I love trying out new products, and subscription boxes are a great way to do them! Each month you get 5-6 sample sized products, sometimes including full-sized too, for $10-15.

I’ve been subscribed to ipsy and Sephora Play for a while now, and I’m finally unsubscribing to one of them today. Which one is it?

Read more to find out!

 

IPSY GLAM BAG REVIEW

Available from: ipsy

I didn’t get a chance to review last month’s Glam Bag, but I gotta tell ya, it was incredible. So of course I had high hopes for this one and, lo and behold, my expectations were met.

The only thing I haven’t tried from this bunch is the MUDMASKY Facial Detox Purifying Recovery Mask, which is a mud mask loaded with natural ingredients like premium montmorillonite clay, Moroccan lava clay, and Indonesian bamboo to hydrate, brighten, and smooth; and allantoin, which softens, cuts back on redness and dryness. So this sounds like a mud mask that’s safe for sensitive skin! I’m all for this!

As for the makeup, I’m so glad I got the IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Cream with SPF 50+. This is one of my top holy grail foundations and I’m travelling soon, so I’m happy I can bring this traveling with me.

I also got a travel sized Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in the shade “Quirky”, which got me so excited because I’ve been travelling with my full sized Tarte blush in “Captivating” as I don’t have a travel size of the shade. However “Quirky” is sooo similar to “Captivating”, as you can see in the swatches below. Now I can travel with “Quirky”! Woohoo!

I’m a huge fan of Lisa Frank’s designs growing up, so I’m honestly disappointed the cute leopard illustration isn’t on the actual packaging – it’s just on the box! Why, why, why? I actually don’t like the look of the purple packaging, and was hoping it’d have Lisa Frank’s design on it, but the product itself is nice, I like how smooth it is. Will need to play around with it more!

Lastly, the full-sized Jonteblu Lip Liner Pencil in Natural Beige is stunning! The color is almost an exact dupe of my holy grail Charlotte Tilbury lip liner in Pillow Talk as seen in the swatches above. However, it isn’t as long wearing as the Charlotte Tilbury (check out the swatches above on the right, I removed everything with a makeup wipe but only the Pillow Talk liner won’t budge! I had to use an oil based makeup remover to remove it). Considering the price, I’m not surprised. I still really, really like this lip liner and will definitely be using this a lot!

 

SEPHORA PLAY REVIEW

The past couple of Sephora Play boxes have disappointed me, and this one disappointed me yet again. We received six tiny samples this month, and it’s hard to believe that I had to pay $10 for these, some of which I could’ve received as free gift-with-purchase samples.

The Sephora lipstick is a beautiful red, perfect for the holidays! I don’t really have any complaints about this one.

The Marc Jacobs mascara is also pretty good, I’ve received a free sample of it before (yes, FREE – I didn’t have to pay a single dime for it) and tried it a couple of times. It didn’t blow me away so I was disappointed I got this again, and that I had to pay for it this time.

The Amika dry shampoo is nice, I’ve owned a full sized version before and I’m pretty glad I got a small one for me to travel with. This is my favorite one from the bunch.

As for the Philosophy Pore Extractor, I’ve never tried it before but what puts me off is the size. It’s so tiny it’s the size of my thumb and I would use this up in one use.

The Honey Drop Lightweight Moisturizer feels nice on the skin. I’m experiencing a lot of breakouts right now so I’m not looking to experiment with more skincare products, so I’ll have to try this out a bit later, but the size is pretty decent compared to the Philosophy.

Lastly, the My Burberry Blush perfume sample is the tiny-sized one you usually receive as free samples. I could get three, or maybe four of these for free, so why am I paying for these? Seriously, Sephora?

So, absolutely nothing blew me out of the water with this month’s Sephora Play, and I feel like I’ve been ripped off. It’s been this way for the past couple of months so I’m definitely unsubscribing.

 

FINAL VERDICT

I’m definitely unsubscribing to the Sephora Play.

ipsy’s Glam Bag will contain at least one full-sized product each month and the products are tailored to every one’s preferences whereas the Sephora Play is very generic (everybody gets the exact same things), and contains tiny sample-sized products that will only last a couple of uses.

Plus, ipsy’s bags are ALWAYS cuter and great quality whereas Sephora Play bags are cheap drawstring bags. I seriously don’t get it.

Anyways… I highly recommend ipsy!

What are you experiences with these two boxes?