Subscriber Survey: How Do You Reuse Subscription Makeup Bags?

I currently did not have a plan for reusing the stack of bags I have just sitting in the closet… But after reading these comments I have lots of ideas! And a renewed faith in humanity. So many of yall are just so loving and giving. It’s really beautiful. And inspiring! I’m going to find something great to do with these extras I have.

I love most of my ipsy bags and I re-use them as mini travel makeup bags or my daily essentials, I used to use them to carry my menstrual pads (pretty discreet) before I switched over to the cup, and whenever I have a small handbag I’ll use an ipsy bag to hold my ID / money / credit cards.

While there’s no way I could reuse them all, my favorite little bags either become tiny purses to use on a night out, with just my phone, money/debit card, id, and lipcolor. Other bags I like go into my big bag to keep things organized. My makeup bag is from Fruit for Thought. My tampon bag is from Ipsy. My bag for little bottles of OTC’s is from Macy’s, and I have another bag with loose pills from LipMonthly. The Sephora bags, no. Not reusable imo.

I use mine for many things. I have an ipsy bag stashed in my desk drawer with tampons. I have other ipsy bags with feminine hygiene products in various bathrooms in my house and in my suitcase. I have a ipsy bag full of my iPhone charge & headphones in my purse. I have a ipsy bag holding jewelry in my suitcase. Practically the only thing I do not use my Ispy bag for is holding my makeup because my Clinique bag holds more of it. They come in pretty handy. My friend uses her’s a clutch purse.

1. On in my husbands and my glovebox with little packets of mustard, Siracha, s&p, ketchup, soy dauce, wetwipes, etc for those quick meals that is either blah or missing a condiment.
2. All my garden seed packs are stored in them veg vs flowers
3. Junk drawer for rubbernands, twist ties, etc
4. Sewing kits
5. “Soldiers Angels” non profit Women of Valor program where you send hygiene and other treats to deployed women (commissries to dont cater much to women). Slip in a perfume sample, hand lotion, etc. In my case a small candy lei too.
6. Great little packets to send my small granddaughters treats to remind them I love them.
7. Pushpins, butterfly clips, paperclips, thumbdrives, business cards I get from others
8. Dry Bags: for my car, bed, purse, gym bag, etc…lip balm, hand cream, eye drops, and small spray mineral waters
9. Clean Bags for my car and beach bag: small bottle of sample shampoo I don’t like for my hair, because in Hawaii there is neither hot water or soap in any of the public restrooms, several folded paper towels, a few hygiene wipes in a ziplock, mini tissue packet, toothpicks, Q-tips for inadvertent “racoon eyes!”
10. I’ve organized my husband’s backpack too, one bag for all his reading glasses, lol, his cords, and the million pens he collects. Obviously I try to give him bags that are solid colored, but his eye glass one has hearts on it to remind him who keeps him going 😉

If I don’t use them I often give them to family . I also regift them with items as Christmas stocking stuffers /birthdays, or give to nurses , caregivers , babysitters etc . I trade some in several makeup groups online . Often in these groups I add a bag to many orders . Sometimes I need to carry two myself for makeup and various personal items.

If it’s a bag that I like, I actually use them as my makeup bag for my purse. If I like the bag, and want to keep it I’ll use it to hold tampons, pads or randomness around the house. Otherwise, they are promptly regifted to others.

Wow! the posts on here make me feel bad. I do nothing noble with mine. I either swap or donate to thrift store. I never keep as I don’t use them.

I give all my Sephora play bags to my daughter who loves them for organizing stuff. The Ipsy bags that I like, I use to organize stuff in my big purses, hold my perfume samples, and for use when I travel. The ones I’m not keeping go with samples to a friend who takes hygene products to women and girls living on the streets.

I love getting the Ipsy bags. I’ve even swapped for a couple I didn’t have.

I regularly downsize my stash of subscription box items I won’t use or have duplicates of and create a random act of kindness package to send out. It’s a fun way to stay in touch with friends I don’t get to see that often or chat with. My college and high school age nieces/god daughters love getting the custom bags I’ve created. Fun mail is a nice change from the usual ads and bills. I use some to corral ear buds, flash drives, etc. in my purse and the living room. I’ve also donated the empty bags to schools. My best friend is an elementary teacher and she uses them in her classroom to store and organize small items and as prizes for the kids. She also shares with the other teachers. Those are my non-beauty product uses; I use my favorite bags to organize my make up. 🙂

I’m an organization freak…lol….so here’s a long list of how I use mine:

– I use a separate one for each of these in my purse: corral gift cards, store loyalty cards, receipts, coupons, emergency supplies, beauty items.

For the emergency supplies, I have a travel sewing kit that has scissors and buttons, bandaids, mini sharpie, eyeglass repair kit, mini bungee cords, bundle of paracord, waterproof matches and a small whistle.

-I use a separate one based on size for travel supplies: overnight trip, weekend trip, week long trip and month long trip (ok, that one is in a dopp kit) and then there’s the hair supply kit and the jewelry kit

-I use separate ones for every day hair supplies

-I organize makeup – my regular makeup is in my usual makeup bag but specialty/night out has a bag and I have a bag with “on decks” – what I will use next once I run out of what I’m currently using

-I organize my samples – each category has it’s own bag: eye cream, face cream, foundation samples, eye liners, blushes, brushes, hair care, etc I have a LOT of samples

-I organize my junk drawer, so sewing notions, random cords, zip ties, pencils, markers, etc – they all get their own bag

-I have a mini first aid kit in the glovebox (a larger one is stored in a hidden compartment in the trunk)

-I have a car “beauty kit” that has hand cream, lip balm, tissues, etc

So I literally have these things everywhere….and am always stuffing multiples of whatever in it’s own bag. There are times that I give them to the little girls in my life and fill them with goodies or use them to wrap gifts too.

I’ve got a problem…..lol

I use them to re-gift unused makeup. So handy for nieces and co-workers. Also, they are good little pouches for my couponing addiction.

3 are organizing things in my huge purse, a couple are organizing things in my bathroom drawers, I use them as wrapping for small gifts or swaps, my husband has one for his travel sized items, I donated a couple filled with samples for our silent auction at work, which only leaves about 6-8 sitting in a drawer.

My daughter came home from school one day with an Ipsy bag filled with different size feminine products—she had started her period at school that day & the school nurse gave it to her. The nurse told me that a parent in the community makes up little bags full of pads/liners/tampons and sends them into the school for the girls who need them. She thought it would be a great way for the girls to keep what they need in their backpacks. I was so happy to hear that someone did something so wonderful for the kids in our community.

the local middle and high schools in my area are full of homeless or below poverty level kids. the bags are donated so that the girls have somewhere to put their hygiene items ( provided by donations)) so they don’t have to miss school for 3-4 days every month. the more basic/universal ones are set aside for the boys to receive little care packages of a toothbrush toothpaste and deodorant.

they are also collected for the homeless( we have several large homeless communities) to be filled with chapstick, sanitizer and other small items

I would do almost ANYTHING to have an option to opt out of the Ipsy, Macy’s, and Sephora bags. Personal preference, of course, and my statement of what I prefer only.
It would be nice to get an extra sample, but just to not get the bags would make me very happy.

There are some places which are charitable but do not allow what we’d consider to be ” less than a brand new full size package or item” for donation. Someone had a great idea for assisted living bags and TOTM bags for womens’ shelters.
Neither of this type of facility in my area will accept anything less than a full box of pads or tampons. Things like socks have to have the factory staple thing in them, T shirts and other clothing has to be new with the hang tags.

The assisted living facilities don’t want anything brought in from outside unless it is from a resident’s family’s home.

Therefore, a great many of us with handy and usable things to donate inside the little bags cannot do so because it is classified as ” a sample” and samples are disallowed on the premise that the intended residents would feel ” less than” the rest of the purchasing public.
It’s a very elite area and they’ve hurt themselves with a lot of their restrictions. Now, I donate money ( which is what they really want anyway) and hope what the management buys in bulk does bring some smiles.

This is a great list. I’m definitely going to adopt a lot of these ideas!

When I’m going on a flight, I like to store all the small items I typically use while at my seat in a small bag. When I get on board, I take it out and am settled in instantly, rather than then searching through my big purse several times for all the little things I need over the course of the flight (tissues, medicines, pen/paper, eye drops, earphones, snacks). Julep’s “makeup the rules” bag is especially good for this because it’s big enough to hold my Kindle.

I love the idea of making up bags of makeup or hygiene products to give to women’s shelters. However, I’ve called a couple of local shelters (in Pittsburgh) to ask how to donate these, and I was told everything from “we don’t do that” to “we can’t take anything like that, we don’t have any storage room”!! In the end, I wound up mailing them off to organizations like Project Beautyshare.

I hope someone from IPSY is reading this because I’ve had quite a few ideas of how they could let subscribers NOT get a new tiny bag each month. IF they had a bag opt out button then maybe we could get an extra sample, or points. They could offer an upgraded larger bag, they could send a card case or small wallet or keychain instead. Just an idea 🙂

I store my mini perfumes in these bags.

Liz, this is finally a problem that you can control. Since (1) you receive a photo of the upcoming month’s ipsy bag ahead of time, and (2) ipsy allows you to put your sub on hold for the next month, from now on you can only receive the months that you think have a truly gorgeous bag.

The products themselves don’t matter – you and many of us live in product overload; ipsy has become a matter of whether you like the month’s cosmetic bag or not.

I only keep the ones that I think are pretty. When I travel, I take a whole bunch of them in both my carry on and my checked luggage. Each one holds some thing that should be corralled.

Day-to-day: One holds the charge cord and adapter for my iPad. One holds the flash drives I take to work. One holds the feminine hygiene supplies in my purse. One holds similar items at the office. One holds chapstick, hand cream, lipstick and compact in my purse. One holds duplicates of these items at the office.

The ones that I don’t think are gorgeous are donated to the county domestic violence shelter, along with the 26 travel-size bottles of hairspray and 14 black eyeliners that any woman with 2-3 beauty subs receives every year.

I’ve donated several with extra beauty samples that I won’t use or add extra samples from hotels of shampoo, soap , etc to shelters. I re-use Birch Box or Target Box by covering logo with scrapbook stickers/embellishments to make cute gift boxes.

I save them up and use some as gift card holders for teens at Christmas, other I use for storage.

A couple hold sorted makeup,a couple hold papers in my handbag and the rest I fill with the makeup I won’t use and gift them.

I use them to organize my makeup. I have a shelf in the bathroom with them all lined up. I try to keep the bags somewhat coordinated to what is inside… a lip one for lipstick, a gold glittery one for highlighter, a holographic for my Diamond Crushers, black for mascara, leopard print for eyeliner, pink for lip liner, etc. And all my red lip products are in a big red tri-fold bag. haha.