Friday, May 17, 2013

ipsy Glam Bag review ($10 beauty subscription)

ETA: For an update, check out this recent post comparing Ipsy and Birchbox.

I've been getting the Glam Bag from ipsy for 9 months now, so I feel pretty confident about making some sort of general judgements about its quality. (I pay for my subscription myself, just to be clear.) In the past, I tried Birchbox (which I subscribed to for about a year) and I tried BeautyBox5 for one month, and Glam Bag is by far my favorite. I haven't been disappointed. It's only $10, and you always get fun stuff.

It includes an average of five products per bag, and there is always makeup and/or nail polish, plus a few other things including skin and haircare products. Added up, what you get is definitely worth more than $10. There has been the occasional wtf-provoking product, but they are rare, and never anything silly like cardboard coasters or protein bars, which I got in Birchbox. I also appreciate that there are very few anti-aging creams - in fact, I don't think I've ever got one. I never use those. And perfume samples are rare.

This month's bag just out of the envelope.
I have to admit that I like getting the shiny pink package in the mail, but shipping it in a bubble mailer instead of a box means that powders can arrive broken and any cardboard boxes inside might be a little squished. If you get a broken product, you can contact their customer service for help, but I haven't personally haven't received anything that was broken or had any other problems at all, so I can't tell you what it's like to deal with their customer service.

Each month, you get a zippered makeup bag in a different design, but almost always the same size/dimensions. They're smallish, but usually have a very cute design. The bag is good quality. I am now amassing a collection of these, but they're useful.

You always get one or more full-size product, and even the sample sizes are very generous. They're not those fucking tiny envelopes or packets, you know? Up until this month, everyone got mostly the same things in their bag, but they just started doing some some customization based on coloring, etc., so fill out your profile if you sign up. There's a lot of other interactive shit you can do on their website, like upload photos and video and review things, etc., but I have never bothered to do any of it, so I can't comment on that aspect either. I just like getting the bag. But you can earn bonus products (often Urban Decay) by being active in the "community".

A full range of brands represented in the samples you get, from things like Benefit and Anastasia, to Sation and theBalm, to Coastal Scents and NYX. You also get discount codes for the brands that are included, usually 10-30% off. It's good shit.

Here is what I got in this month's bag:


First of all, a full-size Zoya in Neely! It's from their Spring 2013 collection. I realize that they are probably trying to clear out excess stock, but I don't fucking care. I'll take a slightly less popular bottle of Zoya polish. That alone would cost $8 at full price. Then there's some self-tanning lotion from Pacifica. I don't really use self tanner, but whatever. Apparently this is pretty light, so maybe I will try it on my ghostly legs. This is a mini tube, but it's very generously sized. I have a tube of Pacifica body butter this size that I got in a previous bag, and I've been using it for a couple of months. Next to that is a full-size lip gloss from Juice Beauty in Fig, a pearly natural shade. It's quite nice, smells like oranges, and isn't like anything I already had. And then there's some Nu-Me Finishing Serum for hair. Another generous mini, and I like hair serum, so sure. Finally, on the top right is a concealer sample, which I haven't tried out yet, but it looks like it might actually be light enough for my pasty ass. Or face. All this for $10? Yes, please.

Here are just a few of the things I've got in previous bags that I thought were particularly cool, though there are many, many more products I've really enjoyed, since I've got 9 bags already. This is just what I grabbed in the course of a 20 second scan of my stash:


There's a Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil mini bottle, full-size Mirenesse Lip Bomb Glossy Lacquer Stain (like a glossy liquid lipstick), mini POP Beauty mascara, NYX Ultra Pearl Mania gold pigment, an extremely generously-sized MICA gel eyeliner in black, really gorgeous full-size Be a Bombshell blush in "Sweet Cheeks", Mirabella eye/face primer, and a lovely sheer candy apple red full-size Be a Bombshell lip gloss in "Hot Mess". Cool, right?

I'd definitely recommend this beauty subscription over the others I've tried. It's a lot of fun, and the shit they send is actually useful and interesting. I've tried a bunch of brands and products that I wouldn't have otherwise known about this way, and I've never got a bag where there wasn't at least one thing I liked. I really think it's worth it if you like makeup and getting mail and surprises. If you don't like surprises, you can look at the website a few days in advance to see what's coming.

Do you get Glam Bag? What do you think? Do you have another beauty subscription? How does it compare?

12 comments:

  1. I fucking love ipsy. LOVE IT! And fyi that tan cream smells really good and leaves like zero tan lol I was excited because I love me some coconut oil products and just use it as good smelling lotion.
    I like it because it is always shit I would just straight up never buy so it's fun to only shell out $10 and try stuff and have stuff to pass on to my friends.
    And that argan oil, I wouldn't have forked over that much money w/o trying it first and now I adore it.

    The only oher subscription box I've got (and am gonna cancel) is the Julep maven box. They got me with the first free box, and I did like what I got. I paid for a second box and after I picked myself up off the floor from laughter at the terrible quality of the lipstick that they sent I don't feel the need t give them $20 a month. There is no room in my budget for that. And judging by what everyone says about the other boxes ipsy seems the best for me.

    Oddly enough it's the fact that with ipsy the shit is so good it's giftable makes it a big selling point. I like knowing none of it will go to waste. (Except those tiny ass coastal shadows they didn't survive me trying themr out but I'll forgive that because everything else has been so quality)

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    1. Oh, I totally forgot that I had Julep for a few months too! I think the combination of such tiny bottles and the fact that a full 75% of the polishes they sent me were terrible (goopy and streaky at the same time) makes it really not worth the money. You can get 3-4 better quality, just as interesting, and bigger bottles of nail polish many other places for much cheaper than a regular month of Julep. I know a lot of people love it, but I am not a fan.

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  2. Love Ipsy! For 10$ it's amazing. I get the essentials as well as a few things I get to experiment with- this month I got a highlighter. I've never used one before and now I love it. The size of their products is a definite plus.

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    1. I am jealous of the people who got that highlighter!

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  3. Definitely doing this! Thanks for posting this :)

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  4. Does everyone get the same bag or are they customized depending on the things you like when you sign up?

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    1. They are supposed to be customized, but something the customization doesn't work out too well. For example, on my quiz I said I didn't want perfume, and I got one this month. But I haven't got any foundations or concealers since I edited my quiz to say I didn't want them several months ago, so I think it's partially effective.

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  5. i just subscribed. I am scared! People are saying it is cheap, but i think it'll work out for the best.

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  6. I m the subscriber but I did'nt get the glam bag yet... but I m just waiting for this surprise....

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  7. I've gotten 2 bags so far and I've lived everything in them. I don't wear a lot of makeup, maybe a couple days a week, so the sample sizes make sense for 10 dollars a month, and occasionally full size products! Also, it's stuff I wouldn't normally spend money on because I've never tried it, like shimmer bronzer, but it turns out I love that stuff!

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  8. I've gotten 2 bags so far and I've lived everything in them. I don't wear a lot of makeup, maybe a couple days a week, so the sample sizes make sense for 10 dollars a month, and occasionally full size products! Also, it's stuff I wouldn't normally spend money on because I've never tried it, like shimmer bronzer, but it turns out I love that stuff!

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  9. One time I got a full sized $25 concealer in an ipsy bag! That alone paid for the bag 2x plus some.

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