October Ipsy

This months Ipsy theme was Beauty Candy. Again this month they allowed you to share a link on Facebook to get early access to your glamroom, even though it didn't work at first. The email I got spoiling an item this month showed a variety of eye products that you could be getting in this bag. These items were mostly mascaras which I was hoping I did not get even though I use a lot of this product, I just have so many of them at the moment. 
Ipsy is a monthly subscription service that costs $10.00 a month, but being in Canada I have to pay for shipping which is another 4.95 USD so you'll pay the difference of exchange rate. If you want to subscribe you can do so here: http://www.ipsy.com/r/3kg1

From the items I got I'm a little unsure why the theme was Beauty Candy, other than the bag and the lip gloss. However, it's a good variety of items which ipsy has been good at lately - three makeup products, a lotion and an exfoliant. 

The first item I got is a purifying exfoliant from the company epice. I really like the size it came in since it's enough to be able to use quite a few times in order to tell if it's a good fit for your skin. I was looking at the website it says this company was founded by a dermatologist who has a degree in biochemisty (yey thats what I have) and seems to have a lot of experience in skin care products. The price of a full size is $32.00 so the sample size of 30 mL has a value of $9.70. 

 The second item I got is a pair of fake eyelashes with the glue included. They are from the company Kiss and are called iENVY Beyond Naturale 01 - KPE33. These are demi wispies which seem to be the most popular type of fake lashes I've been seeing online lately. I don't normally use fake lashes but I might try these ones out since they look more natural then most lashes I've received. The value of these lashes are apparently around $5.00 at walmart. 

 The next item I got was is a body butter from the company Ayres in the scent Patagonia with essential oils of jasmine and rosemary. It doesn't smell that great but it's supposed to work really well. A full size of this item is $28.00 making the sample of 28 g worth $4.15. 

Another item I got was a lip gloss from Starlooks. I've gotten a few Starlooks items from ipsy and some are really good and others aren't. This one seems to be one of the best items I've gotten from them so far. The lip gloss is called Guilty Pleasure and smells really good and is a good shade of pink for my pale skin. This is about half the size of a full sized item making it worth about $6.00.

 The last product I got is a mineral eye shadow from Mica cosmetics. I've gotten a few of these before which I really haven't used since I find mineral eye shadows so messy to use. This one is a shimmer powder in the shade harliquin which is a greenish blue shade. I've recently gotten some better eyeshadow primers so I might start using these. The value of this product is $14.95. 

  The overall value of the bag this month was only $39.80 pretax which isn't the highest value bag I've gotten but it was a good one. I really liked the bag itself and would use most of the products. 

Julep Jewel Heist Mystery Box

On September 8th I got an email from Julep (and also saw on facebook) they were doing a mystery box called Jewel Heist that month that would be giving the entire birthstone collection to 50 people and a pair of earrings to one person. I used to love their mystery boxes but was hearing a lot of bad things lately so I was avoiding them, but I'm in love with sparkles lately so this seemed like a box I would enjoy, and I found a $10.00 off coupon making the box only $14.99 for what they claim to be $100+ value. Since I had saved that $10, I added the large add-on for $15.00. 

Since I live in Canada anything from Julep seems to take ages to get to me. I ordered it September 8th, got shipping conformation September 10th, and received the box October 2nd. 

This is what came in my box, for $30.00 I think it's not bad at all. I saw a lot of complaints about this box (like all boxes) but I think I'm happy with mine. The only thing I'm upset about is that I was expecting more jewel-tone nail polishes. If I hadn't of gotten the add-on I wouldn't have gotten any sparkles at all.

So the actual box came with these items: 

I think if I had of paid the $24.99 for these items I wouldn't have been happy even though the value is there. Here are picture of the individual items I got and their values.

The add-on came with these items:

First item is the Moisture Mask Trio which contains three masks, one for hands, feet and nails. This item is $20.00 or on sale at the moment for $14.99.

The next item is the Blank Canvas plumping lip primer. I'm not a lipstick person so this doesn't interest me that much, but I tried it out and it made my lips tingle so I took it off. I'm assuming that's the lip plumping properties which some people may like. This item is $22.00 or for mavens $17.60.

The one product in the box that I'm excited for is Vanish cuticle softener and remover. I've already used this once and I love it. I don't need it for cuticle removal much, but it takes stains off of nails really well. This is exciting for me since my nails seem to stain no matter how much base coat I use. This item is $18.00 but on sale right now for $9.99.

Finally I got three nail polishes. These were Alfre, Lynn and Nadia. All nail polishes are $14.00 or $11.20 for mavens, but Nadia is on sale right now for $4.99. Lynn and Alfre are both pretty colours. These are the first three polishes below. The add-on came with two polishes which are the two on the right, Taryn and Dawn. Both of these are $14.00 or $11.20 maven price. I don't ever use yellow as an all over nail colour but they are good to have for nail art. Taryn however, may be one of my new favourite colours. I'm in love with these blue glitters. 

With the two nail polishes I also got the Sweep Eyeshadow Palette: Neutrals which I love. This palette is $24.00 or $19.20 maven price. I have blue eyes so these are the eyeshadow colours I use on a daily basis, and it's in a cute small package which is perfect to fit in a travel makeup bag.

The total price for the box was $102.00 or with sales and maven prices $69.97. The add-on was $52.00 or maven prices $41.60. This is a total value of $154.00 or with sales and maven discounts $111.57. Considering I paid around $30.00 this is a pretty amazing value since I will use basically everything I got.