Review: July Ipsy Bag

Hello Beauties,

It seems like it has been a while since I last posted and I am sorry about the delay. I took a little vacay with my fam jam in July so there was no internet for a good portion of the month.



A little while ago I decided to be to a monthly beauty box of some kind so that I could stay up to date with the newest products, and test them out for some honest reviews.
Then I kept forgetting to subscribe to one...womp womp.

This month I FINALLY signed up for the Ipsy bag, which is the monthly subscription bag started by the beauty guru Michelle Phan. Basically, you take a quiz and then receive 4 - 5 personalized deluxe sized samples in a cute cosmetic bag once a month.

This was my first month using the subscription service and I have to say I was not disappointed.

This month I recieved :

Jorel Parker Classico eau du parfum roller ball ( I will say that I do wish that it was a spritzer rather than a roller ball, but I suppose beggers can't be choosers, right?)

"Exotic, inspiring, and full of surprises, Classico whisks you away from the day-to-day. Indulge in the spicy seduction of Indian Tuberose, the striking and sweet sensation of Turkish Cyclamen and the purifying calm of Spanish Mandarin"

It took me more than one time wearing this fragrance to decide how I felt about it, but I really like it. It is well balanced and neither to floral, nor too spicey. It fades well too, I especially love the bass notes in it.


Mongongo Lip Balm Conditioner in Vanilla Coconut

I honestly love this stuff. I would definitely buy it if given the chance. It hydrated my lips and kept them soft and smooth without having to continually reapply. Essentially exactly what you want out of a lip conditioner


Tarte Amazonian Clay Waterproof Bronzer - Park Avenue Princess

I have to be honest here, I was NOT happy to see that I was getting this in my bag. As a red head, I am very fair, so I don't EVER wear bronzer. When I first saw this in there, I was thinking, great a product that I will never, ever use, I even tried to go online and see if I could switch it for another one of the products they were offering. As it turns out, you can not switch just one or two of the products, so i waited for the bronzer to arrive figuring at the worst I could give it to a friend.
When I opened my bag for the first time, I decided that I would use all the products just once to create a summer look, and that way I would get the chance to test them all out and see what I liked.
The bronzer is gorgeous against my skin, gives me the perfect sun kissed glow and would double as a great eye shadow. I am totally sold on the idea of a bronzer now.


Eyetini Swizzle Stick - Blue Hawaiian

This liner I felt I could take or leave. It is a great consistency, and the colour payout is fantastic, but I really wish that I had gotten a more neutral colour instead of the bright blue.
I think it is a beautiful shade, but not one that I think I would personally wear often.

Fianlly I also recieved a Belle Pierre Lipstick in shade P.I.N.K

The lipstick goes on creamy and smooth and the colour payout is great. I love this one on it's own, or mixed with a lighter shade to create a more natural pink tone. It's just a really pretty bright pink.


All of the products arrived in this cosmetic bag. It is super bright and summery and just a lot of fun over all

So far my experience with Ipsy has been great, the bag arrived right on time, and I really like the products that were selected for me this month. I have kept my subscription for the month of August and I can not wait to see what I get this time around.

I'll be sure to share another one of these with you in the next few weeks

stay beautiful and thanks for reading

Danielle

A Month of Mascaras

Hello Beauties,

I love mascara and I have so many of them that if I did individual reviews of each one, I would be doing mascara reviews for the next year, so I decided to do a month long review and say a little bit about each one of these amazing (or not so much) mascaras.
I've done a mix of  both department and drug store brands, so I've tried to group them together by similar price points. You'll notice with the drugstore brands that there is no packaging information, that is because for all of the mascaras I decided to review, they didn't really come in a package per-say. They were more or less shrink wrapped to some cardboard and that is about it.
The mascaras in this post range from $7 to $ 35, I have included pricing for each in their individual reviews.

So let's begin

1. Hypnose Drama - Lancome 

The Lancome mascara's pretty much all go for the same price, they start around $35 (CAD) and go up to as much as $70 depending on the type that you choose. I was able to buy the Hypnose Drama in a combo package on sale for $25.00 (CAD). The packaging is very simple and sleek, the outer box is the Lancome silver with the rose on it, the actual tube of mascara is flat black with gold writing and the lancome rose. 

Once you open it, you see that the mascara wand spirals, curves slightly, and is smaller in size. I found that the smaller wand gets into the entire eye really well and grabs all your lashes for really even, full coverage. I found that my lashes looked longer as well as fuller without being clumpy or unnatural looking. 

2. They're Real - Benefit 

I had heard a lot of really good things about this mascara and I have to say that I was not in love (but I really wanted to be!) I love the name of the mascara, the name had to be one of the main reasons I bought it. I picked mine up at Shoppers Drug Mart for $35, but you can also pick it up at Sephora for $29.  It comes in a vintage style black box that is sort of reminiscent of old Hollywood. The mascara tube is a little shorter than other brands I have seen, it is that same gun metal colour and sleek. The wand is slender and really gets into those hard to reach areas of the eye. HOWEVER, I don't like buying waterproof mascara for day to day use because:

- It's bad for your lashes. The extra waxes in waterproof mascara are more likely to dry out your lashes causing breakage and slower lash growth. 

- It's so much more difficult to get off at the end of the day. You should be washing off your makeup before bed each day, if you're using waterproof mascara you're creating a lot of extra work for yourself. Not to mention. All the extra scrubbing and rubbing at your eyes and the sensitive skin around them...ouch! 

That being said, no where on the packaging did it say that it was a waterproof mascara, but it certainly acted like one. The waxy texture on my lashes, while adding a tonne of length and volume, felt awful and made it very difficult to wash off at the end of the day. It didn't seem to matter how hard I scrubbed, I woke up with serious raccoon eyes in the morning. That being said, I did throw it in my kit for bridal clients because nobody wants mascara running down their face when they say "I do"

3. High Impact Extreme Volume Mascara - Clinique 

I LOVE this mascara, it is my go to for a night out bar none. It is one of the cheaper "deapartment store brands" that I picked up, I believe it retails for around $18 (CAD). The mascara comes in a pastel floral pattern box, the tube itself is silver and sleek with the name of the mascara printed in white lettering. The mascara wand is kind of short, and mid sized, it can be a little more challenging getting the brush into those smaller hard to reach lashes but over all the effect of the mascara is AMAZING. The mascara is a very rich black and  adds a tonne of volume without clumping. You do need to be careful if applying more than one coat, that the first coat is completely dry before you add the next, just to be sure you definitely don't get any clumps. This mascara will give you a all the drama you want without having to add falsies. Like I said earlier, this is my go to mascara, I really just can not say enough good about it. 

4. Sumptuous Extreme - Estee Lauder 

Oh Estee, why you gotta do this to me!  

If this mascara was a boyfriend - it would be the one you fell for to fast, and then had a messy breakup from a few weeks later.  I make no secret of the fact that I worked for Estee Lauder, for the most part, I love a great many of their products, and found that when compared to others they really stand up on their own. That being said, this was one product that I just could not keep using. It made my lashes look amazing, but when worn for a full day I found that my eyes would burn and sting something awful. I picked this mascara up at an Estee Lauder training I went to, but you can pick them up at most department stores for $28

5. Last Blash Fusion - CoverGirl

I picked this mascara up at Walmart for about $7 when I had gone away on a trip, because I had forgotten to pack my go to Clinique mascara. I have to say I was really impressed with it, it gave really good definition, and volume without clumping. This is a really great option to throw into your makeup bag for either traveling or day to day use. 

6. Telescopic Lengths Mascara - L'Oreal 

This mascara I picked up at Shoppers Drug Mart on sale for about $10, and this is one I bought more or less because the packaging was super cute. The box its self was nothing special, but the tube of product is actually shaped like a little telescope.. IKR - TOO  CUTE!

I found with this mascara I liked it, but I wasn't in love with it. I have fairly long lashes naturally, but being a red head, they are very fair and kind of sparse so I tend to choose volumizing formulas. With this mascara there was no volume what so ever, it sort of just defined my lashes, but didn't really do anything else for them.  I started to use it as a base coat to layer other mascaras over top, but generally I don't wear this one on it's own. 

7. Voluminous Buterfly - L'Oreal 

This mascara was a whim purchase because I was curious about the butterfly effect" it was supposed to have on your lashes. I can honestly say that I think I used this mascara a handful of times, while it's not a bad mascara, I kind of forgot about it. It didn't really leave an impression good, or bad. 

8. Voluminous Million Lashes Excess & Volume Million Lashes So Couture, So Black - L'Oreal

Apparently I have a thing for L'Oreal mascara's. 

These two mascaras are pretty much the same, I bought them as part of a charity event at my local shoppers Drug Mart for $5. I think they're both decent mascaras, but neither one of them really blew me away. The brush on the million lashes couture is slightly smaller, so it is easier to get into the smaller areas of the eye and to do the bottom lashes.  

The biggest thing to remember about any type of makeup is that it really all comes down to personal preference, always remember that as long as you like it, there are no rules. 

Thanks for reading

Danielle