IPSY Glam bag January 2013

I recently discovered and signed up for IPSY. Ipsy is a beauty subscription service that you sign up and for $10 a month you receive a new beauty bag each month with around 5 deluxe samples and sometimes even full sized products. I looked up reviews from previous month's bags on you tube and various beauty blogs and liked what I saw, so I decided to sign up. Usually your bag is worth much more than the $10 you spend on it.

So this month was my first bag of my subscription. Here is what I got:

This month's theme was "Super Stars". It contained a Pacifica Tuscan Blood Orange body butter, Josie Maran Argan oil, Nailtini nail polish, Big Sexy hair spray and play hair spray and makeup brush from SOHO. All packed into a navy blue cosmetic bag with stars on the inside. IPSY sends their bags out in a pretty pink envelop every month, so you know when you see the big pink envelop you've got goodies in the mail! So I'll go into each item individually....

The Pacifica Tuscan Blood Orange body butter smells amazing! It is thick and creamy and makes my skin feel really nice. The 2.5oz tube sells for $7.00 and is the perfect size for your purse or locker. Besides smelling great, this body butter also contains anti-oxidents and it paraben free! So it's good for you.

The next item is Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan oil. I had never really heard of argan oil before so I did a little research. Argan oil is very versatile. You can use it in your hair, on your nails and cuticles or even as a facial moisturizer. This oil is organic, all natural, vegan, paraben free, toxin free, fragrance free and not tested on animals. I used it on my face and was surprised that it blended in easily and didn't leave my skin feeling oily at all. We received a 5ml bottle which is valued about $5.

The next thing I have in my bag is a Nailtini nail polish. There were two possible colors you could have received, "bloody mary" which is a dark red color, for "frappe" which is a soft, neutral pink color. Nailtini polishes retail for $13. I will admit I was bummed when I saw that I received the color frappe...I wanted the red polish. However, this shade is the perfect color for french manicures. And I had recently saw nails on pinterest done with newspaper print and this is the perfect color for that as well. So I tried it out.....

This picture really doesn't do it justice....it came out really pretty and fun!

Next I have a travel sized can of Big Sexy spray and play volumizing hairspray. This retails for $6. I personally don't usually use hair spray and having very, very thick hair, I don't need any volume. But I think it is great that they include a variety of products in the bag that many people can use. I will most likely give this to my mother in law, I know she uses this brand of hair spray.

The last item in my bag is a SOHO make up brush. Everyone got one of three possible brushes, a crease brush, a concealer brush or an eyeliner brush. I got the eyeliner brush. The eyeliner brush retails for $7.99. I haven't got to use it yet, but it is a really nice brush with grooves for easy handling when applying your makeup.

So totaled up, this bag's value is about $39. Not bad for only paying $10, huh? And with the exception of the hair spray, I can use everything I got. The nail polish and body butter are full sized products as well. Over all I am happy with my bag and looking forward to seeing what next month has in store. One more perk of IPSY is there is a coupon code towards purchases of the products each month. You can go to www.ipsy.com to learn more, sign up for a subscription or even purchase a gift subscription for someone else. I've seen various make up items in previous bags like lip gloss and eye shadow and BB cream, so really there is something for everyone every month.

Montagne Jeunesse Face Masque

The Holiday VoxBox from Influenster included many great products, including a facial masque from Montagne Jeunesse. I got the chocolate masque in my box. Montagne Jeunesse has an entire line of great facial masks, from mud masks to peel off masks to self heating masks. They even make men's facial masks. These facial masques retail for less than $2 each in local store, I have seen them in Wal-Mart and Walgreens in my area. You can see more about their line of facial products here http://bit.ly/VCSE1z

I honestly can't pronounce the name Montagne Jeunesse....I'm sure I'm not alone here. But they have masks made of awesome, natural ingredients that are good for your skin and smell amazing. There are chocolate masks, fruit masks, deep sea clay masks...and more. Here is the product review page from Influenster http://bit.ly/VNjT9y

So here's a picture of my mask....

So the masque was smooth, creamy and chocolate brown in color. It smelled good enough to eat honestly (but no worries, I didn't eat any of it). It was easy to apply to my face, glided on smoothly and easily. According to the package this masque is deep pore cleansing, anti stress and moisturizing. It has the combined benefits of deep sea salt, cocoa butter and shea butter. The directions say to apply to clean face, sit back and relax for 10-15 mins or until the masque has dried. Then rinse off with clean water and pat dry.

I kept mine on for about 15 minutes. It dried but didn't tighten too much which I liked, because I hate when a mask tightens so much it hurts your face. I opted to wash mine off in the shower, which rinsed off very easily. Afterwards my skin felt softer and refreshed. It had a nice healthy glow as well. I loved this masque so much that I bought two more in the chocolate and also two in the crushed raspberry mango fruit smoothie. There are many more on their website that I hope become available in my area soon. I think if you try Montagne Jeunesse masques, you won't be sorry.

Disclaimer - I received my Montagne Jeunesse Chocolate Masque totally free to try out and review from Influenster as part of the Holiday VoxBox 2012 program. To learn more about Influenster and join up, go to www.influenster.com

Julep Maven Intro box

So I just discovered Julep nail polishes about a month ago. I looked around on the website www.julep.com and thought they have lots of pretty colors. I signed up for the email list and after Christmas I got notice of an end of the year sale, so I decided to buy a few colors. Then I found out about the code to try a maven box for only a penny....yes, I said a penny! (I'll give you that code in a bit) Soooooo, I took the plunge and signed up for the maven box.

So you might be thinking, what is a maven box? When you go to the Julep site, they have a style quiz you take and there are 5 categories they have available, you see which one you fall into. The categories are American Beauty, Boho glam, Bombshell, Classic with a twist and it girl. Julep's nail polish is toxin free, from their website "Julep Nail Color is “4-free” and does not contain formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, or DBP." Every color is named for a woman which is fun. So when you sign up you get an introductory box, which has two colors and a cuticle oil (or three colors if you're an it girl) for $19.99 and then once a month you will get a box with 2 (or 3) new colors and a manicure or pedicure product, along with a few surprises (usually sample packets of lotion or polish remover pads, that sort of thing). The box values are usually over $40 so it's a pretty good deal. So I signed up and got "Classic with a twist" from my style quiz. Here is my box when I first opened it:

I was immediately excited because I could see right away my surprises were two little pots of glitter! I had seen some people receive the little pots of glitter in videos I've seen of people opening their boxes up, but I didn't think they would send me glitter pots on an intro box (and certainly not one a penny into box!) As you can see there is a little card that explains the Classic with a twist style. The polishes are wrapped in the pink paper with a black ribbon around it and then everything is nestled nicely in black shredded paper.

 

Here you can see the glitter pots better as well as the two polishes and the cuticle oil. There is also a card with welcome information about the maven monthly boxes. The two colors in this box are Alfre - which is a royal metropolitan purple metallic and Jody - which is a rosey mauve with gold shimmer. The cuticle oil is a blend of essential oils and vitamin E. It smells pretty good I think. I decided to try out Jody first. The color went on smoothly and dried pretty quickly, which was good because with a new baby, I'm on limited nail polishing time LOL. Here's my nails with the color up close:

 

So over all I am very happy with my first box and looking forward to seeing what February's colors will be. Every month there are new colors. If you don't like the colors in your chosen style, you have the option to change to another set. You also have the option to skip a month or send your box as a gift to someone else that month. Even if you start up with the penny coupon, you are under no obligation to continue each month and you can cancel at any time. The regular price is $19.99 a month, with free shipping. Your membership also gets you 20% off all products on the website, free shipping and the chance to add on products to your monthly box for as little as $4.99.

 Now here's the coupon code to get your intro box for only one shinny penny....enter PENNY into the coupon code box. I did pay $4.98 for shipping with the coupon code so $4.99 total. If you sign up through my link, then I can earn credits called jules towards free products  (and then when you join, you will get a link to refer your friends!) My referral link is http://www.julep.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/98609/. I hope you like Julep as much as I do :)

NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine

Another really awesome product that I got to try out from Influenster is the NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine lip gloss. This came in the Holiday VoxBox 2012, which I was lucky enough to be able to participate in.

I have heard of NYC New York Color brand cosmetics and even seen them in stores, but I have never tried them before. I've also never been a big user of lip gloss. But I am always up for trying new things out and love makeup. You can see all the great products from NYC New York Color here http://bit.ly/ZmNfMI.

 



The color I recived is Nude York City, which is a really pretty, nuetral color that has some shimmer to it and lots of shine.All of the NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine lipglosses are full of moisturizing vitamin E. The color goes on smoothly and doesn't feel sticky like some lip gloss can. There are lots of colors to choose from and they are really budget friendly at under $3 each in many mass retailers.

I honestly LOVE this lip gloss. Like I had said, I was not a lip gloss user but the NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine changed my mind. I have worn this every day since I received it. It is the perfect color for work because it's neutral (and as nurse I keep my make up low key at work). I have already gone out and bought another color for when I'm not at work. You can see more about the New York Color Liquid Lipshine at the Influenster product page here http://bit.ly/10cwV7v. Here I am wearing my New York Nude.

Disclaimer - I received the NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine as a part of the complimentary Holiday VoxBox 2012 from Influenster. You can find out more about Influenster at www.influenster.com

Goody QuikStyle Hair brush

One of the awesome products from my Influenster Holiday VoxBox 2012 was the Goody QuikStyle half round hair brush. This is probably my favorite item from the box to be completely honest. I was super excited when I found out I would be receiving this brush because I had seen it in the stores and Goody is my favorite brand of hair products to buy. You can see all the awesome products Goody makes here http://bit.ly/REp8ue .

So what exactly is the Goody QuikStyle brush? It is a really innovative styling tool! It is a brush that works as a brush and towel in one. It has normal brush bristles and in between those are thick, super absorbent microfiber bristles. It comes in two shapes, half round and paddle. This brush has been seen in stores for around $11.99. So, as I said before, I received the half round brush to try. Here's a picture of it in the package when it arrived.

 

 

The product page and packaging states the brush can remove up to 30% of the water from your hair after washing. This brush will not dry your hair for you. But it will make drying quicker and easier. This brush detangles hair very easily, and it didn't pull my daughter's hair so I didn't have to hear her whine about how much it hurt to detangle. I have very thick hair myself, so I was kind of skeptical but this brush worked really well in my hair. It seriously cut my hair dryer time in half, which is awesome because less heat on my hair equals healthier hair! I usually don't like round brushes because my hair tends to get tangled up in them. My hair did not get tangled up in this brush at all. I love it! I would honestly recommend this brush to anyone who wants to cut down styling time. You can see more information and reviews about this brush on the Influesnter product page here http://bit.ly/Sis8Oi. And here is a picture of me after styling my hair with the brush....

 

 

Disclaimer - I received this hair brush for free as part of the Influenster program in the Holiday VoxBox 2012. For more information about Influenster go to www.influenster.com

Influenster Holiday Vox Box 2012

The wonderful people at Influenster have done it again! They put together this amazing box of products and I was lucky enough to get picked to try them out.

For those of you  who have not heard of Influenster, it is this really great website where you sign up and review products and if you fit into certain demographics you get picked to receive boxes of products to try out and review, completely for free! Then there are brand challenges where you can earn more free products as well. If you are someone who loves to try out new products and write reviews and make videos, etc, you should check out their site at www.influenster.com

So I was very excited to get picked for the Holiday Vox Box 2012 because I knew the holiday box is usually a really good box (they all are awesome though!) Influenster did not disappoint. Here is a picture of my goodies I received:

Doesn't it look awesome?? So here's the breakdown of what I got....

Quaker Real Medleys Oatmeal - retails for $1.79 per cup. I got the Peach Almond flavor, there are several flavors available. These cups contain whole grain oats, rye, barley and wheat and then are mixed with large chunks of real fruit and nuts. You can either add boiling water or add cold water and microwave right in the cup.

NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine - retails for $2.49 - "Keep your  lips soft as ever with the NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine. It's pure pigment ingredients create a 3-D gloss effect while Vitamin E provides shine and moisture." (This was the statement from the Infleunster card) The color I received is called Nude York City and it is a very pretty neutral color that has some shimmer and tons of shine.

Kiss Nail Dress - retails for $6.99 - Peel and stick nail fashions that are quick and easy to apply and easily removed without polish remover. Lasts up to 10 days, can be used on finger nails or toe nails. The color pattern I got is Chemise.

Eboost - Retails for $28 for a box of 20 packets, $39 for a box of 30 packets or $39 for a box of 12 shots. "EBoost will boost your mood, focus and immunity with natural ingredients and no crash" I tried EBoost with my Influenster Naturals Vox Box and loved it then. This time I received the flavor Acai Pomegranate which I am looking forward to trying out.

Sole Society - $25 off your first purchase - Sole Society is a website where you can buy shoes, discover new trends and styles and recommend shoes to friends.

Goody QuikStyle Brush - available in paddle or half round shape - retails for $11.99 - I was supper excited when I saw this was going to be in the box! I saw these brushes at the store and wanted to buy one. The Goody QuikStyle brush has super absorbent  microfiber bristles in between the regular bristles to help hair dry faster by removing up to 30% of the water from your hair as you style. It's like having a towel built into your hair brush!

I also got selected for the bonus item! :)

Montagne Jeunesse Face Masks - retails for under $2 each - there are many different masks to choose from, all made with natural ingredients wonderful fragrances. I received the chocolate masque which is a deep pore cleansing, moisturizing, anti stress mud mask. Anything with chocolate sounds good to me!

So that's my Holiday 2012 Vox Box. I am excited to try out these great products and come back to review them all and let you know how I like them. Thank you Influenster!

www.influenster.com

Influenster - new and improved!!

Hi everyone. I just wanted to take a moment to tell you all about this great program that several of my blog posts refer to. It is Influenster.com and it is exciting. What they are is a company that gets products from many other companies and gives those products to people to try out and review. There are many different themes that they group together...some recent themes were Mom, Naturals, Bride to be, Latina to name a few. How do you qualify for these boxes? You have to join influenster and unlock badges. There are badges for all different things, like mom, college student, techie, etc. Unlocking these badges lets them know what demographics you fit into so they can match you to a product box that fits your personality/lifestyle. You earn points as well, by reviewing products that fall into the categories of your badges. The more you review, the higher your score. They want you to use media outlets like twitter and facebook to spread the word about your product reviews. The more you review, and the more active you are on social networks, the more likely you are to get selected for one of the Vox Boxes.

The above picture shows the Naturals Vox Box I was selected to review. Once you are selected to receive a box, you have to use and  review each product, either through blog posts, video blogs or the Influenster website. Even if you don't like the product, review it. The companies use our feedback in their market research and they need to know the good and the bad reviews of their products. Influenster also puts of brand challenges for each item, and completing those challenges can earn you bonus gift packs from the company. Below is a picture of a bonus I earned from Broadway Nails.

This is a really easy program really, you just incorporate the products you get to try into your daily life. Then take a little bit of time to do the reviews. So if you are someone who likes to try new products and pass on the word to friends, family and everyone else then Influenster might be for you. It is free to sign up and easy to get started. If this sounds like something you would like to try, go to www.influenster.com and see what it is all about! :-)