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You guys might remember me ranting about how I don’t think Birchbox is worth the money. You also might remember me singing the praises of Ipsy in its place. I’m hoping that this post might illustrate why I think that.

This month’s Ipsy bag, compared to past months, was not the best. HOWEVER, even in it being “not the best” this one month, it’s still better than any of the two Birchboxes I received. With Birchbox, I felt like $10 (as little of an amount as that is) was a ripoff. I never feel like that with Ipsy. EVER.

Ipsy is a service that for $10/month sends you a new makeup bag every month packed full of cosmetics. Some are full-size items, but most are trial size items. Notice that I’m calling them “Trial-Size”. In Birchbox, I’d commonly receive those little aluminum packages where you could get maybe a pea-sized drop of product out of it. With Ipsy, you get enough to REALLY test the product to see if it’s your bag.

Let’s go in a bit deeper.

First, I’m not sure if this sounds trivial, but your Ipsy bag always comes in a BRIGHT-ASS METALLIC MAGENTA PINK bubble envelope. I can see this thing from a half-mile away, so pulling up to my house and seeing this in my mailbox makes me so damn happy.

I saw some complaints online about the specific bag this month. Not because of the design, but because of the smell. I confess – the bag smells like a swimming pool float. It’s not very glamorous. However, there are these magical things called SOAP & WATER! *gasp!* I washed mine out, left it overnight to dry, and voila! No more smell.

The products I received were:

• Elizabeth Mott Smooth Shadow Pencil: This is a great product to have in your arsenal. Smooth & creamy, this is perfect for those days when you want a touch of color, but don’t feel like smothering on 80 different shadow shades. The staying power was pretty nice, but it did crease on me after about 4 hours. I think this would be fine if you pack a shadow on top of it.
• Caviar Anti-Aging Dry Shampoo: If you have bangs, this thing is a lil lifesaver! It perked my little fringe up when I was 2 days past a shampoo and soaked up all of the oils. The rest of my hair is long and thick, so it didn’t work as well there, but for fine hair, it’s a gem.
• Pure Marula Facial Oil: If you’re on the East Coast (or pretty much anywhere in the US, it seems), you know what a hard-ass winter this has been. I drink twice as much water, and my skin is still twice as dry. This freaking oil made my face feel like a baby’s bum.
  …..not that I go around feeling the bums of babies, but you get my point.
• Mica Beauty Tinted Lip Balm in Fiesta: I’m on the fence about this product. I guess when I use a lip balm, I expect it to be a bit shiny, MAYBE even glossy. This almost had a matte finish to it. Because of that, I didn’t really feel like it was a BALM – I save that word for things that hydrate. However, the light touch of color was nice, and when applied over a real lip balm (I used Chap Stick), it was nice.
• Willa On the Go Face Towelettes: I could see these being one of my favorite products this coming summer. Light and refreshing – good for a little pick me up. It had a tough time removing some makeup (namely eyeliner), but as a “Face Towelette”, it’s perfect.

My point is this: If you have $10/month to spare, and you love receiving a little goodie bag in your mailbox each month, give Ipsy a try! I really think that you will not be disappointed!

…and just as a tip, SAVE those makeup bags you get each month! This past Christmas, I gave all of my female co-workers past bags (clean, of course) stuffed with beauty samples I never tried. They loved it!