Anti-Haul #1 | Shit I'm Not Gonna Buy
Like most beauty bloggers, my blog is definitely guilty of supporting a "buy, buy, buy" mentality. I've already tried putting myself on self-imposed spending bans multiple times this year but it never seems to work out. Fortunately I have set a monthly budget for myself and that works for me much, much better.
One thing that's become increasingly popular are anti-hauls. I believe the queen of the movement is youtuber Kimberly Clark (if you don't watch her channel yet, I highly recommend it! Not only does she chat about makeup but she also chats about various social issues.) And since my last post was a rather indulgent haul, I figured what better time to post my first anti-haul!
A little disclaimer, just because I don't like or want a product, doesn't mean I'm hating on you if you do. We've all got different tastes and that's what makes us interesting and unique individuals ✌
Jeffree Star Androgyny Palette
If you haven't heard about Joffree Star, the big bad bully ofWesteros the online beauty community, girl, where have you been? I've never tried any of his products before and now I never will. (And if you're wondering what he's done-- he's said plenty of misogynistic and racist things throughout the years. In more recent times, he has bullied customers who have negative things to say about his products and amongst other things has told them to go kill themselves.)
Kylie Kighlighters or whatever the fuck they're called
I'll start off by saying that I was biased against Kylie's line from the start because I don't like the Karjenner clan to begin with.
But I can put my bias towards the Karjenner clan aside and say that some of Kylie's products truly appeal to me! She has some gorgeous looking liquid lipstick colors and the colors in both her holiday and burgundy palettes called out to me. I've never purchased anything from her because of all the reports of quality inconsistency, plus I have no interest in paying an $8 shipping fee.
Nothing about these highlighters appeals to me. The colors aren't new, the packaging is some cheapo cardboard, half the swatches look almost identical, and they look glittery af. No thanks. You know these are going to sell out when they're first released, further adding to the hype 😒. They haven't announced the prices yet but I think it's safe to say they'll be around the $30-$40 mark (not even counting shipping!) and at those prices you could buy a Becca highlighter, the KVD alchemist palette, a Hourglass strobing powder, or an Urban Decay afterglow highlighter-- all brands and products that are much more easily accessible and highly rated for their consistent quality.
Nicole Guerriero x Anastasia Beverly Hills
I love highlighters as much as the next makeup junkie, but do we really need yet another highlighting palette with 6 different colors? It's so unnecessary. While I appreciate the intent of appealing to a wider range of skintones, at the end of the day few people are going to be able to wear every single color in the palette. Unless you're a makeup artist one or two of the pans are going to go unused.
On top of that the last limited edition 6 pan highlighter palette from ABH did not get favorable reviews. It was apparently filled with chunky glitter and tons o' fall out.
Last but not least, it's an influencer collaboration. I have nothing against Nicole Guerriero or ABH but if history has taught us anything, influencer collabs are usually lacking in the quality department. Brands rely on the guru's fan base and name recognition to sell products as opposed to quality (*cough**cough* Too Faced Nikki Tutorials Collection.)
Trendmood x Ciate
Trendmood is another blogger that I don't have any interest in supporting. While I do enjoy seeing beauty spoilers and sneak peeks, I'm not interested to if it's hurting someone. People spend months developing a product, coming up with a marketing campaign, designing packaging and then the reveal is ruined because someone decided to spill the beans on Instagram. Temptalia shared her thoughts on it over on reddit and I couldn't agree more.
Furthermore, Trendmood has a habit of stealing other blogger's images, slapping her watermark on it, and claiming it as her own. It's not cool to steal from your fellow content creators.
Also like the Nicole Guerriero X ABH palette, I'm dubious about the quality since it is another blogger collaboration.
Too Faced Peanut Butter & Honey Palette
I've only bought two things from Too Faced throughout the years and despite loving both of them, I've never bothered to try more from the brand. Their quality is so inconsistent and most of all I hate their limited-edition-overhyped-and-sold-out game. It starts off with hyping a product for MONTHS-- do we really need to know that an eyeshadow palette is going to be coming out in 8 months? No. Then once the release happens it sells out so fast because people are afraid they won't be able to get their hands on it later since it's limited edition. Then reports come in that the quality is mediocre and some people are left regretting their purchases. Lastly they report that surprise! they're bringing the palette back but it's still totally limited edition and omg amazing and omg you need to go buy it right now!
The peanut butter & honey palette is their latest scheme and I'm not gonna buy into it. Nope, no thank you, not happening.
Nars Highlight Palette
I'm a massive Nars fan girl-- they're hands down my favorite makeup brand of all time (even if their face products tend to irritate my skin 😣.) But they're way too late to the highlighting palette game. If they had released this palette a year ago, I would have been all over it. Now it gets lost in an oversaturated highlighter palette market.
If you already own some highlighters, ya don't need this.
Anything May Lindstrom
If you're present in the skincare community on IG, you may have heard about the brand May Lindstrom as well as her recent price hike. I'll totally admit that before a month or two ago I had never heard of the brand and even after I did, I didn't look into it much after briefly viewing their prices (her famous blue cocoon thingy is almost $200 😨)(although the ridiculous prices kind of appeal to the bougie spendaholic in me 🙈.)
For me and my budget, brands like Drunk Elephant and Sunday Riley are considered splurges. If I wait, I can occasionally get them on sale at retailers like Sephora or Dermstore. In addition, I can easily get samples to test them out to find out if they're worth the splurge or not for me. The only way I can get a May Lindstrom sample is if I hop on over to Barney's in the city and ask for one-- and I know I'm way too shy to do so.
There are soo many other indie green beauty brands that have much, much more accessible prices that I don't see myself ever buying any May Lindstrom products.
If you're looking for more affordable but still luxury, indie (I use that term rather loosely), natural brands to try out (that also happen to be popular on Instagram) check out Leahlani Skincare, Mun Skin, Josh Rosebrook, Jordan Samuel Skin, Pestle & Mortar, Indie Lee, Herbivore Botanicals, Farmacy Beauty, Drunk Elephant, Kypris Beauty, Root Science, Captain Blankenship, Fig + Yarrow, and more. The list literally goes on and on.
Glamglow Gravitymud Mask
Two things: this mask looks so freakin' cool and I've totally bought into the glamglow hype in the past. It doesn't matter how many times you tell me there's nothing special in their supermud clearing mask, I'll still continue to use it because I'm so satisfied with the results-- it seriously sucks out all the gunk from my pores.
The first reason I won't be buying this mask is because their jar packaging is no good. I don't mind jar packaging when the product inside stays fresh, but every full sized and travel sized jar of Glamglow I've ever bought has dried up on me. This includes their supermud, thirstymud, and youthmud.
Second reason I won't be buying this mask is because I'm convinced it's more fun than it is effective. I'm all for skintertainment but not at a $70 price tag. The ingredient list on this mask is superbly lackluster. The first 6 ingredients are all solvents (and one of them is denatured alcohol 👎) and the 7th is witch hazel. Perhaps this will be effective for someone with more aged skin but even then I have my doubts. As someone entering my mid-20s, I'll stick to using sunscreen, properly moisturizing my skin, and using actives over a fun but useless silver, peel off mask.
If you're interested in this mask for pure skintertainment value, check out this similar looking one by bonvivant. It also turns a silvery color and you can peel it off.
Sunday Riley C.E.O. Cream
If you follow me over on Instagram (@sharmtoaster) you've probably already heard about my dislike of this cream. $65 for a Vitamin C cream that's packaged in a jar is silly. Like the glamglow, the jar packaging of this inhibits the product from staying fresh. Vitamin C is a sensitive ingredient and constantly exposing it to air and light ain't gonna help it stay fresh. Perhaps that's why this stuff only has a 3 month shelf life!! (Most creams have around 12.)
The sample I had irritated my skin but that's just me.
Farsali Rose Gold Elixir + Unicorn Poop
I'm honestly shocked to see this being sold at Sephora.
I guess I've been following beauty blogs for long enough to spot bs from a mile away. From the first time I saw one of those insta-gurus over-exaggeratingly dropping oil onto their beauty blenders, I assumed the brand was a scam. There's no way I am going to pay $54 for rosehip oil with gold flecks in it. There's no scientific evidence backing the claim that gold benefits our skin (although I admit to owning a few gold skincare products 🙈.) In fact, if anything gold can have negative effects on your skin!
And the unicornpoop essence? It's not colored because of the acai berry or goji berry extracts, it's colored because it's filled with various dyes-- not something I'm looking for in a skincare product.
Fin
And that's it for my first ever anti-haul! It was surprisingly satisfying to shittalk all these products. I feel like I could take a trip to the mall and walk right by Sephora without stepping in!
What products are you not gonna buy?
P.s there's still a few days to enter my giveaway over on Instagram 😏
One thing that's become increasingly popular are anti-hauls. I believe the queen of the movement is youtuber Kimberly Clark (if you don't watch her channel yet, I highly recommend it! Not only does she chat about makeup but she also chats about various social issues.) And since my last post was a rather indulgent haul, I figured what better time to post my first anti-haul!
A little disclaimer, just because I don't like or want a product, doesn't mean I'm hating on you if you do. We've all got different tastes and that's what makes us interesting and unique individuals ✌
Jeffree Star Androgyny Palette
If you haven't heard about Joffree Star, the big bad bully of
Kylie Kighlighters or whatever the fuck they're called
I'll start off by saying that I was biased against Kylie's line from the start because I don't like the Karjenner clan to begin with.
But I can put my bias towards the Karjenner clan aside and say that some of Kylie's products truly appeal to me! She has some gorgeous looking liquid lipstick colors and the colors in both her holiday and burgundy palettes called out to me. I've never purchased anything from her because of all the reports of quality inconsistency, plus I have no interest in paying an $8 shipping fee.
Nothing about these highlighters appeals to me. The colors aren't new, the packaging is some cheapo cardboard, half the swatches look almost identical, and they look glittery af. No thanks. You know these are going to sell out when they're first released, further adding to the hype 😒. They haven't announced the prices yet but I think it's safe to say they'll be around the $30-$40 mark (not even counting shipping!) and at those prices you could buy a Becca highlighter, the KVD alchemist palette, a Hourglass strobing powder, or an Urban Decay afterglow highlighter-- all brands and products that are much more easily accessible and highly rated for their consistent quality.
Nicole Guerriero x Anastasia Beverly Hills
I love highlighters as much as the next makeup junkie, but do we really need yet another highlighting palette with 6 different colors? It's so unnecessary. While I appreciate the intent of appealing to a wider range of skintones, at the end of the day few people are going to be able to wear every single color in the palette. Unless you're a makeup artist one or two of the pans are going to go unused.
On top of that the last limited edition 6 pan highlighter palette from ABH did not get favorable reviews. It was apparently filled with chunky glitter and tons o' fall out.
Last but not least, it's an influencer collaboration. I have nothing against Nicole Guerriero or ABH but if history has taught us anything, influencer collabs are usually lacking in the quality department. Brands rely on the guru's fan base and name recognition to sell products as opposed to quality (*cough**cough* Too Faced Nikki Tutorials Collection.)
Trendmood x Ciate
Trendmood is another blogger that I don't have any interest in supporting. While I do enjoy seeing beauty spoilers and sneak peeks, I'm not interested to if it's hurting someone. People spend months developing a product, coming up with a marketing campaign, designing packaging and then the reveal is ruined because someone decided to spill the beans on Instagram. Temptalia shared her thoughts on it over on reddit and I couldn't agree more.
Furthermore, Trendmood has a habit of stealing other blogger's images, slapping her watermark on it, and claiming it as her own. It's not cool to steal from your fellow content creators.
Also like the Nicole Guerriero X ABH palette, I'm dubious about the quality since it is another blogger collaboration.
Too Faced Peanut Butter & Honey Palette
I've only bought two things from Too Faced throughout the years and despite loving both of them, I've never bothered to try more from the brand. Their quality is so inconsistent and most of all I hate their limited-edition-overhyped-and-sold-out game. It starts off with hyping a product for MONTHS-- do we really need to know that an eyeshadow palette is going to be coming out in 8 months? No. Then once the release happens it sells out so fast because people are afraid they won't be able to get their hands on it later since it's limited edition. Then reports come in that the quality is mediocre and some people are left regretting their purchases. Lastly they report that surprise! they're bringing the palette back but it's still totally limited edition and omg amazing and omg you need to go buy it right now!
The peanut butter & honey palette is their latest scheme and I'm not gonna buy into it. Nope, no thank you, not happening.
Nars Highlight Palette
I'm a massive Nars fan girl-- they're hands down my favorite makeup brand of all time (even if their face products tend to irritate my skin 😣.) But they're way too late to the highlighting palette game. If they had released this palette a year ago, I would have been all over it. Now it gets lost in an oversaturated highlighter palette market.
If you already own some highlighters, ya don't need this.
Anything May Lindstrom
If you're present in the skincare community on IG, you may have heard about the brand May Lindstrom as well as her recent price hike. I'll totally admit that before a month or two ago I had never heard of the brand and even after I did, I didn't look into it much after briefly viewing their prices (her famous blue cocoon thingy is almost $200 😨)(although the ridiculous prices kind of appeal to the bougie spendaholic in me 🙈.)
For me and my budget, brands like Drunk Elephant and Sunday Riley are considered splurges. If I wait, I can occasionally get them on sale at retailers like Sephora or Dermstore. In addition, I can easily get samples to test them out to find out if they're worth the splurge or not for me. The only way I can get a May Lindstrom sample is if I hop on over to Barney's in the city and ask for one-- and I know I'm way too shy to do so.
There are soo many other indie green beauty brands that have much, much more accessible prices that I don't see myself ever buying any May Lindstrom products.
If you're looking for more affordable but still luxury, indie (I use that term rather loosely), natural brands to try out (that also happen to be popular on Instagram) check out Leahlani Skincare, Mun Skin, Josh Rosebrook, Jordan Samuel Skin, Pestle & Mortar, Indie Lee, Herbivore Botanicals, Farmacy Beauty, Drunk Elephant, Kypris Beauty, Root Science, Captain Blankenship, Fig + Yarrow, and more. The list literally goes on and on.
Glamglow Gravitymud Mask
Two things: this mask looks so freakin' cool and I've totally bought into the glamglow hype in the past. It doesn't matter how many times you tell me there's nothing special in their supermud clearing mask, I'll still continue to use it because I'm so satisfied with the results-- it seriously sucks out all the gunk from my pores.
The first reason I won't be buying this mask is because their jar packaging is no good. I don't mind jar packaging when the product inside stays fresh, but every full sized and travel sized jar of Glamglow I've ever bought has dried up on me. This includes their supermud, thirstymud, and youthmud.
Second reason I won't be buying this mask is because I'm convinced it's more fun than it is effective. I'm all for skintertainment but not at a $70 price tag. The ingredient list on this mask is superbly lackluster. The first 6 ingredients are all solvents (and one of them is denatured alcohol 👎) and the 7th is witch hazel. Perhaps this will be effective for someone with more aged skin but even then I have my doubts. As someone entering my mid-20s, I'll stick to using sunscreen, properly moisturizing my skin, and using actives over a fun but useless silver, peel off mask.
If you're interested in this mask for pure skintertainment value, check out this similar looking one by bonvivant. It also turns a silvery color and you can peel it off.
Sunday Riley C.E.O. Cream
If you follow me over on Instagram (@sharmtoaster) you've probably already heard about my dislike of this cream. $65 for a Vitamin C cream that's packaged in a jar is silly. Like the glamglow, the jar packaging of this inhibits the product from staying fresh. Vitamin C is a sensitive ingredient and constantly exposing it to air and light ain't gonna help it stay fresh. Perhaps that's why this stuff only has a 3 month shelf life!! (Most creams have around 12.)
The sample I had irritated my skin but that's just me.
Farsali Rose Gold Elixir + Unicorn Poop
I'm honestly shocked to see this being sold at Sephora.
I guess I've been following beauty blogs for long enough to spot bs from a mile away. From the first time I saw one of those insta-gurus over-exaggeratingly dropping oil onto their beauty blenders, I assumed the brand was a scam. There's no way I am going to pay $54 for rosehip oil with gold flecks in it. There's no scientific evidence backing the claim that gold benefits our skin (although I admit to owning a few gold skincare products 🙈.) In fact, if anything gold can have negative effects on your skin!
And the unicorn
Fin
And that's it for my first ever anti-haul! It was surprisingly satisfying to shittalk all these products. I feel like I could take a trip to the mall and walk right by Sephora without stepping in!
What products are you not gonna buy?
P.s there's still a few days to enter my giveaway over on Instagram 😏