{"id":4263,"date":"2017-01-14T23:09:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T07:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/?p=4263"},"modified":"2017-01-15T17:11:52","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T01:11:52","slug":"my-last-ipsy-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/2017\/01\/my-last-ipsy-bag\/","title":{"rendered":"My Last Ipsy Bag…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…And Why I Gave Up On Beauty Subscriptions<\/h1>\n

2016 was my year of upping my makeup game. \u00a0I went on a quest for the most perfect, holy grail, ride or die products that would work perfectly with my skin type, harmonize with my coloring, and fit my budget. \u00a0On the daily, I am a minimalist, using high SPF BB creams, eyeliner, and tinted lip balm.<\/p>\n

\"My<\/p>\n

My belly dance makeup kit was old, tired, beat-up, and expired. \u00a0My brushes were chewed up, my makeup bag was broken, and it was time to examine my skin care\u00a0regimen, cosmetic application techniques, and choice in products. I set my goals, started with a whopping (for me at least) budget of $500, and an additional $40 a month, on average. Why did I set such a big budget? \u00a0Because I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect. \u00a0I didn\u2019t know how many products I would buy and try, love and keep or ditch after using for a while and discovering something better.<\/p>\n

\"Davina<\/p>\n

I went to the source of all makeup information on the web, YouTube. \u00a0I discovered a huge community of ladies and gentlemen covering every aspect of makeup from amateur to pro, young to old, dry skin to oily, deep to pale. There is practically something for everyone! \u00a0I was so inspired I even tackled a #31DayBellyDanceMakeupChallenge<\/a> and put the evidence up on YouTube.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
One of the things that many of these YouTubers were suggesting to \u201cnew to makeup\u201d viewers was signing up for a beauty subscription service or two. \u00a0When more than a dozen folks suggested the same things, I decided it would be a great idea. \u00a0So I signed up for several different services throughout the year.<\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.ipsy.com\/<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"My<\/div>\n
\n
I began with Ipsy and Birchbox at the beginning of the year. \u00a0At first, Ipsy was a ton of fun! \u00a0I got a cute little bag, lots of interesting samples from brands I hadn\u2019t heard of, lots of indy and indy brands that I wouldn\u2019t have experienced without their service. \u00a0Birchbox, however, seemed to send higher end products, randomly chosen, that didn\u2019t suit my needs or lifestyle. \u00a0But worst still, in three months, I received boxes with broken items. \u00a0When I received the third box with breakage, I decided it was too much hassle to get broken things replaced, and really, in three months, there wasn\u2019t a single Item in a box that I wanted to rebuy.<\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.birchbox.com<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

So I canceled Birchbox and joined the mailing list to get the Sephora Play Box. I also purchased a Target beauty box. \u00a0I REALLY liked the Target beauty box, but it sells out within MOMENTS of being on their website. \u00a0It\u2019s not a subscription service, so you have to know when it\u2019s going on sale and jump immediately. \u00a0I tried to get two more\u00a0and failed both times. \u00a0Target Beauty Box, you\u2019re just too inaccessible for me! \u00a0I still continued on with Ipsy, going to their site, answering their questions to try and steer the products towards my needs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"My<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
In the summer, after waiting many months, I finally got into the Sephora Play Box. \u00a0I love Sephora, it\u2019s like a temple to the gods of makeup, and their employees are their acolytes helping people find their inner glamazon. However, after receiving the Sephora box twice, I realized that it was just a little\u00a0too rich for my blood. \u00a0I loved trying the products, but I wasn\u2019t going to be buying a $40 cleanser or $80 moisturizer! It was fun to get, but it wasn\u2019t progressing my quest to find products that I would actually repurchase. Although Sephora Play is the same price as Ipsy, it’s geared to folks with bigger budgets!<\/div>\n
http:\/\/www.sephora.com\/play<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"Sephora<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
In late summer, I decided to try Boxycharm. \u00a0The appeal of this service is that you pay a little more, but then\u00a0you receive full sized products. From the very beginning it was a great box for me. They sent a nice combination of products, most of which I would definitely enjoy using, even if I decided never to repurchase, I could really try a skincare or hair product long enough to know if I like it. \u00a0Most of the items are on the pricier side, so I probably won\u2019t try most of them, but when a box is sending full-sized eyeshadow palettes, you\u2019re getting a pretty good deal. \u00a0I pre-bought half a year, when it\u2019s finished, I\u2019m going to let it lapse because I\u2019ve resorted to giving my friends these full sized\u00a0makeup eyeshadow palettes!\u00a0https:\/\/www.boxycharm.com\/<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"Contents<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
So here I am, it\u2019s January 2017 and my year of makeup quest has ended. \u00a0So today I canceled my Ipsy subscription. \u00a0After a year of Ipsy, I realized that I didn\u2019t \u201cfind\u201d anything I want to repurchase! \u00a0I also seemed to collect\u00a0an epic collection of mascara minis,\u00a0hand cream samples, and eyeliners to work through! \u00a0I found myself giving way so many things I simply don\u2019t use in my world,\u00a0like nail polish and sheet masks. \u00a0I got a lot of oddly incompatible products. I wound up giving the curly hair products to my curly hair friends.\u00a0The skin-care samples were too small to use for any length of time to see if they would work.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

While I initially loved the little bag that comes with every Ipsy mailing, I found myself being overrun by these little bags. Some were cute, but others were not to my taste, and all of them were about the same size. \u00a0I only need a few bags in that size, so\u00a0I found myself giving them away at the holidays filled with mini and full sized products I received throughout the year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Things<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Overall, what I learned is that I would rather have that $10 – $20 cost of the subscription in my makeup budget so I can\u00a0choose exactly what I want and need for my collection.\u00a0The tiny thrill of opening an unknown package in the first quarter of the year, by August had\u00a0turned to an overwhelm of samples and minis. I now have a bowl of samples sitting in my living room waiting for friends to visit and partake, like a calorie free candy bowl for makeup lovers!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What journey am I on this year?
\nI\u2019ll let you know in a few weeks once I dial into my 2017 quest!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here\u2019s wishing you glamor in 2017!<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
Dawn Devine ~ Davina<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
January 15, 2017<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>

…And Why I Gave Up On Beauty Subscriptions 2016 was my year of upping my makeup game. \u00a0I went on a quest for the most perfect, holy grail, ride or die products that would work perfectly with my skin type, harmonize with my coloring, and fit my budget. \u00a0On the daily, I am a minimalist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-makeup"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/IMG_4605.jpg?fit=504%2C504&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YZtR-16L","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4263"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4288,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4263\/revisions\/4288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davina.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}