My Year with Ipsy: A Review

**Before I get started with this post I just want to make it perfectly clear that this is NOT a sponsored post. I have no affiliation with Ipsy and all the views in this post are my complete honest opinion. Also just a warning this is a text heavy post.

As many of you have seen with my monthly Ipsy bag posts, I have been subscribed to the Ipsy Glam bag subscription service for a year. I have cancelled my subscription and thought I would do an overall review of the service for those thinking about signing up. Just for a little background about the company. It was started by Youtuber Michelle Phan and the basic idea is that each month you receive a bag with 5 deluxe sample size products "semi" tailored to your style with an average bag value of $53. If you live in the U.S. the service costs $10 a month or $110 a year. Since I live in Canada I had to pay an extra $4.95 a month for shipping. The service is currently only available in Canada and the United States. You can get offers on other beauty products on their website https://www.ipsy.com/.

Before I share my thoughts I thought I'd break down the products and brands a little:

Overall I received 60 products

43% were full size products

20% were lip products

22% were eye products (5 eyeliners, 6 shadows, 2 mascara, 2 brow)

18% were skincare

11.5% were hair products

The rest of the products were made up of:

2 brushes and an eyelash curler

4 nail polishes

2 blushes

2 powders

1 concealer

1 primer

1 perfume 

Popular high end brands that I received products from included Tarte, Urban Decay, Smashbox, itCosmetics, Formula X and theBalm. 

Popular drugstore brands I received products from were Maybelline, NYX, essence, and Pixi. 

Brands that I received more than one product from are Pacifica, Hikari, Starlooks, NYX, Briogeo, City Color, Chella and eva nyc.

So I'll start with the things I liked about the service. Throughout the year I was exposed to a bunch of brands I had never heard of before but I have become a fan of through receiving products in my Ipsy Bag. For example Chella, Pacifica and Briogeo. Above are some of my all time favourite items I've received in my bag. All of these products have made their way into my daily use. The bags were on time every month and I never received anything that was broken or damaged. The actual bags that arrived always felt well made.

As for some of the things that I didn't like about the service, I was unimpressed with the waitlist that they put you on before you start the service. You can get off the waitlist by sharing something on Facebook which makes it seem like it's not so much a waitlist but a coersion to promote their business. If you choose not to share on Facebook, you should be off the waitlist in a month. The way the waitlist was set up did put me off a little bit.

Overall I was impressed with the service and I really enjoyed being an Ipsy subscriber for the last 12 months. While I have cancelled my account for now, maybe one day in the future I will renew it. I would recommend Ipsy for anyone who likes collecting makeup, trying new products or just receiving something fun in the mail once a month.

*   *   *
If you want to revisit my my monthly Ipsy Bag posts click on the months below:

September      October      November      December

January      February      March      April

 May       June       July       August