Beauty Candy: October Ipsy

I wanted to write a post about ipsy and I was surprised to see that in the almost two years that I've been subscribing to ipsy, I've only written one real post about ipsy!

For those of you who don't know, ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription box. For Canadians, it's about $15 a month; $10 for the subscription, $5 for shipping. With the exchange, I end up paying around $20 a month. I really like ipsy, I think they send great bags and I usually love what they send, but I have been thinking about cancelling my subscription- it's not really worth $20 to me, I feel I get a lot of the same products just different brands and after almost two years, I'm just feeling meh about it. Don't get me wrong, I still like ipsy...and I was happy with the October bag they sent me:

Ayres Body Butter in Patagonia - The smell immediately reminded me of a spa I used to visit in Huron County, so that brought back happy memories. I was happy to see a 'different' product- I can't even tell you the last time I received a body butter, if ever!  I have super dry skin, so I'm excited to try this product. It's exactly what you would expect from a body butter; heavier texture, a bit greasy...but it did feel nice. I
Retail value: $15 for three 1oz (travel sizes)
ipsy value: $5 for one 1oz

Jesses Girl Mineralized Baked Powder Eyeshadow in Ocean Breeze- This is really, really pretty. Unfortunately, I don't wear blue eyeshadow...so I would have loved to try Esmeralda (a lighter green) or Plum Frost, as those are colours I'm likely to wear. Kinda meh about this...I seem to get eyeshadow every other bag.

Retail value: $3.99 for .07 oz

ipsy value: $3.99 for .07 oz

H20+ Face Oasis Hydrating Treatment- I feel like a broken record...I have super dry skin. To date, I have only found one product that truly moisturizes my skin. Unfortunately it's fairly expensive (like $100 expensive), so I am consistently on the search for something effective and affordable. I was really excited to get a hydrating product to try! This product is actually a gel and it feels like you are putting gel on your face. To the touch, my skin felt smoother and hydrated. It looked hydrated too, but my skin still felt tight. I'm hoping I just need to use it a few times to get used to it. This was definitely a new product (and brand) for me to try...so I was happy to see variety.

Retail value: $36 for 1.7 oz

ipsy value $7.20 for .34 oz

Skyn Iceland Glacial Cleansing Cloths- See above re: dry skin. I've used products that were "Iceland Glacial" and while they didn't hydrate my skin, they did cool and sooth my skin. I was so excited to see this product and had high hopes. I didn't particularly like the smell. These are foaming cleansing cloths, and foam there was, but the cool and soothing I was anticipating never happened. I was pretty disappointed. They still might be good for on the run cleansing/make up removal. We'll see. Again, this is a product that I haven't received in awhile, so I was happy to get it.

Retail value: $15 for 30 sheets

ipsy value: $5 for 10 sheets

Starlooks Lip Gloss in Guilty Pleasure: This is really tiny...like I don't think I've seen a lip gloss this small before. It's a nice size to throw in my purse for traveling and the colour's pretty. But again, I seem to get lip glosses all the time...nothing exciting here. 

Retail value: $12 (size not listed on the website)

ipsy value: $2 (size not listed on the product, and I'm guessing at the value. You can get a lip pencil, lip stick and gloss set  for $24 or you can get the set without the gloss for $22).

Total retail value: $81.99

Total ipsy value: $23.19

I was happy to see different products (body butter, hydrating treatment and cleansing cloths) and I do like ipsy, I thought over all this was a good bag. The price I pay- with subscription price, shipping and exchange- compared to the value of my bag, is almost equal. I'm going to stick with ipsy for another month or two...but I really am thinking about cancelling.