Ipsy‘s March bag was an absolute slam dunk. There is nothing in here I didn’t like! At first I was disappointed because there were only four products but they really outdid themselves on this one.

Let’s take a look at what came for me this month.

I’m not really sold on primers to be honest. I’ve gone through a few sample sizes of various brands and none of them really did anything for me (positive or negative). That being said, Pixi‘s Flawless Beauty Primer actually *did* do something.

When I first squeezed a drop out of the tube I was a little skeptical. The product isn’t clear, it’s actually quite pink with a sheen to it. So I’m thinking “well this is going to end in tears…” as I was blending it into my skin. It definitely tinted my skin and I looked like I had a bit of a pinky tan. I blended some foundation over top of it and it seemed to add a healthy glow even through the matte foundation (MUA matte). As a note, less is more with this product. I used too much and it balled up a little in certain areas – user error though, I don’t think it was the fault of the product.

I don’t own anything from bareMinerals so I was really happy to get this lipstick. It’s a really tiny tube, maybe 1/4 the size of a full size of lipstick and the colour is beautiful.Get Ready is a pretty generic medium pink – which makes it easy to market to a lot of people. It has quite a bit of slip to it on the lips, so you may find it slides around a lot. I wore it with a lip primer and found it wore off within two hours or so, but it’s such an easy shade to wear and re-apply that you won’t find yourself with really awkward fade marks as the product wears away from your lips.

NYX changed up their eyeshadow trios relatively recently (I’ve seen them being phased out of Rexall over the last year or so) but I’ve never gotten around to trying out the old ones or the new ones. This trio, Segredos de Giselle, is a pretty failsafe colour combination (reminds me of Wet n Wild‘s Walking On Eggshells).

The swatches look rather sheer, but they apply really nicely on the lids. NYX having quality products is shocking to no one as they’ve proven themselves multiple times over the years with their products. One things that especially pleased me is how similar the beige shade is to Urban Decay‘s Virgin (closer than MAC‘s Shroom, in my opinion) and the brown is pretty close to Urban Decay‘s Smog.

The final item in my bag was this Indigo liner from Chella. I was expecting this to be a pencil liner (boo) so I was extremely pleased when I found out it was actually a liquid liner (yay!). The colour is absolutely beautiful and incredibly vibrant. It doesn’t apply quite as easily to the eyelid as it does to the hand – getting the product to flow right out of the very tip can be a bit annoying. Although it can be a bit of a nuisance with application, it does stay on all day and didn’t smudge or move around at all. I also really love that this liner is completely matte. Definite winner.

Ipsy March 2014 Breakdown

• Pixi Flawless Beauty Primer (12 ml @ $8.80 USD, full size is 30 ml for $22 USD)
• bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie in Get Ready (no size anywhere – best guess it’s 1/4 the size of a normal lipstick, so about $4.50 USD, full size is $18 USD)
• NYX Love In Rio – Segredos de Giselle ($6 USD, full size)
• Chella Indigo liner ($24 USD, full size)

BAG TOTAL: $~43.30 USD

My Thoughts

I said it right at the top of this post – I loved this month! I’ll use every item and that’s really exciting! The colours are on the safe side (pinks, beige, brown, etc.) because I think that for the most part people who subscribe to Ipsy are looking for something that’s pretty generic… which is why the indigo liner was such a surprise. It’s beautifully vibrant and while it’s not an easy safe colour like black or brown, it’s still useable by loads of people.

Two definite thumbs up.