Ipsy October's The Art of Beauty Glam Bag

This month's glam bag was adorable! It's a white bag, with pink lining and a matching pink zipper and pull. I wasn't a huge fan of the lettering, "Love of Beauty is Taste. The Creation of Beauty is Art." it's a little cheesy for my tastes but the bag as a whole is very cute.

Inside we have 5 things, 4 of which I can use and 1 I have no idea why I even have it. I think everyone received one of these though and I love my glam bags so much, I can't fault them for 1 item that I can't use. I'll explain more later, but for now...

This shows it much more blue then it really is. There is  a definite purple hue to it that you lose in the photos.

Zoya Nail Polish in Neve $8
You can find this HERE. Neve is part of their fall cashmere and satin collection and is described as a "Sapphire Blue Metallic"   Now, Neve is bluish but certainly not sapphire blue to me. I'd describe it as more of a deep bluish purple metallic. This went on smoothly, dried with no streaks, and was opaque with 2 coats. As always, Zoya  nail polishes are toxin free. Every Zoya polish I've had has a round style brush, as opposed to the flat ones you find in other polishes, and this is no exception. With no top coat, this dried to a lovely metallic sheen, not glossy but not matte either.  For me Zoya polishes are either hit or miss, they come in a crazy awesome array of colors for sure, but they either last forever on my nails or chip immediately. Neve is one that chipped immediately. Overall, I'm completely in love with this color! Not quite blue, not quite purple, full on metallic sheen. It's really lovely with my skin tone and a perfect shade for fall. I'll just remember to throw a top coat on it next time.

Coastal Scents Medium Shadow Brush $2.49
You can find this HERE.  As far as brushes go I'm not really an expert. I'm more of a "Lets buy this ungodly cheap set from ELF and call it a day." And then I use said brushes until they literally fall apart 4 years later and I have to spend $12 to buy a whole new set. I have 2 "shadow" brushes not including this one, both are from different companies and both are kind of floppy, although one is slightly shorter then the other. I have always wondered what the hype was with a shadow brush, but neither of them are like this one. I now know what I've been missing. The bristles are pretty tightly packed together to give it a nice dense thick brush head that picks up massive amounts of eye shadow in a single swipe. It's also shorter then what I'm used to as far as shadow brushes go. Which is nice, it keeps it stiff and not flopping all over the place. Coastal Scents medium shadow brush is also really soft, which I was surprised considering how dense it is, but holds it shape well.  I've never come across a scratchy shadow brush before, so this is no exception. Overall I'd be willing to give a Coastal Scents brush pack a whirl. You can't argue with the price, you can get a 12 brush set for $17.95 or a 22 brush set for $34.95, or you can purchases singles for $2.49 and up.

Eyeshadow, lipstick, foundation, and powder, this is after 3 swipes of the facial wipe.

La Fresh Eco Beauty Oil Free Face Cleanser Wipes  $9.99 for a 30 pack
You can find these HERE.
I'm not a huge fan of face wipes, mostly because you normally can't use them near your eye area (which is the only place I need them) and you get like 100 washes out of a bottle of cleanser for $5 as opposed to 30 wipes for almost $10. Washing your face with a cleanser is much more friendly on the wallet then wipes. However, if you're in a pinch these do come in handy.  All that aside, what makes these make up wipes nicer then lets say your average drug store facial wipes, is that they are eco friendly and full of yummy face friendly ingredients. They are biodegrable and compostable, as well as being made with solar energy. They also have papaya, pineapple, cucumber, marshmallow, oat, aloe, chamomile extracts, and Vitamin C & Vitamin E infused in there, all of which we could go into detail about their skin friendly properties but I won't because that would take forever.
These worked pretty well, after only a few passes they cleared up most of the make up on my hand, and after a few more passes they cleaned up all of it. My skin felt soft and smelled lovely afterwards, this didn't even irritate the skin on my cheeks, which almost always turn red. Overall would I buy these? No, only because I feel that facial wipes are a waste of money. However, if they are your cup of tea, I would highly recommend these! The soft citricusy/flowery scent is heavenly and they work great, plus being eco friendly is a nice bonus!

The swatches match the layout of the compact.

Wet n Wild Photo Op Eyeshadow $4.99
You can find this HERE. There are 4 color options for this 5 shadow palette. According to my package I have "Desert Festival" but according to the website I have "Maldives Sky".... A little confusing. Either way, I have the one with orange in it, not blue. On the website "Desert Festival" has blues and a purple, which would also be a pretty palette! However, mine is more warm fall colors, browns, blacks, and a rich orange.
To be more accurate I have 2 browns, a taupey light shimmery one and a shimmery orangey medium brown. I also have a gold glitter infused shimmery black, a matte dark grayish mushroomy brown, and a matte coral orange. It's not quite pumpkin orange, it's softer and more redish pink, as if you mixed coral and orange. It is my favorite color in this entire palette, it's lovely, and goes wonderful with my blue eyes.
All of the colors are soft and easily blended and built up. I used no primer underneath and got about 4 hours of wear without any fading, then easily I got another 3 hours out of it until my eyes looked in need of a touch up. However, the liner which was the black sparkle, when applied wet, didn't fade at all until I washed it off that night and even then it didn't want to give up. All of these colors work really nicely together or alone. The only issue I had was that the light taupe color was literally the same color as my skin and I didn't get any shimmer from it once applied. It would have been totally fine if I had gotten some kind of shimmer from it, I like a little shimmery highlight on my brow bone, but it looked exactly the same with nothing at all. It is a beautiful color though. This would be nice if I had any redness or veins that needed to be covered and didn't want an obvious make up look. It would also look lovely if my skin tone was a little darker. The black did get a little chalky when dry, but it applied with the smoothness and color pay off of a liquid liner, when used wet with an angled brush. I like it better then my Urban Decay Oil Slick eye shadow that I regularly use as a liner, I feel like Wet n Wild applied smoother, cleaner, and was easier to pick up the color.

Big Sexy Hair Blow Dry Volumizing Gel $16.95
You can find this HERE. This is the one product I'm unable to use. I always end up with volumizing hair products from sample boxes and I'm unsure why. I have very thick, coarse, wavy/curly hair that certainly isn't lacking in volume. Most days I straighten the shit out of it in the hopes that it will be less large. My hair has so much volume that I'm constantly in danger of it consuming my face. I also don't blow dry my hair, for the exact reason I've stated above. I did use this, not for it's intended purpose though. I didn't apply it on damp hair and blow dry. I'm slightly afraid to do that. But I did use this as a hair gel and slick down the fly aways that I get in my part. It worked wonderfully. It left no crunchiness, or greasy look, and kept those little hairs down where they belonged all day without weighing everything down. It also smells divine. As for the volumizing aspect.... I can't be sure and I'm unwilling to turn my hair into a giant blonde afro.


I'll end this with a couple photos of my favorite look using the Photo Op palette! I make no apologies for my wolfish eyebrows!

 

Yeah, I'll pretty much pair a red lip with almost anything...

As usual, if you would like to receive your very own Ipsy Glam Bag you can sign up HERE! It's $10 a month and each monthly glam bag has a theme of it's very own, right down to the mini make up pouch. You also take a beauty quiz when you sign up to help personalize your glam bag.

Enjoy!

*Ipsy Glam Bag is a monthly beauty sample bag that I paid for with my very own money. I do not get paid to give good reviews*