Ipsy March 2013 Review

Ipsy gets a lot of blogger love. And yes, it's true that they have had a few stellar months, especially towards the end of 2012. However, it seems that all good things must come to an end. Ipsy's good streak certainly already has.

Ipsy - All Together

First- the bag. Anchors? What? Why? Are we middle schoolers? I can only handle so much tacky at one time, Ipsy.

The bag

Here's what came in my bag:

Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist (1oz), approximate retail value $3.38

Juice Beauty Hydrating Mist

Who doesn't love getting a big ol' bottle of placebo in the mail?! This bottle of nothing has no empirically supported function whatsoever. Juice Beauty is just pushing the same old crap about resveratrol that was the subject of my very first Beauty Bullshit post. They did, however, successfully spell the word correctly this time.

The product feels exactly like spraying water on your face, if said water smelled a little bit like roses. I like things that smell like roses, but that's not enough to keep this product from being worthless.

LA Fresh Travel-Lite Makeup Remover Wipes (8 count), approximate retail value $1.49

LA Fresh Makeup Remover Wipes

I am a lazy motherfucker, so I really like makeup remover wipes. I currently use Say Yes to Cucumbers and am really satisfied with them. These LA Fresh wipes are fine, but certainly are not comparable to the ones I already use. The wipes are on the small side, meaning it takes me two wipes to get off my makeup. This seems to wasteful to me. Additionally, on my combination skin, the "moisturizing formula" translates to "Wow, I feel kind of greasy".

Glam RX Mini Freestyle Palette, estimated retail value $4

Glam RX Mini Freestyle Palette

I just sort of made up a value for this, since this isn't a real product. Glam RX makes makeup touch-up palettes with a concealer, lip balm, shine erase powder, and eyeliner. Ipsy sent us the packaging for the product with none of the actual makeup inside. Since people aren't buying this $16.50 palette for the cardboard it comes in, I think a $4 value is more than generous. 

Yaby Eyeshadow Refill (2 at estimated 0.02oz each), estimated retail value $1.54

Yaby Eyeshadow Refills

The two colors I got were a soft ecru appropriately called "Sand Dune" and a cool emerald called, to my bewilderment, "So Vein".

Yaby Eyeshadow Swatches (2 swipes of each)

The pigmentation of the shadows is solidly mediocre.

Swatching wet did not go very well.
Wet swatches are on the right.

After solid success using unimpressive Coastal Scents shadows when wet, I decided to see if this would work for Yaby. Unfortunately, water just seemed to make things worse.

In the Glam RX palette

The magnetic bottoms of the shadows allowed them to be put in the Glam RX palette. They aren't super stable (they certainly aren't stable enough to facilitate traveling with this palette), but it'll do.

Gleeful with the victories of magnetism, I decided that I might have found a use for the random Coastal Scents shadows that Ipsy keeps sending my way. I managed to pry them out of their crappy plastic containers (with some difficulty!). I only had a little bit of catastrophic damage. Unfortunately, it turns out that the metal Coastal Scents uses is not magnetic, meaning it doesn't work for this palette.

Don't worry, I will re-press these poor, mangled shadows.

Total Box Value: $10.41

Wow. That is really bad. This is the worst subscription box value I have gotten from any subscription service so far. Furthermore, I am not interested in any of the products that I received. Unless Ipsy steps it up, I will be canceling my subscription.