November IPSY Glam Bag Plus Review and Swatches!

 Time to talk about IPSY! I’m so excited. This is November’s box and it’s a little bigger than I was planning 🤗But I’m getting through the testing phase and wanted to try getting this up before December. Maybe try being on time.

[Edit: oh well.]

IPSY picked two items for me this month:

First one is fittingly the First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Face Moisturizer. Ever since I got hooked on FAB’s Coconut Smoothie Primer Thingy I’ve been wanting to try other products from them, but this one didn’t really impress me actually.

The packaging is a fairly large tube with a cap and a pump like hair mousse, and the pump is not stingy, like girl pumps. So it’s very user friendly. The cap doesn’t give me a hard time, neither does the pump. 

The formula itself is decently heavy, like it’s a little whipped but just feels generally like a regular moisturizer. Def not oily or greasy but nice and thick. Maybe it has a little but of a whipped texture at first? But that goes away once you start to apply.

The fragrance isn’t what I was imagining after their coconut primer smoothie thing had such a luxurious, paradise fragrance. This moisturizer smells like a barn door. Like just smells like wood I guess. It’s not like bad. It’s just not like good either.

That being said, it absorbs really easily and has been fine under makeup. I’ve been using it more in the evenings since I already love my primer moisturizer for daytime, but it’s definitely been okay day or night.

The second item IPSY assigned me is the Caught My Eye brush set from Iconic London. I’ve been excited to try these because I got a palette from this brand last month and had a great experience with it, gave it a great review, and continue to use it regularly, so I thought it’d be great to actually use these brushes with a palette from the same brand.

The set includes a dense pencil brush, a packer brush that’s slightly fluffy, and two blenders. Can’t really tell the difference between the two blenders, but it’s always good to have a clean blender on hand so I figure maybe they’re just thinking ahead. 

The handles are white and rounded at the end, and the bristles and bag the set came in are also white. The only criticism I have of the “packaging” is that none of the brushes have a name or number to indicate their purpose, so someone just starting out would probably just have to trial and error it up.

For my first attempt with this brush set I went with a smokey eye, because that’s really the only time I’ll use a pencil brush and I wanted to try all the brushes out. So I started with the primer I always use from Love+Craft+Beauty. Just a little bit everywhere on the lid and inner corner. I used a very dark color along the lash line with the pencil brush, patting it in and layering it as thick as possible in that area. I then took the slightly fluffy packing brush and buffed out the edges of the dark shade - like, for a while. Until it came up the tiniest bit towards my actual crease. And then I kept going and going and eventually it was a very smooth blur. I then took that same brush and did the same thing but with the addition of a slightly lighter tone. Got a really good gentle blend up and slightly past my crease.

Unfortunately the blending brushes in the kit were too large for the last step, so I took a separate blender brush to add a transition shade above the crease. I did end up using one of the kit’s blenders to go back over everything at the end, though, since it was clean, and it did a great job.

So these brushes performed really well and I got a great look with them ^-^ Hoping to try them with liquid and cream products as well in the future.

[Edit: I went back and tried some more looks with the blending brushes from this set and I have more to say; one of the blenders is slightly shorter and denser, and the other is frankly huge. I did a look today with the denser blender brush and the palette I’ll talk about next, but suffice it to say I may have found my new favorite blender. I have this thing I don’t talk much about where my left eyelid for some reason doesn’t hold eyeshadow very well in one tiny little spot in the middle of the browbone. You can see it easily when I’m applying midtone. The right eye is a little better but also has it. I think it may have something to do with how I tilt my  head and what angle I take with the brush against my skin, but it’s always been a thing. This brush totally didn’t give me that issue, the blend was seamless on both sides. And then I used the bigger one to sweep out the harsh lines. It was awesome, I love these brushes.]

I chose the following three items for my box this month; I tried to make it a little skincare, a little makeup, and fortunately there were items from both categories I was interested in.

First, the Blaze Chaser Face Palette by - again - Iconic London. I’ll be honest, I ordered and received it before I realized it’s the same brand as other items I’m trying, but hey, it’s better to try products from the same brand at the same time imo. 

That being said - I don’t know why I continue to buy face palettes. They do not make sense as a product to me and are not something I should have. They usually have maybe one or two shades that work at all as anything for my skin tone.

Because what are face palettes, right? A mix of different colors for a mix of different things. What things? Well you need deep shades to create shadow, light shades to create light, and rosy shades to add dimension? Which sounds great but then you need sparkly light shades to make the light even lightery light, and sparkly deep shades to … um.

So what we end up with is a sparkly light shade, a sparkly medium shade, and a sparkly deep shade, and a light shade, and a sparkly light shade… and a deep shade …?

It’s just awful. I don’t know why anyone buys these. 

Okay so one by one, left to right, top row first. A not-so-light shimmer shade. Could maybe be a highlighter on me in my most tan months of the year. Not super powdery, maybe something I could use on a no-makeup makeup look where I don’t need a bright highlighter.

Next; a sparkly brown. Sparkly. Brown. It’s the deepest shade in the palette and obviously intended to be a bronzer/contour, but who uses a shimmery bronzer? Why would you do that? It’s like a bronzer that’s confused. Like a bronzer that doesn’t want to bronze. Like, how do you make a shadow with something sparkly?

Totally useless.

Next 🙄 A more muted, reasonable, cooler brown. Nice! Love this for me. Not super powdery, not super pigmented, just a nice cool ish bronzer. It applies pretty well, do have to layer up on it a bit, but it’s very nice.

The next one is a copy of the first one but one shade deeper. Like one shade and maybe a bit pinkier. So another highlighter? Or a very very fair person’s blush? But sparkly blush? Sigh.

Then a gorgeous sparkly pink. Beautiful tone, watermelon pink. Very modern blush. I fell in love with this shade, even though I don’t use sparkly blushes.

Then a beautiful dusty matte blush. So classic. Lovely shade. Nothing super special but very adequate. 

I did try to use these brighter shades on my eyes, since they won’t do anything as a highlighter, but they weren’t great. Obviously not designed for payoff, just as a dusting or something. The sparkly bronzer shall die. The sparkly blush is really pretty. The matte bronze will suffice. The matte blush is so perfect and we love her.

So these go on really well on the cheeks, and I’ve also tried the midtone shades and shimmers on the eyes. Again, the midtones did a great job, but the shimmery ones fell flat. Nothing really to them. Powdery, dusty, just not fun.

Okay, I really don’t want to talk about this one anymore.

The next item I chose was a facial serum from the brand Lapalette Beauty.

    I was so fascinated by the name of the brand that I went and looked at their website just to see if the vibes match and wow. What a beautifully designed site with amazing imagery and advertising. Want to dive into this brand. Want to go everywhere that is pictured. It’s so pretty it’s like all images of sunshine on dappling leaves it’s like MMMM. 

The only thing I will say - the website needs to be checked for English grammar. I’m not shading anyone who speaks English as a second language - I don’t speak anything as a second language - but the text bubbles come off scammy and almost made me think I had the wrong website. It was like when you get an email from someone overseas. *Purified water 0% Full of Fresh Vitamin with the Base of Natural Vitamin, PhyllanthusEmblica Extract!” is a bullet point on this product. Obviously written to wow, but obviously not checked for grammar or even base communication ability.

Anyway the serum is called the Vita Yellow Double C. Interesting name. Double C? I didn’t know they had a double C. >.>

So when I selected it I assumed it was a Vitamin C serum, and just sort of went with it. I don’t usually use vitamin C serums because I spend a lot of time in the sun and don’t have great habits with sunscreen, so I don’t tempt fate. But I thought maybe it’d be okay to try one out now that it’s winter and I’m indoors all day. 

The packaging first off was so good. The unit carton was white with little oranges or lemons on it, almost looked like artwork on the box. I think it stood out to me the most of any of the other items in the bag.

The actual bottle is a pretty golden yellow with a rubber dropper top, bright sunshine yellow too. It’s a heavy bottle and feels kind of expensive and maybe a little classic? I don’t know it makes my vanity feel more mature. I don't know.

The only thin is the dropper isn’t super strong. Even when I squeeze as much air as I can out of it, I still can’t get more than a third of it full of serum. Unfortunately that means I need two or three pumps to feel like I got enough product.

The formula is a little more oily than I imagined for a serum. You can just feel it when it goes on. I assume it’s due to the essential oils they describe in its introduction. So it doesn’t feel like the kind of serum I usually go for. That being said, it’s smooth and has a nice citrus fragrance and didn’t seem to clash with any of my other skincare. Because it’s oilier I’ve been using it primarily at nighttime, but it didn’t disturb my makeup when I used it during the day.

It retails for $58 and if it’s full of everything it says it is, that isn’t actually a terrible price for a serum. But I won’t be buying it again most likely, I prefer serums that aren’t oil based.

The next item I’m actually really excited to type about because it’s - shhhh it’s a surprise - it’s my very first setting spray!

🎊

I have never used a setting spray before. I guess I just missed the fad? And they just cost a bunch extra when you’re shopping. So I just hadn’t tried any. But this one is amazing! I can’t even tell if it does anything! But I love it so much!

So it’s from TYNT Beauty. I recently came across (and I think I posted it in my Boxycharm update) this brand’s cucumber jelly mask so I was excited to try another product from them from this box. I selected it actually just because the bottle was cute, didn’t even notice the brand.

Anyway the packaging is adorable, like I said, it has that same earth vibe with the gradual ombre from light silver to a mid brown. The first thing I noticed was the separation in the bottle between two very clear, watery liquids. The instructions do say shake well so it wasn’t like it bothered me I was just surprised. When I shook the bottle it did the thing water and oil do where they’ll mix a little for a few minutes then separate again.

The spritzer is the important part right? It definitely comes out as a very fine mist, a lot of product, but barely any actual particles coming out that feel like droplets. Just feels like steam. The spritzer is not difficult to press either. It’s really easy.

The fragrance is AHHHH it’s so good. That was a relaxed AHHHH not like a scared AHHHH. 

You feel me. Its like relaxing, like … not like lavender, more like paradise, like mango or coconut maybe, or really sweet flowers … it’s juicy….

I give up. It smells great, you should try it, you’ll like it.

So I’m going to try out more of this brand if I can get my hands on it ^-^ And that covers all the products in the base box, chosen for me or selected.

And I got a lot of add ons!! So we’ll talk about those too.

First is the Purlisse Beauty Pumpkin + Ginger Detoxifying Charcoal Mask. I don’t know a lot about this brand but I was excited to try out a pumpkin product for fall. And I liked the idea of another charcoal mask. 

The packaging is very pumpkin. It’s thankfully made of a flexible material so it’s easy to get the product out. The actual product is white with bits in it, which I wasn’t expecting. It does smell like pumpkin and ginger and all sorts of nice fall stuff, and that fragrance sticks around even after it’s dry.

That being said, this isn’t my favorite product. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the texture and the way it felt on my skin just disappointed me. It felt super drying, and even smelled super drying. My skin got uncomfortable, and washing it off with the little exfoliating bits should have felt good but I just wanted it to be off my skin. Not for me. I’m sure it’d be great for someone really oily or who doesn’t exfoliate often though.

I guess I was hoping for something with a softer texture.

Anyway I won’t be using it again and will probably give it away. Kinda disappointing.

The next two products kind of were together, not that they came together, but I ordered them thinking they’d be good to try together. They’re from a brand called Doll 10 Beauty, which I had honestly never heard of before. Their products looked cute and I thought it’d be nice to try a new foundation, and I’d never tried a duo on my blog so here we go ^-^

So since the foundation goes on first we’ll start there. The bottle is a squeeze tube with a very precise opening, so I can easily control what I’m getting out of the bottle. The actual container (and the entirety of their website actually) is a modern pink with rose gold lettering. It comes off as knowing its audience and leaning into that.

The product itself comes out very thick but not whipped or “cakey.” It has the texture of honey and not like meringue. It’s definitely heavy though. It’s very similar to the Yensa one I had been using this summer. 

Since it claims to be full coverage I’m not surprised by how thick it is and I was actually hoping for it; the week I tried this, I had actually picked at my face a lot. Going through some stuff at home. Stressed out and it just happened. It was the first time in a few months, which is the longest I’ve ever lasted in my adult life, so I was super upset. And it’s a spiral, you know, I pick a little, then there’s bumps on my face and my hands want to explore, and then I pick them more and there’s more bumps.

It’s hard to stop. I have to be so careful. 

So my face has been blotchy, more than usual, and I was excited for a full beat foundation to test it out on.

This stuff was really good. The shade isn’t what I’m reviewing because that’s a me thing, but it does match me really really well. I usually do a dot on one finger and then spread to a few other fingers and dot it around, which I did for this as well, and then use my foundation brush to buff it out. Since it’s heavier it took a little more effort to buff it out, but the coverage was very good for a light layer. I probably used the volume of a pea for the first application.

It went on smooth, still feeling heavy - not like heavy in a bad way though really just heavy like not watery. Like it has substance.

I gave this first layer a few minutes to set and it was a good amount of coverage, and I decided to add some on my problem areas to see how it builds up. It went very well and although my texture can’t be completely smoothed over with foundation, the redness and blotchiness and dry patches were sufficiently disguised. 

Since it’s wintertime and I’m very pale, I have had to mix this foundation with a lighter concealer while I’ve been using it regularly. It mixes really well with all my concealers so far. I don’t love mixing concealer like that because it makes things so much heavier, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

So I really like this foundation - like I said it reminds me of my Yensa one. I plan to try it out with a few different primers to see if it has a favorite, and maybe a day without primer.

The concealer is called Precision Concealer and I got it in the shade Fair. It has a really cool design which I’m a huge fan of. It comes in a black pen-like component with a cap, and the other end clicks up the product! That’s so cool!

So the actual product is in a triangle shape that has one very precise end, which makes sense because of the name. And the other end of the pen, you push it with your hand and it clicks up like a mechanical pencil! And it’s really slow too, like you don't get too much with every click. I love this design this is so cool. 

So it’s also a very dense formula. Like it’s not what I’d call a cream product exactly, like it warms up to my skin but only a little bit and still goes on very dry. Which is fine because I have such a heavy foundation under it, I don’t need something super oily. I don’t apply a ton, just one layer in a triangle under each eye. I also find it’s a good formula and shape to do the little dot at the tip of my nose, since like the name says, it’s very precise.

The shade matches me really well as well, it’s just barely lighter than my skin tone so it brightens and makes me look more awake.

This concealer, since it’s so dry, I just tap in with the tip of my finger. A little bit gets on me but it’s not a lot and the blend looks seamless this way.

So these are both a yes from me for sure. Especially this concealer, since I’ve never owned a formula like this before and I think it’s a great design.

There were a couple of other items I added on from the $3.50 section too which I don’t want to talk much about because they weren’t for intense reviews just for me to have some fun. I will say I got a mini Complex Culture palette and - I mean you get what you pay for, even though that’s not really the point of IPSY.

The component needed to be popped back into place and the shadows came apart as soon as they touched my brush.

I also got a pack of scrunchies from Kitsch which are so soft and nice and my hair isn’t kinking as much since I’ve been using them.

There was also a little lip balm from Lasting Smiles that has been very good and a pretty perfume from Nanette Lepore. You don’t want me to try reviewing a perfume. I already have the hardest time with fragrances in non-perfume products.

And that covers November’s IPSY! Thanks for tuning in to read these and make sure to keep an eye out for the next post. Should be November’s Kinder Beauty reviews. Can’t wait to get started on those products!!

Thanks again,

Dani