order to make a decent backdrop for photos of my Ipsy products.

So, I threw my blue pillowcase onto the blanket, threw my Ipsy bag on top of it, opened the window behind me to let some light in and started snapping photos. Soon enough, Sherman found me (he's pretty social) and decided he wanted to be the star of some of the photos.

Behind the scenes action. You wouldn't know from the photos above that it was really just me throwing a pillowcase onto my niece's bed... or at least I hope not.

So I leaned back a little, hoping to get a little more of the action, and then he just tried getting closer to me.

Yes. That is exactly the kind of photo I wanted, Sherman.

"Wait... you AREN'T trying to photograph me?"

So I lifted him up and put him back on the floor and he crawled under the bed. Then, as I was taking a photo of the beach spray...

Wow. What a great photo of the beach spray.

Then I figured out that what he wanted was the camera strap. I wasn't wearing it around my neck, so it just kind of dangled there like any cat toy would.

"What are this?!"

So I threw the camera strap around my neck and thought that this time, maybe he would leave me alone.

Nope.

And again during the mascara shoot.

Basically, don't leave your door open when you're trying to take photographs and have a kitten at home.

Luv,