It’s that time again!  I got Ipsy bag in the mail one day after I got my tracking code, which was generated about three days before I received it, and two days before the projected delivery day.  I’m guessing their strategy is now to hold back the tracking numbers to give the illusion of speedy delivery?

 The bag – Pretty much the same bag as last time but in a deep chocolatey brown with a little more satiny with a shiny patent trim.  It’s totally okay, but a little confusing that the bag is so similar when in the past, they’ve been so wildly different.  I’m thinking that they got really good feedback on the last bag, though.  So why mess with a good thing?

Starlet eyeliner pencil in black – The color in this is fairly solid and makes pretty consistent marks.  The label reads “Black total absence of light”, suggesting a deep, inky black.  The tip even looks like it would make that level of black, but it definitely doesn’t draw that way.  It’s got a slightly brownish lean to it and I just don’t feel like it’s an $11 eyeliner.  I’ll pass on buying.

Nailtini nail polish in Millionaire – This is a glitter polish.  The base is a super-fine pinky gold glitter, followed by small sticks of gold, followed by long sticks of blue green.  I don’t care for polishes with stick glitter because it always seems to hang off the nail.  One coat of this goes on pretty sparse, two coats seems to fill out a bit better.  It appears to apply very clumpy, but evens out as it settles and dries.  The company’s concept is that their polishes should be layered, and I’d definitely do that with this.  The biggest grr?  I just scraped this off with my fingernail.  For $13 a bottle, that’s a real shame.  If you’re apt to shell out this kind of money on nail polish, just skip this brand and head to Chanel.

bare minerals marvelous Moxie in Dare Devil – When I saw previews of this, I was horrified.  Wine-hued lips are a big mini-trend, but it’s often done far too heavy for real human use.  I put this on without a mirror, just waiting for my boyfriend’s reaction.  He didn’t react at all.  When I checked the mirror, I was pleased to see that this went on fairly sheer and it was a generally pleasing shade for me.  Whew!  Unfortunately, this has a mintiness to it, which I hate.  Why should lipgloss make my lips cold all day?  It’s got a little stickiness and sandiness that seems to be standard for lip gloss, so it’s not a huge detractor   I can’t get a handle on how big the full size of this is, but it’s $18 a tube.  That’s pretty on par with similar products, so I think I could comfortably recommend this for anyone wanting to dip their toes in wine hues without going overboard.

Chella eyebrow defining gel – When I saw this, I was afraid is was a pigmented product.  It wasn’t, and I was deeply relieved.  It’s a clear eyebrow gel with a mascara wand applicator.  It also comes bearing a weird chemical smell that was sort of disconcerting.  When it dried, I noticed it felt a little stiff at first.  I didn’t get tremendous brow-taming results out of this.  A full-size is $18.  I spent far less on Covergirl clear mascara and got similar (if not better) results.  The downside to Covergirl is that it doesn’t dry as quickly.

the Balm Meet Matt(e) in Matt Batali – Apologies to Mario, I’m quite taken with this Batali.  This is a matte shadow in a deep brown colour, headed towards black.  It went really well with this pencil.  I just dabbed a bit at the outer corners of my eyes without any primer and got great payoff and a nice smokiness.  I totally dig matte shadows, so I was really hoping the Balm offered these in singles.  And they don’t.  I’d love a replacement for my now-defunct Urban Decay Revolver.  The palette the Balm offers is $35 (but Ipsy users get a half off offer, soooo… maybe…)

The verdict?  This month was a little safe, a little boring.  One of Ipsy’s biggest problems is its users constantly complaining about the products they get, whether it’s the wrong colour or the size. Ipsy definitely needed a few totally unhateable bags in its corner to get their subscribers happy.  And what better time than after open sign-ups?  Do I hate a safe, no-way-to-hate-it bag?  No way!  New glitter nail polish, perfect sultry party look, more eyebrow tamer, another bag for Christmas gift dispersal.  I can’t complain, and that’s the way Ipsy likes it!