I wouldn’t consider myself a make up expert by any means. I’m definitely a newbie when it comes to these things, but I do like to try new products, which is why I subscribed to Birchbox and, later, Ipsy. If it weren’t for Birchbox and Ipsy, I’d have missed out on products I truly love and use every day so I try to share my findings on these products with the people in my life which now includes all  of you. {Disclaimer: My nose doesn’t work very well so if fragrance reviews were what you are hoping to find, I likely won’t be reviewing them.}

Birchbox

I honestly have to admit, I haven’ been thrilled with Birchbox lately. Their boxes have been sort of blah lately. I don’t hate the products, but they certainly don’t have the “Oh YAY!” factor lately like they used to. So let’s get started {I’m going left to right top, top to bottom.}:

• Bi-Facil Eye Make Up Remover – Curiously Birchbox is not selling this on their site. I wasn’t super impressed with this product. Definitely not worth the $28 dollars Lancome is selling the 4.2 oz size for. It will definitely make a great addition to my travel bag though, and I will likely save the bottle because it really is just the perfect size.
• Skin & Co Roma Sicilian Body Gel – This is yet another product unavailable for purchase on Birchbox’s site. In fact, I wasn’t even able to find it on the manufacturers site, which is probably not a bad thing. I didn’t dislike this product, it just didn’t do anything for me. This will again go into my ever growing selection of travel toiletries.
• Color Club Nail Polish in Wild Cactus – I’m not sure what the “wild cactus” thing is about. It’s certainly not very cactus-colored, maybe a more Christmas colored polish. I’m typically not a fan of Color Club polishes because they don’t dry well on my nails, but this one faired okay. It’s a very deep emerald green. I used it on all of my fingers, with my Nailtini Millionare polish on the ring fingers as an accent nail. It was very St. Patty’s Day themed.
• The Ghirardelli chocolate square was admittedly the first thing to disappear from the box. It was a cute touch to get some chocolate in a Valentine’s Day box, but I was a bit let down. I like trying new and exciting products I might not otherwise know about, not things I can buy at any nearby store or find in my cabinet already.
• Last but not least, a headband by Twistband –  I’m not typically a headband person, but this style of headband changed all of that. I found myself wearing this all the time just to keep the little hairs out of my face. I’ve used Twistband hair ties before. One came in my very first Birchbox, but it quickly frayed. I received another one recently as well, but I seem to have misplaced it. Needless to say I’m big fan of these elasticized ribbon hair products, but I’ve found the ones from Mane Message stay in my hair better.

Ipsy

I have to hand it to Ipsy. Unlike Birchbox, Ipsy’s been sending out fantastic bags chocked full of goodies lately. {Again, I’m going to try to go from left to right, top to bottom.}

• First up is the Flawless & Poreless primer from Pixi –  I mentioned this in my February Favorites post. If you read that post, I was coming to the end of a tube of my go to Too Faced Primed & Poreless primer and was debating on which of these two to purchase. I like this primer. I think it’s really similar to the Too Faced primer, but in the end it came down to convenience for me. Both are about the same price. The Pixi primer is even available at Target, but I was already placing an order online at Sephora. Should I need a primer in a pinch though, I like knowing this is available.
• Coastal Scents Eyeshadows – This is my second set of coastal scents shadows from Ipsy. This set was a little more out there in terms of color, but they are my university’s colors, so I guess it’s a good game day shadow set. They come off as more orange on here, but they are really yellows, golds, and blacks.
• Lash Cards – Truthfully, I didn’t try this product. Maybe it’s just me but I find the concept silly and slightly odd. I’ll save these for a boring day when I plan on experimenting with things or possibly a special occasion, but truthfully, I’m usually pretty careful with my eye makeup.
• Gel Eyeliner by MicaBeauty – I also included this in my February Favorites post. I had never tried a gel liner before, but I was pleasantly surprised by this. It was quite easy to apply and gave a ton of drama to my eyes. I see this sample going a long way.
• Smokey Lash Kapow Mascara by Pop – I wasn’t exactly sure what the mysterious black flowery tube was when I pulled it out of the bag, but I assumed correctly that it must have been mascara. I’m a big fan of Sephora’s Full Action Mascara, but I honestly switch mascaras every day. I probably have about 8 in my makeup drawer right now, and this one was one of my favorites. It did a good job at separating my lashes but didn’t give me quite the “Kapow” I was hoping for, but it was nice on the days I didn’t want want to look like I was wearing a lot of eye makeup. It’s more expensive than my Sephora fave so wouldn’t repurchase it. It wasn’t a bad mascara, but for the price, I don’t think it’s any better than others.

Overall, I liked both of these bags, but Ipsy won hands down. I’ve just received my March Birchbox and Ipsy bag, and from first glance, I think Birchbox may have redeemed themselves. I’m excited to try some new products, check back next month for the March review.