Ipsy November 2013 Glam Bag: Glam it Up

This month's Ipsy Glam Bag arrived much earlier than usual, perhaps because Ipsy wanted to get the bags out before the Thanksgiving holiday. The theme for this month, "Glam it Up", certainly suggests using these products for parties--but unfortunately most of the products that came in my bag this month were just a bit too glitzy for my taste.

The actual bag for this month is gold metallic faux snakeskin. It's definitely not something I'd ever choose to carry around, but I'll put it to use in a drawer organizing my beauty products.

There were six products inside the bag this month, all makeup except for this Nailtini nail polish in "Caviar Cocktail". As I mentioned last month, I'm particular about using nail polishes that are more natural and less toxic than usual, and last month's Zoya polish fit my criteria and happened to be a color that I might use. Nailtini makes no claims about its ingredients or their potential toxicity, and the gunmetal grey color is just not my style. I'm a little annoyed to get nail polish two months in a row when I don't have nail products checked off on my Ipsy profile, and now I'm going to have to research how to dispose of nail polish properly.

 

This deep metallic grey appeared to be Ipsy's color of choice for me this month, which is a shame because it's not a color that looks very good on me. I've got really pale skin (which I indicated on my Ipsy profile) and grey shades can make me look very greyish. I much prefer champagne, soft gold, copper, and bronze colors for dressing up, so I was excited to see a Starlooks Gem Eye Pencil in "Topaz" included in my bag. Unfortunately, it was not the warm, amber color I was hoping to see but the same metallic grey as the Nailtini polish. Since eyeliner is such a small accent, though, I might still be able to use this:

My final metallic grey product for this month was an odd eyeshadow from BH Cosmetics. It was a sample of "Asteroid" from their Galaxy Chic Baked Eyeshadow Palette, and looked like a metallic rusty red and teal swirl in the pan but went on that same smoky metallic grey as the previous two products. I don't think I'll be using this since it's pretty intense:

Three of my products this month were not metallic grey. I'll start of with my favorite of them, the lip crayon in "Hot Damn" from Be a Bombshell Cosmetics. It's bright red and similar in sheen and opacity to the Cailyn red lip balm from September, but it's a little more coral in hue whereas the Cailyn is a little more berry. I liked the warmer hue better with my skin tone, and found the Be a Bombshell crayon went on much smoother and easier than the Cailyn lip balm, which had to be applied with a miniscule brush. I might try this out at the holidays or for other special events:

My next product is from a brand that I've been interested in trying for awhile now, Pixi Beauty, but it's product that I don't really use--bronzer. I'll give Ipsy some credit in that they did pick a bronzer that's more like a blush, which is just about the only way someone as pale as I am can get away with bronzer. The Beauty Bronzer in "Subtly Suntouched" is described on Pixi's website as a "medium honey tan", which is pretty accurate, and I can sort of make it work if I apply it lightly enough. I really wish that they had gone with the "After Beach Glow", a "peachy nude glow", for this product instead.

My final product for this month is from Em Cosmetics by Michelle Phan. Apparently this is Em Cosmetics' first appearance in an Ipsy Glam Bag, and it's been much anticipated since YouTube beauty guru Phan is a co-founder of Ipsy. I haven't tried the Lash Gallery Lengthening Mascara yet, but it looks decent. I was interested in trying mascara more with this Glam Bag subscription since it's something I don't typically wear, but I think I'll un-check it from my preferred products list since two in three months is a bit much. Given that my nail product preferences haven't been honored much, I'm not sure that it'll make a difference, but I hope that I'll have a better chance at getting different products next month.

For full disclosure, any links to Ipsy in this post are affiliate links--if you sign up for their service after clicking one of my links, I'll earn points to put towards bonus products. I never see any information regarding your identity.