A Little late Ipsy~ Haute Holiday

So, I received my bag a lot earlier than I expected, and finally had a chance to come around and make a post about it!  For those who do not know, Ipsy is a fantastic thing to sign up for :)  Formerly known as MyGlam, Ipsy sends out fantastic larger sample sizes and full size makeup and beauty products and a wonderful bag for only $10 a month!  As a makeup lover, I am always looking for ways to find a better price, and something like this, I can not only test products before I buy them, but I get to see a whole vast array of colors I would have never thought to pick out for myself.  To check it out, click HERE.

And onto the December Glam Bag!

I was happy about the bag, as always, and I was already pumped up about seeing Urban Decay and NYX in the sneak peaks, but in all honesty, this wasn't my favorite bag I have received.  The first product that I was excited to try was the Mai Couture Highlight Powder, but ended up slightly disappointed in the end.  This is with the flash which is how most people would see where I work. 

As you can see, it was too dark to use as a highlight powder for my skin, as I am pale lol!  In the end, I just use it as a bronzer so no total loss there.

The next thing is the Be a Bombshell Lipgloss and the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner pencil!  After a previous bag, I had fallen in love with the Be a Bombshell brand, so I was happy to get another product by them!  I don't normally buy a bright red anything, but after trying this gloss, I'm quite happy with how the color looked on me!  The only problem I had was that it was a bit sticky.... I'm just used to chapstick and lipstick that the stickiness of a gloss feels very unfamiliar. It had a little tingle, which I suppose is a lip plumping agent that I didn't read about.  

Do I really need to say how much I LOVE the UD eyeliner?  I had been given a set of these pencils for Christmas last year and they are my favorite eyeliners ever!  It's a good thing I got the black too because I was running out lol!  UD is expensive, too much for me to buy two products at once, so getting this (in a full size too!) just made the whole bag.

This picture is also with the flash.

Now for the NYX loose eyeshadow and the Mirabella Primer for the face and eyes.  I love the NYX products, and had never tried the Mirabella brand before.  First, for the primer.  I did not like it, at all.  I guess that I have been spoiled with Smashbox and UD primer that I just can't seem to adjust to any other primer.  It felt oily to me and didn't seem to make much of a difference as a good primer.  Not my top product here.  I didn't even find it worth while to get a pic of it in action.... If there was any action to see.  Anyways, there is a reason I don't have a swatch for the NYX eyeshadow as well~  I HATE the packaging of these loose eyeshadows.  It's a little bottle and the only thing I can think when I see it is "How the heck and I supposed to get this on my brush without making a mess?"  

Guess what?  I made a mess........  And this was just me trying to get a swatch of the shadow... I love the color and I love NYX eyeshadows, but I just hate the packaging.... And before anyone tells me about how I can just compress it myself, I will state that I am very lazy and would rather have the packaging work without me having to put in effort to repackage the product for easier access.
All in all, if it wasn't for the UD and the Be a Bombshell, I would have been sorely disappointed in the bag this month, but this is the first time that I have ever had a bag that had anything I didn't like in it.  I still fully recommend looking into signing up for Ipsy and seeing what kind of things you can experiment with!