Ipsy November Glam It Up Glam Bag!

This month I cheated and sneaked a peek at what I would be getting in my Glam Bag. I normally don't look, because I receive the email the exact same day my package arrives in my mail box. Why spoil it when I would see it in an hour or so? But I couldn't resist when I saw that gold bag. I received the exact colors of everything I was hoping for so Ipsy must be paying attention to my reviews and quiz! Straight out of the bag I LOVE everything except the hair spray. I'm not a huge hair product user or fan. My hair is pretty much unruly no matter what I do with it so I either straighten it into submission or let it go crazy. I'm not picky. Almost everything surprised me in this bag. The thing I thought I would love the most is one of my least favorite, the thing I was most excited to try turned out to be a dud, and the thing I was least excited about turned out to be amazing!  And then you have the Star Looks eyeliner, which of course is fabulous. Everything I get from Star Looks is always crazy amazing.

The bag itself is gold with an alligatorish texture, and it has a huge loop/handle which you could hook on your wrist and use as a little purse for holiday parties. It has a hot pink zipper and inside as well. It's very cute!

EM Michelle Phan Pillow Plush Cushiony Lip Balm in Berries $15
You can find this HERE.
The color of this in the jar is gorgeous! It's a deep dark wine which is beautiful for fall and winter. You get a generous amount at 5g and the jar is thick and sturdy with a twist top. The balm itself is soft and easily applied with a finger. This would be perfect for in your purse or traveling. Because it's so pigmented in the jar, I assumed it would be pigmented on my lips, I was wrong. It's extremely sheer, thin, and had a gloss feel. I actually had a pretty hard time building up any color at all, it just kept wiping away or getting pushed to the outside of my lips. Most tinted lip balms I've tried have felt almost satiny on my lips, left no glossy top coat, and soaked in to the point where I forgot I was wearing it. Which is why I say this felt more like a gloss to me. It was very shiny, sat on top of my lips, and moved around constantly, even the heat of my mouth was melting it and making it slip a little. I was also put off by the smell of this. It's like wax, like unscented dollar store candle wax with a hint of something underneath but the wax smell is so overpowering the other scent can't come through. At the very least, for a balm that costs $15 + shipping I would expect it to smell a little better. Scent can take an otherwise amazing product and make it feel cheap at even the best of times so this just added to my disappointment. It feels like the packaging was more thought out then the product inside.

The left is pretty much caked on where I attempted to layer it and build up some color the right is a single swipe

On my lips, I globed it on pretty thick to get this amount of color but it's still not nearly as dark as I hoped it would be

Overall I was very sad about this product. I had really high hopes for it, and I'm a huge Michelle Phan fan! I was so excited to see samples of her new makeup line in the past 2 glam bags and I really hope she continues with it. I feel like if this were labeled as a gloss and put in a tube with an applicator I would have been ok with it. I would have expected it to be the way it is now and it would have been fine. But as a tinted lip balm it fails completely with me. To use this as a gloss in the packaging that it is in now, is difficult. Applying it over a lipstick, with my finger or a brush, that I've spent time making look perfect is not ideal. I attempted to layer this over Hot Damn (below) and it really just pushed the color around while not adding anything but mess. I don't see myself using this very often and that is such a shame.

Be A Bombshell Lip Crayon in Hot Damn $14
You can find this HERE.
This is something I thought would be difficult to use, because it is so large. But much like the lip balm above, I was wrong. This color is so fantastic! It is a bright siren red with a super slight glittery shimmer to it. The crayon tip is perfect for my lips and less time consuming then using a lip pencil. I do wonder what will happen once the tip is gone from use, as it twists up and I have no way to sharpen it. I suppose that's when I start to use a lip brush. Which is sort of inconvenient but that's the way lipsticks are so I guess I should judge them all the same right? This went on super smooth and slightly sheer. I was able to build the color up to and got an opaque red in about 3 swipes. I got about 9 hours of wear out of this, no primer, no liner, no setting it with powder. It didn't feather or wear unevenly, and it didn't fade away after 9 hours, I actually wiped it off before I settled into a giant pizza with my family. I was unable to see how large a full size lip crayon is but mine is 2.5g which is a little small but it's possible that this is full size. MAC lipsticks are 3g and Urban Decay's are 2.8g. I have a few Revlon lip butters but they don't have a size on the packaging and I was unable to find a size on the Revlon or Covergirl websites, 2 popular drug store brands, to compare with. I wore this out and about shopping, I must have been stopped 6 times with women wanting to know what color lipstick I had on and men telling me I looked beautiful, it was ridiculous. Obviously it really is a delicious shade of red! Which is funny because this is not something I would have picked for myself, color wise or product wise. I'm all for red lipsticks, but I prefer mine a little less bright and a little more cool toned, which I feel go better with my blonde hair. Much like Jon Snow, I guess I know nothing. (tehe! GoT humor)
Because it's such a chubby pencil this should last quite a while, even at the size it is now I feel that it is totally worth the $14 price.

Just Be A Bombshell's lip color, no liner, gloss, or primer

Pixi Beauty Bronzer in Subtly Suntouched $18
You can find this HERE.
I was so excited to try this, I love a nice subtle bronzer but hate buying them because they are ridiculously priced. The last really lovely one I had was from almost a year ago. I save it for special occasions because I'm down to only a ring around the edge and I refuse to pay $30 for a bronzer. Strangely enough, I didn't even get into bronzers until a couple years ago. I always thought I would end up looking like I belonged on The Jersey Shore, Snooki's new BFF or something. I never knew how to use it so I just avoided it. Once I finally tried it and realized it's magical properties, I was hooked.

All you can see on my skin is the shimmer, I tried all sorts of random editing techniques to get this to show up a little better but it was hopeless. Which is sad because it really is a beautiful colored bronzer that some how magically works for me.

Subtly Suntouched is a medium/light taupe brown with some full on shine in all of my swatches. I thought for sure this would work better as a highlighter. It's also almost the exact same color as my skin tone when applied, which means it's about 10 shades lighter when applied then it is in the pan. I had a really hard time swatching this because it just wouldn't show up. I didn't think this would work very well with my skin tone, but once again, I was wrong. It is probably one of the best bronzer colors I've ever used! And that shine, it disappears once you blend it in. So you could use it as a highlight if you applied it with your fingers and didn't rub it at all but not if you're planning on blending.

From the left, 1st swatch is 3 or 4 swipes, 2nd is 1 swipe, and 3rd is 2 swipes. I don't know why I didn't put them in order, I'm a rebel that way confusing everyone all the time.

Star Looks Gem Pencil in Topaz $14
You can find this HERE.
Topaz is a gorgeous shimmery silver eyeliner. I ended up using this all over my lid and blended it out. It was literally like I put silver foil on my lid. It is so shiny, bright, and the pencil is super pigmented. I'm in a delicious silver liner overload here. Ok, this went on opaque with 2-3 passes, it blended easily with a finger or a brush, and dried in a short amount of time. I wasn't racing to blend it but I wasn't waiting for it to dry either. The pencil was smooth and creamy, it went on without skipping or snagging on my lid. I got at least 7 hours of wear out of this without creasing or fading without primer, before I ended up washing it off so I could go to sleep. I'm already planning my holiday make up around this. It really is a freakishly beautiful liner. I would highly recommend this.

 Nailtini Straight Up Nail Polish in Champagne $13
You can find the straight up nail polishes HERE. I was unable to find Champagne on the website though. I'm not sure if it isn't for sale anymore or if it's new and just isn't up yet.
So Champagne is a frosted rose gold color. It is a perfect color for the holidays! It is very sheer, I applied 3 coats and you could still see some of my natural nail tip through the color. Champagne went on smooth, even with 3 coats, and dried fully in about 5 minutes.
Nailtini's are designed to wear alone of be layered over other nailtini products. For example, you could use a base coat (designed to lighten or darken) under this, then pick a top coat that will add shine, multicolor glitter, or a colored sheen. You can also pick a "garnish" which is a stencil to add a design on top. They also have drink themed sets which would be very cute as a shower or birthday gift.

Tresemme Extra Firm Control Hair Spray $6.97 depending on which store you buy it from
You can find this HERE. You can find a store that carries it from there as well. The average price seemed to be $6.97. Although Target had it for $3.99. I ended up using this to tease my hair for a costume and it smells divine! Hands down, best smelling hair spray ever. It dried quickly, wasn't overly liquidy when it was sprayed on, and held it's shape for 10 hours several of which were filled with dancing and general merriment. It also snowed that night, so the air was pretty damp, which didn't affect my hair style at all in the slightest. If I used hair spray more often I would defiantly switch to this one!

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. To personalize it more you can review the items you get in each glam bag, stating if you like the color, item, or brand, or if you hate it completely.  

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*