Hello to all of you beautiful nerds and welcome back from traveling the vast nerd universe! I am back with another post!

Thoughts About Ipsy Acquiring BoxyCharm

So, Ipsy has now acquired BoxyCharm! How can I count the ways? As in, what do I think? I do have thoughts!

Disclaimer!

This post is based on thoughts due to experience! Please respect the writer’s thoughts on this topic! You have been warned!

As you all know, I used to be subscribed to both Ipsy and BoxyCharm except they were completely separate from each other. Ipsy was just makeup bags and the basic bag just had deluxe size samples and Glam Bag Plus is the next step up with five full size items with more prestige brands. While BoxyCharm, on the other hand, is a box with five more luxurious brands even when I started back in 2015, I did have to unsubscribe for a few years until I resubscribed with my own money this time and enjoyed it for a bit until BoxyCharm bored me. I loved getting a new pallet every month but the other items really bored me. What I found weird was that they had profiles when I got back around 2019 and it felt like they didn’t listen to what I lied. I did suggest to them about shade selection for face products like foundation, concealer, and powder, even brow products! They listened to that! But not products I did not check off, which were false lashes. I canceled after getting them a second time. You already knew my story with Ipsy which had me leave Glam Bag X, which was their luxury bag or shall I say box where they sent me boxes without four items once. THen GB Plus was next and gave Glam Bag a few more chances until things got nuts with them. I am not the only one who left due to how the profiles were not being listened to much or just the product selection was not what it used to be and that was Alexandria Ryan. I saw her video where she canceled her original profile on camera and she pointed out how her profiles did not match and kept on getting some similar items in all three of her bags. I thought Ipsy was all about the profile, after seeing this video, I was astonished. 

So now, I find out that BoxyCharm was acquired by Ipsy and it has me worried! Yes, worried! How so? I will tell you!

How Will This Work?

Okay, first is the question in how will this work for both? I remembered with the GB Plus and GBX that you needed the basic Glam Bag to have the next two tiers up. Apparently with BoxyCharm joining in,, first Ipsy is getting a bit of an upgrade where not only you still get the five deluxe items but also still choose one item every month but there is one item they call the Power Pick. The Power Pick is either a brand or product that Ipsy chooses as the item that makes the subscription more oomf for the buck. I wonder how since the product choices during the last few months were not the greatest and that made the subscription kind of go downhill for me due to how some items were not my favorites. I was hoping to try some items but it was hard to choose from which made it more tedious. I did find it surprising that when one of my bags got lost in the mail the green eyeliner I picked was sold out but they gave me a gift bag with that eyeliner eventually. I was glad since I was getting tired of getting nothing but black eyeliners. But wait, there’s more! I was glad I watched Alexandria Ryan’s video about this subscription where Ipsy got rid of their Glam Bag Plus and Glam Bag X. The BoxyCharm by Ipsy is different from what I remembered when I subscribed and I think this took place of GB Plus because you get to choose three out of the five products and the two products are your last two items happen to be based on your profile and supposed to be the Power Picks. The Power Picks are spotlight items for that month. I have thoughts on this coming up after talking about how this works. Beauty Boost is basically their Premium Box basically and that is six items I believe? I never went to Premium since I felt I was already getting the same items in the base box. And finally, the Icon Box which is their quarterly box, which is basically both BoxyCharm Lux and Glam Bag X. It works like Glam Bag X where they pick someone who is iconic to curate the box every February, May, August, and November and you get eight full-size items choosing three of the items. The other five are chosen by the Icon and they match your profile.

Thoughts and Skeptics!

I am really skeptical, especially after watching Alexandria’s video it helped me get an idea of what they’re doing. When I saw Alexandria’s video, it seemed like they never changed their ways. What do I mean by that? As in, it feels like they don’t really customize it to your profile. I remembered when I first joined in 2014, I felt that my products did fit me and that it felt more personal with each bag. Then when I came back in 2018, before they started item choices, it felt personal still with each bag and once choice became a thing for all three tiers, it didn’t feel the same and that they were just adding items to just items. I felt the same way with Boxy where I was getting pretty good items and it was like Christmas where I didn’t know what I was getting until it arrived. Then when they started allowing people to choose things then that felt off where they did the same thing where they just picked things except not reading the profile the most. I am still mad about the false lashes because I did not check that off when it came to products I love to get, which I remembered checking off foundation, eye shadow, mascara, eyeliner, powder, concealer, lipstick, lip gloss, nail polish, and I believe hair care, and a few skin care items and lashes was the only thing not checked. Yet, they still sent them two times! What the hell? You already know my stance against them, especially after Lash Gate. So, I am really skeptical about the profile part because Ipsy is not only keeping their members but they are also getting the ones from BoxyCharm to cater to and that will take a lot of work to read everyone’s profiles and I have a feeling with this merger it will be extra overwhelming for them. I can imagine so many people complaining about products they get that are not what they wanted. The only complaint I had towards the end was how much skin care I was getting when I marked I was comfortable with makeup and not lying about it. I did see that Alexandria was getting repeats in her boxes since she gets more than one since she tends to do Adventurous, Regular Profile, and Skin Care but they sent repeat items in her boxes.. So, yeah that is making me more skeptical about the new boxes and that brings up the next point!

Items Being Missing!?

As you know, the major reason I canceled Glam Bag X is that I ended up having items missing. My May GBX had the NudeStix item I chose being missing and glad I got to try it all thanks to 21 Days of Beauty and then August, my birth month by the way, had half of my items missing! As my three choices were not in my box, well four items I chose and had to contact them and found out that the First Aid Beauty toner sold out. So, yes this is where the idea of them being overwhelmed comes into play with the amount of subscribers being under them and I have a feeling that products might end up being missing in the boxes out of nowhere, especially with Icon Box. When I notice something missing in my order is missing from Hot Topic or Ulta, they tell me over the phone if it could be replaced and if not, they just refund me and give me a gift card. Ipsy did give me extra points to use after what had happened but I think items might be missing.

Shade Matching Going Wrong

I am watching Alexandria’s video again at this moment and one thing I want to point out is that shade matching will be hell with face products and brow products. Alexandria got a brow gel from Anastasia Beverly Hills and it was taupe. I understand taupe is usually a universal shade for brow products but not for everyone since it can pull gray for most, with the shade of taupe is brown and gray mixed together. I’d rather get that as an eyeshadow or eyeliner. With the amount of people being subscribed will be hard with matching with shades and also one thing about profiles between the two, at least Boxy mentioned Light Medium as a skin tone and I think Ipsy needs to add that now because not everyone has a lighter skin tone and not everyone has a medium skin tone either, so there is that happy medium! And, with the idea of choice, I hope they keep the idea I gave to Boxy and that is to choose the shade if a concealer or foundation is chosen, 

That is it for this post. I was thinking of re-subscribing for shits and giggles at first but thank you to Alexandria, I see that they haven’t really changed with how they do things. I have a feeling things may go wrong due to the merger. THere are going to be so many people under each box that things may go haywire. I don’t get why they had to merge but to me they were stronger individually. I will see how these boxes live up, if they have to split then c’est la vie! Next post is my review on the last two books in the Winter of the Witch trilogy.