I was so excited to see that my local store got in the new Define jackets! I’m happy to report that the new Define jackets fit the same as the ones I currently own. The color offerings, however, did not excite me into purchasing one. The colours being offered are Bordeaux Drama, Tri Geo Inkwell, and an almost white “Blush” color. I can not wear white. Invariably, I will spill some tea or cola on it, ruining it- and my whole day- all at the same time. I already have a Plum Dance Studio Jacket and I find that Bordeaux Drama and Plum are very similar, so, although I was tempted by the Bordeaux Drama Define Jacket, I do not need more Bordeaux Drama in my life. I really loved the fabric of the Bordeaux Drama Define jacket, and it is worth noting that the fabric in the Bordeaux Drama Define was considerably different than the Tri Geo Print one.
Here’s the Fabric Content of the Bordeaux Drama Define Jacket
This Bordeaux Drama Define label says “87% Supplex,” while the Tri Geo Print one said “82% Polyester” for the “Self” (main) portion. I could tell before I even looked at the tags, however, that the fabric content was different. The Bordeaux Drama one felt much softer, like the Luon to which I’m accustomed. Supplex (87% Nylon, 13% Spandex) is a fabric that is commonly used in athletic wear for its cottony feel, but high durability.
Define Jacket 2014 Hang Tag
This year they’re priced at between $108 (Bordeaux and Blush) and $118 (Tri-Geo), which is upwards of a $20 price increase from the $98 they were two years ago when they were phased out. I LOVE all my define jackets (I have 4), and think that they’re totally worth it, but I could understand if some people were upset by this. Honestly, I find that Lululemon does this rather frequently, so as to surreptitiously increase the price, they’ll phase something out- only to have it re-appear later at a higher price point, or they change the design slightly, call it “Insert Product Name Here 2” so that people feel as though they’re getting a better value. (Example: “Wunder Under Crop”, “Wunder Under Crop II”) I understand the concepts behind consumer pricing models, and feel as though they’re maximizing their utility with the methods they employ, so I am not about to complain. The company itself is able to sell 95% of its merchandise at full-price, unlike other companies, so it’s clear to me that their pricing methodology is working.
Tri Geo Print Define
I really hope that this helps you when you’re choosing what to get this evening when the new Define Jackets upload! Let me know what you think about the price increase, and the fit if you’ve had a chance to try them on.
PS: If you want to know more about the differences between the Define Jacket and the Forme jacket click here!
I must first admit that I’m a little spoiled when it comes to brushes. I love makeup brushes and have quite a few sets of them. I think that makeup is art, and in order to improve and perfect the practice of makeup application you must have the proper tools at your disposal, so I have invested in some core pieces and have tried numerous brands to that regard. My favorite brushes are my Mac brushes. They range in price from around $20 to about $40. They’re worth every penny and on top of doing a fantastic job, they also make me feel like a pro! Ok, I know that’s not super tangible, but I kind of love it.
The Body Shop’s brushes come in an adorable travel bag that would fit some extra goodies of you were so inclined. I would definitely take these on vacation with me, using the extra space in the bag for cosmetics. I love the bag. It has adorable little phrases on it. And it has a pocket and slots that the brushes fit into.
I used the brushes today to do my makeup, and I wanted to give my honest take on them. I like the design. They’ve got this conical shape to them that is quite nice and they have a decent weight to them as well. The concealer/ lip brush, face brush and shadow brush all have very soft synthetic fiber bristles, and feel very nice on the skin. I used the face brush to do face powder and I felt like I had a hard time grabbing enough for full coverage. I think this brush would work great for highlighting, bronzer or anything else that you want to build. I used the lip/ concealer brush for concealer and it worked well for application, and I blended it out with a different brush. It worked well, but it wasn’t amazing to me. Maybe it would work better as a lip brush. I have a retractable one that I really like, so I think I’ll keep this one for concealer. I used the eye shadow brush for my crease and am most impressed with this one. This one actually will be replacing the brush I normally do my crease with: it picked up product with ease, was easy to use, and was effective at packing the shadow. I really liked this one. The brow brush worked well, but the lash brush has plastic bristles, and like I said: I’m spoiled. I have this fabulous Tweezerman one that has a metal brush and it kind of works amazing. This one worked OK, but it didn’t impress me. Over all, I would actually say that for sure this set is worth the money and right now The Body Shop is having a holiday sale where you can pay $25 with your $30 order for the set- so that makes it even more tempting, but apart from the shadow brush, I wasn’t ‘wowed’ by any of these. I hope you’ve found this review helpful. Thanks for reading!!
I have been a loyal Ipsy subscriber since July 2013, well over a year. I just received my November Glam Bag and I have since cancelled my subscription. There are a few reasons why I cancelled, and I’m going to try to go over them one by one.
1. Exhaustive Repetition of Brands
I get these bags because I enjoy trying new brands, and I want to see if I like products so I can buy and enjoy the full sized versions. Unfortunately, Ipsy has sent me too many brands repeatedly for me to be excited about trying the products anymore.
I compiled the contents of my Ipsy Bags over the last 16 months and got the same brands over and over. For example, I received “Pop Beauty” 3 times, “Sexy Hair” 3 times, “NYX” 3 times, “Elizabeth Mott” 4 times and “Be a Bombshell” 5 times. There were several other brands I received twice or three times, and sometimes I even received duplicates of products I had previously received (as with Sexy Hair’s Hair Spray).
2. The Quality of the Brands
I think that either Ipsy is having a hard time finding different brands to work with them, or they court the cheaper brands because they think their customers would rather have a large sample from a “national brand” than a small one from a “luxury brand.” I would take the tiny sample from the luxury brand every single time. But Ipsy rarely features even modestly high-end brands or products. I’ve received a Benefit product a couple of times and Bare Minerals a few times, I also liked the Urban Decay liner I received and I got a Dr. Brandt skin product once… However, upon reading over my list of received products, it looks like each month I received on average either one or none of these products. For example, I do love NYX’s Butter Glosses, they’re pretty great. They’re inexpensive ($6-ish), come in cute packaging, and the formula is pretty much perfect. However, if I want one, I’ll just go to Ulta and buy one. There’s nothing special about getting one- even a full-sized one- in my Glam Bag. But that’s the type of thing that happens every month in my Ipsy bag. I would much rather get the mini “They’re Real” Mascara sample by Benefit, like I got in my July 2014 Glam bag, than the full-sized NYC Mascara that I received in my October 2014 bag.
3. Too Many Glam Bags
This is probably trivial, but I actually don’t love that they send a new cosmetics bag with every month’s Ipsy sampling. I have too many of them, and part of me is curious as to whether more money could be invested in sending out better products versus sending out bags that aren’t getting used all that often (or at all, by me, at least). I think that they’re cute, and of overall decent quality, but I’d rather they spend that two dollars on better, or at least different, brands. Considering the selections I’ve received- it seems as though they could use it.
Not even all of them.
4. Colour Selection
Having reviewed my Ipsy bags over the past little while (you know, 16 months), I noticed the “uniqueness” of many of the colours of eyeliner and shadow I received. I don’t mind trying something different now and then, but honestly, I don’t wear burnt orange eye shadow, orange nail polish or purple eyeliner regularly, Halloween, maybe… I’m also not super into brown lipsticks. Some of these products seemed like things that were not selling well for the companies, so they just gave them away.
5. Customer Service Quality
Back in July 2014, I received an Ipsy bag where one of my samples had exploded all over all my other samples and the “glam bag.” I was able to clean it all up, and salvage everything except the exploded sample. However, it turned the experience of receiving a Glam bag from fun, to a chore featuring wasted time and paper towels. The sample’s cap had not come loose, the packaging had actually come apart at the seams and was broken. I threw away the sample and contacted Ipsy’s customer service. They apologized and apparently sent me a new sample, which I never received. However, honestly, after the ordeal of having to clean their mess, I did expect more. I thought that perhaps, given the opportunity to make it up to me, that they would have sent me an entirely new box- so as to recreate the fun and excitement that is supposed to go along with the experience of receiving an Ipsy Glam Bag. (And after reading this tweet today, I guess I’m not the only one who thinks that’s the appropriate response) That experience is what ruined the brand for me- Ipsy used to be fun, now they were a brand that required me to clean up messes and didn’t send me the product that they said they would. (Or maybe they did and I didn’t receive it? Either way, I was still not a happy customer.) I did want to avoid comparing Ipsy to their competition, but given a situation in which I ended up using BirchBox’s customer service they just sent me a whole new box. They were extremely courteous about the whole thing too. In fact, I was able to chat with them on the phone, while Ipsy’s customer service is available via email only. I’m sorry, but they really set the bar for me, and when the bar is set high, you’ve either got to step your game up or quit playing.
I hope that Ipsy improves their customer service. Mine is actually a very mild example. I just didn’t receive a sample, I’ve heard stories about people not receiving their entire monthly order- or of it being delayed for weeks.
Note for people who do want to cancel: After you click “cancel” on their website (and they’ll ask you to confirm three times), don’t forget to click the confirmation email too. I made that mistake and remained subscribed for an extra month by accident.
What do you think about Ipsy? Are you a subscriber? Do you prefer the national brands or the higher-end ones- but smaller samples? Why are you subscribed and for how long? I would love to hear some opinions, maybe this is just me? 🙂
Thanks for reading!
I decided to include photos of my IPSY bags so that you could see all the brand repetition and products I received if you were interested.
Hello again! Like I said in my first ’empties’ post, this series is designed to mimic my favorite YouTube videos where Beaty Gurus show off the products they’ve gone through and describe their experiences of what they liked and what they didn’t like. Like I said before: since this is a blog, I may re-organize these at a later date to create categories, but for now, I’ll just be posting a few items at a time until I think I have enough to create “collections” of comparisons.
I got a sample of this in one of my makeup subscription box services. I believe it was BirchBox. The sample size is 20mL, and I got about 10 uses out of it, if not more. As with most of my products, I tend to be very sparing with my usage. Some might even call me stingy in that regard. But I would rather be regarded as miserly than wasteful. This product reminds me of other mid-range basic cleansers. The cleanser that comes with the Clarisonic when you buy it comes to mind. I would characterize this cleanser as relatively boring, but effective. My face felt clean after using it, but it wasn’t exciting or anything. I might actually buy this if it were cheaper, but $24 for the full-size of 150mL is too much when there are many other alternatives for basically the same price.
I really enjoyed this product. As I recall, I got it as a sample with purchase when I was buying my favorite mask: Clear Improvement. This sample size was only 15mL, but I got several uses out of it. Over 10 for sure. I really liked this product because even though it is abrasive, I really felt like it was exfoliating my skin. I felt as though I was able to get the rice starch particles all over my face, unlike other products which can be hard to maneuver. I would probably not recommend this to someone with especially sensitive skin, but I think this would work for most people. I’m not normally a fan of things that boast peppermint as an ingredient, but this exfoliator performs so well I can’t complain. I will definitely be considering this next time I need a new exfoliating cleanser. It’s $20 for 1.7 ounces on Origins.com, click on the title to buy. 🙂
I got 3 samples of this from Ulta for free with purchase. I got 2-3 uses out of each sample, so I feel like I got to try this stuff out enough to have a fairly accurate opinion. I really loved the way this stuff smells. It’s divine. It works well; I find that most shampoos, so long as they contain SLSs (sodium laur* sulfates) work well. Right now this is available on Amazon for $12. I thought this would cost more since it’s a salon quality product, however I find $12 to be very reasonable for 500mL (or 16.9 oz). I might get this in the future, but I have a ton of shampoos and conditioners left to try out and go through, so I have no plans to buy anything for now.
These samples came with the Shampoo ones and I got about the same number of uses. Again, this stuff smells amazing. However, I did not find that the smell was especially persistent after I got out of the shower. This works well, but not amazing, and I often found myself using another conditioner- either a hair mask or extra leave-in treatment in addition to this stuff in order to get my hair to be as soft as I would like. I would describe this as quite average and I would not buy it at any price. Yawn.
I got a free sample of this and got two uses out of it. I liked that this stuff isn’t greasy at all, but I loathed the smell. Again, if you read my blog, you’ll know that I do not like strongly scented products on my face, especially at night when I will have to live with it while I sleep, and this was no exception. I though the cream performed OK overall, but I would not be tempted to buy, especially for $50. There are much better products out there.
** 2 Stars
Repurchase: No.
So, overall, this time had a couple resounding “no”s, but that’s just the learning process, and I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to try out so many new products thanks to companies like BirchBox and Ulta. I hope my next post has some more “yes”s and valuable information for you all. Thanks for reading! 🙂
In case you missed it: Somerlea announced the triumphant return of a classic, yet indispensable design: The Define Jacket.
It’s hard for me to truly articulate how very much I have missed this design. Here are Britt’s Picks for next Tuesday, showcasing that the Define Jacket will be home for the holidays!
Some of you may remember my post about a year ago about the Define Jacket versus the Forme Jacket. If you’re used to the Forme Jacket, and you want to see what the differences are, you might want to check that out. I also wrote about the Define Jacket when I lamented how, although I was excited that the Savasana Wrap was coming back, I was also disappointed that the Define Jacket only received a small portion of the vote during the “Hey Lululemon” contest.
I can’t wait to see what colors come out & if the fit and feel are exactly how they used to be. I’ll make sure to post about this as soon as I see them in-store. Thanks for reading!
UPDATE: HeyLululemon.com has been retired by Lululemon as of May 16, 2016
