Anti Haul

If you venture outside of the more popular beauty gurus on  YouTube (and I'm sure most of us do), then you will more than likely be familiar with the concept of anti hauls.  For those of  you who have no idea what an anti haul is, it originated from Kimberly Clark, a drag queen, activist and anti consumerist. It's basically a list of products that you don't want to buy, for whatever reasons. Kimberly did her first anti haul back in November 2015 and they have really taken off on YouTube, with lots of content creators making these videos on a regular basis, so I thought I'd give one a try! I'll  link Kimberly/Chris's YouTube and Instagram at the end of this blog if you want to give some of the videos a watch, although I believe Kimberly is taking a hiatus at the moment as Chris is currently on tour.

So, cracking on, the first item I am not going to buy is the Anastasia Beverly Hills Soft Glam palette. On first glance, this palette is so pretty! The pink shimmer and the pops of orange are so beautiful, they would make a really pretty summery look and I do enjoy ABH eyeshadows.

Image: anastasiabeverlyhills.com

However, after a closer look, this palette is very neutral and there are a lot of brown shades which I will absolutely never use. There are also a couple of shades that are repeated from the Modern Renaissance palette which I already own, and they are shades that I don't particularly reach for.
I have seen it mentioned often about how great this would be for bridal work and to keep in a professional kit, but I completely disagree! Yes, the shadows are beautiful, they are pigmented and blend like a dream, but they are also small and very loosely pressed which means you go through them very quickly (I see Modern Renaissance used often on project pans because they are easy to finish). The packaging is also not kit friendly. At all. The velvet type finish on the component is lovely but it gets filthy almost immediately. It picks up dirt and fluff constantly, and because of the material it's impossible to clean. I took Modern Renaissance out of my kit for this reason, I don't feel professional showing  up to someone's home with minging products!

Image: uk.morphe.com

Next on the list is the Morphe x Bretman Rock Babe in Paradise highlighter palette. Oh boy, where to start with this one?
Firstly, the price is unreal. £29 for a Morphe palette is ridiculous in my opinion. Their products just do not warrant such a high price tag in my experience of the brand, customers are basically paying extra in order to give "beauty gurus" a pay cheque at this point. If you really want this then I don't think it will be long before the likes of Lick and Lash, Delanci etc release this.
Secondly, why do you want this? There are 6 shades in this palette of varying depths of colour. If you are pale, you won't be able to highlight with the deeper colours, and if you have a deep skin tone the light shades are going to look ashy on the skin. To use in your kit? No, Morphe is not a brand I'd want to see in a professional working artist's kit. Yes, you could possibly use the other shades as eyeshadows, but look at  your eyeshadow collection, do you already have shimmers that look like the shades in this palette? I have fallen into the trap of telling myself I'll use a palette like this as eyeshadow, and guess what? Never happened. I bought the Jeffree Star 24K palette, telling myself I'd use the pink one as a blush and the others as eyeshadows. I've worn one shade to death but the others remain untouched. I'm not a fan of face palettes that cover multiple skin tones unless it's going in my kit.

Image: urbandecay.co.uk

The Urban Decay Naked Petite Heat palette is up next! Cute? Yes. Shades that are super popular right now? Absolutely! But I didn't get the original Naked Heat palette, and this one appeals to me even less. The shades in this palette are slightly different to the original Heat, but not different enough that  you would necessarily need both palettes. There are six shades here, varying from a bone shade to a deeper reddish brown. All very basic colours that you probably already own in some form or another. Warm toned palettes are so popular right now, and although this is a good little palette for travelling, I am sick of seeing them now. If you haven't bought yourself a warm toned eyeshadow palette by now, you probably aren't going to. Sorry Urban Decay!

Image: allure.com

This one is hard for me to write, but I will not be buying the Kat Von D 10 year anniversary collection. It looks absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and you can see a lot of work has gone into the designs for the packaging and case for this collection but aside from the fact that I'd probably have to sell a kidney to buy it (a huge annoyance of mine is how Kat Von D Beauty don't tend to announce prices very far in advance), I don't know if this will be on sale at Debenhams yet (and I don't want to imagine the customs on this collection) and I wouldn't use a lot of it. The collection has a Tattoo Liner, two liquid lipsticks, a lipstick, a brush collection, eyeshadow palette, Metal Crush highlighter and makeup case. I'm not a huge fan of the Tattoo Liner, I really dislike the brushes from this brand and didn't enjoy the Metal Crush highlighting palette. Having seen the eyeshadow palette too, it appears pretty at first glance, but it's really nothing that special or anything that I don't already have somewhere in my collection. It would essentially be a very expensive makeup case and lipsticks for me!

Image: salutemag.com

Next up are the Fenty Beauty Body Lava and Fairy Bomb. I've not got round to trying anything from Fenty yet, and I have to admit it Rihanna, you almost got me with this glitter pom pom! The Fairy Bomb is a huge fluffy pom pom filled with glitter which you are supposed to pat over your body for some sparkle. Super cute idea, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. I think that this would take up a huge amount of space though, I'd probably never use it and it is pretty much a big teabag full of glitter for £34, so I will pass. Unless it goes on sale.
The Body Lava comes in at an even higher price of £46. It does come in a beautiful glass bottle, and you get a huge amount of product here, but are you really going to go through 90ml of glittery body oil in the two and a half days of summer we get in this country? No. I have also seen and read lots of reviews stating that as this is a body oil, it doesn't completely dry down and can stay quite tacky to the touch, which would drive me absolutely crackers! You can make your own version of this for next to nothing too - just pop some shimmery pigment into a body oil that you already have and apply it wherever you fancy.

Lime Crime have recently announced that they are releasing a fourth Venus palette. This is perhaps not surprising given the success of the recently launched Venus XL palette, and the previous Venus palettes which were very well received and some may argue that the original Venus palette kicked off the whole warm toned eye trend.Venus 2 was also quite a forward thinking palette at the time, and they both have colours that would work really well together if you owned them both. Venus 3 has me stumped. I don't understand why they've gone for a palette full of pink and purple shades - most of them shimmers. There is nothing versatile or groundbreaking about this palette, and while the colours certainly are pretty, you are absolutely going to need to incorporate another palette if you want to get more than a couple of looks from this. I do think that the Venus palettes have excellent quality shadows, but this is just a hard pass from me. If you want to try out the Lime Crime eyeshadow formula, then I'd definitely recommend picking up the Venus XL if you can!

Image: @mallybeauty Instagram

I'm going to finish up with something that I'm unlikely to buy (I daren't say for definite until we get more information though!) and that is the very recently announced Mally x RuPaul collection.
Ok, now I love drag, it's had an impact on me aesthetically, politically and socially. I'ts a big part of my life and of who I am. I applaud Ru for bringing drag into the mainstream and helping it to be much more socially acceptable and seen as less of a "freak show" than it used to be. That said, not only have I never tried any Mally products, I'm really not a huge fan of Ru. So unless this collection has the best packaging and shades I've ever seen, I reckon this is gonna be a bit of a "Sashay away" for me!


Kimberly Clark YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/kimclarkqueen
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimberlyclarkofficial/  https://www.instagram.com/chrisgiarmo/