My Ipsy Experience & Why I Cancelled
A few years ago, I subscribed to ipsy. I had always wanted to be part of a beauty subscription service, so of course ipsy would be the one to choose. I feel like they were the originals when it comes to beauty subscription services and at only $10, they were one of the most affordable. I received one of their glam bags every month for a little over a year before I finally decided to cancel my subscription. I wanted to share a little storytime post with you about my experience being subscribed to ipsy, why I cancelled, and my final thoughts about it all. This isn’t to say whether you should or shouldn’t subscribe to ipsy, it’s just to give you my honest opinion about the monthly glam bag service after being a part of it.
Every month, you receive a precious foiled pink padded envelope in your mailbox with your glam bag inside. The glam bag usually includes 4-5 samples, trial, or full sized products. When you first make your account, they have you take a quiz to personalize the products you’ll receive in your bag. Depending on your answers, different people will receive different items and they have a new bag design every month. The bags were always cute and fun to open, but then there’s not much use for them after that. They are great to use for other storage, but usually they just ended up at the bottom of a bin in a closet.
As far as the quiz I just mentioned that’s supposed to be personalized to the answers you choose, I don’t think it really is that personalized. Almost every single month I was subscribed to ipsy, I received a lip product. That’s fine if you’re a lippie junkie, but I’m not. I had mentioned that on my quiz and wrote it in several reviews -- you can review your products at the end of the month to get points, which leads to free products. I rarely use most of the lip products that they sent me and have even given some to my sister that I know I wouldn’t wear at all.
That was one thing that started to make me think I wanted to cancel was that I wasn’t getting the personalized bag that I was expecting and that my reviews weren’t being read by the staff to make my future bags more interesting for me. Not to mention that it feels like a waste of money when you don’t want to use all the items you received.
Then there were the few makeup items that I was extremely excited about, but disappointed in the quality. This wasn’t a good or bad thing as far as continuing my subscription. I had high hopes for these products (the ones in the picture below are some I found I still have buried in my collection), but I had to test them myself to understand why I didn’t like it. For example, I received a few eyeshadows that weren’t very pigmented, a couple eyeliners that I don’t have much use for (like gray and purple sparkles), and blushes and bronzers that were full of shimmer (my oily skin’s worst nightmare). However, this is what beauty subscriptions are all about. It gives you a chance to try products before you purchase the full-size.
Usually in each bag, there was probably just one product that I was absolutely obsessed with. I have a few nail polishes that I keep in my constant rotation, a Pacifica eyeliner that I would’ve never thought to try, and an It Cosmetics brow pencil that I didn’t ever think twice about purchasing. I am grateful for the products that I ended up really liking, but it seemed like it was always outweighed by the products I wasn’t happy with which is essentially what made me end up cancelling my subscription.
Looking back on my experience now, I am happy that I started somewhere in the beauty subscription world, but I do think I should’ve cancelled my ipsy sooner than I did. It’s great for young girls or for women who might not like to experiment much with makeup because it has such a low price point. I was just disappointed in the small products that I received, the amount of products that I ended up not liking, and feeling like I wasn’t getting my money’s worth. I did up the price point for a monthly beauty subscription service by switching to Boxycharm, but if you have seen any of my unboxings then you’d know I’m always blown away by the value of it and usually always happy with the products that I receive.
If you have any other questions about my ipsy experience or topics related to it, please leave me a comment below. Also, I’d love to know what your favorite beauty subscription service is and how long you’ve been subscribed to it! Hope you have a beautiful day! :)
~Christina~