March Ipsy Bag Review + More!

Hey guys! I know, I know, it's been a while. Long while. I've been busy and abroad so I guess that's as good as any excuse gets. Missed me? :) Anyways, I've still been receiving my Ipsy glam bags and as much as I love them all and have all this spare time in my hands, I have been delaying reviews and what not. Lazy.
So this month's glam bag revolved around 'traveling' and 'destinations'. For anyone who wants to check out Ipsy by themselves, here's the link. Ipsy Glam Bags . So I just want to point out before we start, I didn't edit any of these pictures. Partially because Photoshop is still torrenting and I don't want to move to the table to connect the ethernet cable in.

The bag was designed by Klari Reis, and it's a geography-based series called 'Street Anatomy'. Personally, as art, I would say it's beautiful. But to me, I have a fear of dot's and I'm definitely a germaphobe. It reminds me of bacteria underneath the scope, so I was like, ehhhh, I'll just put this here. I usually keep all the bags they send and save them to hold loose change and just makeup to toss into my bag. The remaining bags I use to hold miscellaneous things for when I pack to travel back and forth. This bag has a glossy texture to it and inside has a sewn on patch of Klari's name on it and the Ipsy logo. Onward to the products!

Here's all the products laid out 'artistcally'. This month, I recieved a Bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie Lipstick in Get Ready, a Chella Liquid Eyeliner Pen in Indigo Blue, a Pixi Primer and a Nyx Trio, Love in Rio in Amazonian Babes - I believe. Usually I get five items, but this month they only sent me four, which I'm totally okay with. The value of the Bare Minerals lipstick was already enough to cover a good portion of my  Ipsy subscription price. Let's do the math real quick. (Prices pulled off each items company's website.)
BMMM RP 0.12 Fl Oz - $18 USD. I got 0.05 Fl Oz so a little less than half the amount. Obviously I can't math for my life so let's say it was about $7.50 for what I got.
CLEP RP $24 USD - We got the full size! Holy, I genuinely did not expect the eyeliner to be worth this much.
NYXLiR RP $6 USD - I believe this is the full size. I doubt they come any smaller!
PIXIP RP $9 USD - They sell the mini version, which was what we got on their website too. Yay, no math necessary :)

Bag Total -This months total added up to $46.5 USD. I got 4.5x the value of what I actually paid for, so I'd say it was a steal! I actually loved most of the products I got. Personally, Pixi is a hit or miss for me and this month, I'm not that fond of their Primer. Keep reading to find out why!

 Super sleek and simple packaging. The thing I look out for in most products I buy is how compact it can be. I love things that I can simply toss into my makeup bag and take around with me. Anything slightly over 50 mL, I find to be a bother for two reasons. Weight and how I can't always bring it back with me to Canada without having to send my luggage away. Another thing I want to point out is that the packaging color is true to the product color on the inside. Shimmer included.

 If they can make pumps on squeeze tubes, that would be heaven. If not, that's still cool. As you can see, the color is pretty much exactly the same as the packaging color. It squeezes out easy as well, so I'd be careful when getting product out.

 The consistency is thinner than how I'd like my primers. It's tinted but not to the point where you'd notice it drastically change your skin tone. The moment I smudge it and try to blend onto my skin, you can see major shimmer.

 Completely blended in.

With flash. I don't think you can notice the shimmer as much with flash considering how fine it was, but it does have a satin like finish. The feel of it is smooth but nothing noticeably amazing comes out of it unlike Benefit's Porefessional or Hourglass' primer. The formula itself does contain anti aging and skin fortifying properties, so I guess that would be a +1. It's kind of just lingering in the meh zone. Like I'll use it if it's lying around, otherwise I wouldn't reach for it first thing. Out of ten, I give it a five. It'd be perfect though in the summer when you want a natural glow underneath your makeup. Or if your skin is already naturally nice, use this as a light highlighter!

 Next off we have the bare Minerals Marvelous Moxie lipstick in Get Ready. It's packaging is similar to the original, larger packaging. However, I do remember the full size packaging has a little 'button' that slides the product out so the cap doesn't fall off easily. I love how simple the design is, and how sleek the packaging is. Like NARS or MAC. YSL makes amazing lippies but I'm not a huge fan of their packaging.

 It's a beautiful warm dusty rose color, and whoops, should've took a picture before I swiped it on my hand. Oh well! I absolutely love their formula. It glides on so smooth, almost as if it was butter itself. It's enriched with Omega fatty acids and Abyssinian oils, as well as vitamin A, C, and E. My lips felt really nourished and moisturized (Images applied to lips in a separate post.)

 At first when I applied it to the back of my hand, I was like, hm, it looks pretty sheer. Which I didn't mind at all, I love products that are buildable. But when I applied it to my lips, it was like, DAMN, that is some pigmentation you got there! I remember wiping it off the back of my hand to see the 'longevity', and it left a pretty bright stain on my hand. I have the full size product in Never say Never from Sephora's lipset. As far as color goes, it's not for me. Maybe once in every blue moon I'll take it out and try it. I think it might be more suited for summer than anything. However, the one thing I noticed was how amazing the formula was. Overall, this would be a good buy if you want a rich moisturizing formula that doesn't accentuate chapped lips at an affordable price. It reminds me somewhat of Too Faced's La Cremes but at a better suited price.

With flash - You can see the amazing satin finish it gives off.

 Next off we have Chella's pen eyeliner in Indigo Blue. I loveeeeeeeee pen liners more than anything, and have been using them for quite some time now. I feel like it's so much faster than using gel and it's application is so fine and even. The packaging is similar to most if not every other pen liner, just the pen and a cap. It doesn't do refills unlike Shu Uemura's calligraphy pen liner so it doesn't have a clicker at the end. The best part about pen liners are that you can take them everywhere with you and you wont need to grab a brush or a sharpener.

 The tip is a super fine point, which easily means you can make fine wings or thick, however you please. It's tip is made of felt which applies evenly and doesn't bleed. One of my all time eyeliners is a brush tip, so the color pigmentation is amazing, but it does bleed every now and then which bums me out so much.

 Obviously, I can't draw a straight line for my life. Look how 'clean' that line looks. It's a dark navy blue color with amazing pigments and glides on super smooth. It doesn't feather, smudge proof and water resistant. This being said, I don't think it's water PROOF because I did run it under warm water for a while and managed to get some of it off. The product washed off completely with just a little bit of soap. Longevity wise, I have yet to be able to test out, but let me put this out there, every pen liner I have ever tried rarely smudge for me and I have oily lids and they can last throughout the whole day. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this brand though if you're looking for a good pen liner. There's many more out there on the market with the same if not better results for a much more affordable price. For $22, this is considered a splurge to me.

 I was super excited for the Nyx mini palette the most. Nyx has amazing shadows and pigmentation, and I expected no less from this trio. The packaging was really simple, but not photographed was where you open it. It has a cute little plastic bow which you pop up to open the lid. I got LIR03 otherwise called Amazonian Babes. I love neutral colors. It's like you can NEVER have enough. All three colors have quite the amount of shimmer. The two darker colors - a dark chocolate brown and a warm honey brown - have little chunks of glitter in them, nothing too noticeable but enough to give your eyes that extra pop and glimmer. The lighter champagne gold color has a nice satin shimmer finish to it.

 Applied one layer onto the Pixi Primed hand. The texture of the shadows are sooo creamy and pigmented. Nyx never fails to amaze me with their products. You're paying for amazing quality at a cheap price, you can't really lose anything to this. I feel like these three colors would go amazing with warm hazel eyes. If you want more pigmentation, I highly suggest you getting Nyx Jumbo Pencil Eyeshadow in Milk as a base. It would definitely make it pop. These three colors blend smoothly and they last pretty long.

With flash - sooooooo gorgeous. I highly HIGHLY recommend these three colors for anyone with a warm toned skin or just really warm eyes! The entire Rio in Love line is amazing, as well as Paris in Love.

So after all this, I have to say I am extremely satisfied with this months Ipsy. Obviously, I'm going to leave my referral link in case anyone else is interested (GO BACK UP!!). For only $10 a month, you can't really go wrong. I always love trying new things :) As well, I had a 'unique' code from Bare Minerals, where you receive a sample size of their lash domination mascara and free shipping on any purchases. I won't be needing it considering how I'm on a no buy right now :( So I'll leave it here and whoever wants it can use it. It is a one time code so if it's already gone, I'm sorry! The offer expires on April 30th, 2014. Remember to add in the hyphens too or it won't work! NZPX-BNQG-VTO3-3LR3

Happy blogging guys, and have a nice day!

Crystal xo