ipsy glam bag review | august.

1. Absolute New York You're The Bomb Lip Balm // 2. Coastal Scents Forever Blush Duo in 'Fresh' and 'Elegant' // 3. Lord & Berry Silk Kajal Kohl Pencil (black) // 4. Dr. Brandt's Pores No More Pore Refiner  // 5. Urban Decay Perversion MascaraThis month's ipsy bag was an interesting one. I was excited to see another Urban Decay product, but kind of disappointed with the quality of the other products that seemed like they could have been really awesome. The Urban Decay mascara is amazing, as I suspected. The only issue I have is that the brush holds so much product, so I really need to scrape it off on the edges before I use it on my lashes. The blush looked like it could have been good, but the formulas are chalky on the skin, which is disappointing. And though I understand that the whole point of ipsy is that everything is in a sample size, I find it really difficult to get a good blush brush into one half of the packaging they came in. The pore minimizer is okay. I have really huge pores on my cheeks and have yet to find a primer that will cover them up. I may not be the best judge on how well this product works for people with normal sized pores, but I found it to be kind of greasy and since it didn't really do too much for the visibility of my pores, I'm not sure how much I'll use it, but I will probably give it a few more tries.The eyeliner was a total disappointment. It said on the website that it is awesome for smudging and blending and the color payoff is awesome, but I disagree with most of that. To get the swatch on my wrist (below), I had to press harder than I ever would on my eye to get the color payoff that I did. The pencil drags, it's not a creamy formula, it's waxy, and I didn't try, but I can't imagine that after what it takes to basically scrape it on that it would blend or smudge in any way. In fact, to get it off my wrist with makeup remover took a lot. So at least the staying power is good if you're looking for a bright side. Finally, the lip balm is just alright. I am kind of a lip balm hoarder, so I will probably use it. I was concerned at first that the giant sparkles I noticed in the formula were going to transfer to my lips, but that actually wasn't the case. The balm smells like grapes and is pretty moisturizing, so it'll probably get thrown into my car or a bag and get used from time to time.