Intro
I’m sure some of you are already aware of the IPSY bag in your life.
It’s a little box, about the size of a large coffee mug, that you might have seen on Instagram. It’s filled with beauty products and cosmetics from around the world. I think it’s pretty useful and attractive.
But… it’s not really for us (unless you REALLY want it to be). We don’t make these bags for us at all. We make them for people in Africa who can’t afford to buy their own beauty products. The main thing we do is inspire and encourage them to try our products and have fun doing it, so that they will love them as much as we do!
So, what makes this bag so special? Well, our goal is to help African women open their own beauty shops (once they are financially stable). Their shops will carry only our brand and sell only our products — as well as takeaways/food and other services. They will also be able to use credit cards so that they can pay for donations to their project or other causes they support!
We would like them to feel like international celebrities, so we designed bags which look exactly like the ones they wear at home — yet are entirely different, because the bag inside can keep the contents safe from being damaged by all those beautiful African women! They will be able to share their stories on social media this way too!
So that just shows you how important your goal is: what do you want? What does your business need? How can you help it get there?! This is why we need your support: by donating $40 or more you will get an IPSY bag delivered straight into your hands — this is known as “shipping from Africa!” You’ll also receive a full year’s subscription of our blog-style newsletter which includes tips on making your business more successful, tips on how best to market yourself online (including how to find keywords!), inspirational links and exclusive news about us! Donate $80 or more and you’ll get shipping from anywhere in the world (except Antarctica)! You’ll also receive a full year’s subscription of our blog-style newsletter which includes tips on how best to market yourself online (including how to find keywords!), inspirational links and exclusive news about us! If that wasn’t good enough, we’ve got lots more good stuff lined up including special discounts
What is the ipsy bag?
A few days ago Jana visited me at work and asked me what I was going to be getting for the ipsy bag (IPSY is the name of the bag). She is a co-founder of a startup called Outlier, which is trying to combine design, marketing, and tech. It’s a great example of the intersection between design and marketing because it’s building a product which does both.
In addition to having an interesting idea, we also need to have a compelling story about what it will be like for people to use it in order to get them interested enough in its benefits that they will tell their friends about it. The goal with Outlier is to create “smart threads” which display different design elements depending on whether they are relevant or not. This could be an animated GIF of one of your designs, or something else entirely :-).
You can read more about Outlier on their website: http://outlier.fm/ .
How to join ipsy?
I know a lot of people struggle to get into the ipsy bag, but it’s worth it. The ipsy bag is one of my favorite things and I’ve been on the waitlist forever! Here’s how you can join:
1. Sign up at www.ipsybag.com
2. Fill out this form with your email address, so we can get your ipsy bag info: http://www.ipsybag.com/join/form
3. Your information will be sent to you within 48 hours.
4. Don’t forget to tell us how much you love IPYS! 🙂
5. Also, if you’d like to submit a product for review in our app, here is what you need to do: http://www.ipsybag.com/submit-product-reviews-for-review
Items in january ipsy bag
So, our Januariespam is up and running. It costs a buck to get the article and link up front, so we’re currently in the process of reviewing the article and editing it for SEO purposes (this is my first time doing this). We’ve got a few changes underway:
We use Google Analytics for tracking unique visitors as well as traffic sources (which is kind of an industry standard). The site has been optimized so that it can be found by search engines too (so we don’t have to do any manual path finding).
We pay a little bit to have the JSA display on our site, but not too much. It really isn’t worth us spending money on this if it isn’t going to be viewed by more people than just current users!
My personal review on the items received
I received the January, 2017 Ipsy bag and was excited to see what it had to offer. I have been a member of the Ipsy beauty subscription for about 1 year now and have loved seeing the new products that are released each month.
For my first bag, I was incredibly excited to see a Clarisonic Mia 2 brush and some sample cleansers from Konstantin Tereshchenko. THey are both amazing and I definitely plan on getting them in the future.
Then there was the mystery bag which featured a Monsooner shampoo & conditioner, Neutrogena Nail Polish Remover & Nail Lacquer Remover & Marc Jacobs Lipstick in “Pour It On” (which is described as ‘a beautiful deep copper red with a hint of golden shimmer’), and a sample set of Too Faced Chocolate Bar Lipstick (which is described as having “a matte red brown”).
I am not sure why I love Chocolate Bar so much but the lipstick is just incredible, it has great coverage and makes me want to eat chocolate all day long!
Next were two new brushes from Le Bron-Lavoisier: a Blanc Pencil Brush in Blush Brush & Rouge Blender Brush in Flawless Foundation Brush . Both are very well made and do an amazing job of blending out my foundation on my face. One thing that is important for me when choosing brushes is how well they work with my makeup so this was definitely something that impressed me about these two – they blend very well! A few weeks ago, I got another surprise bag which featured Oh Sugar’s Charcoal Cleanser , Murad Acne Beads – Clear , Avène Gentle Cleansing Gel , L’Oreal Hypnose Moisturizing Shampoo & Conditioner . All three products are pretty good but what really made me excited about this month’s bag was the L’Oreal Hypnose moisturizer which manage to be more moisturizing than anything else I have ever tried before. This product has been discontinued by L’Oréal Paris but thankfully, they finally brought it back into their store!I like how soft this product feels on my skin after using it for awhile – you only need maybe a little too much if you don’t use it often. The Murad acne beads have been around since 2009 or later so it will take time for them to perform properly on my face but hopefully, they will start producing better quality
Recommendations on which items you should buy from the monthly ipsy bag (coming soon)
This is a personal recommendation, but I don’t think it is good to look at the IPYS bags to make recommendations; they are too specific and over-analyzed. Instead, you should look at the list of the 40+ products that are in the bag (sometimes there are several items in it). You can then look at how many people buy each of these products and compare them to how many people buy similar products on Amazon or eBay, etc.
If you want to find out more about the IPYS bags, take a look at this post by Gabriel Weinberg .