Aired with perfect timing for those of us with a Black Friday hangover, today we watched the first few episodes of Broken on Netflix. The first episode is about the mass production and consumerism of beauty products and how this has driven the demand for a shadow market and crazy supply of counterfeit makeup.

It talked about the social media frenzy and scarcity marketing tactics and how it stimulates a crazy desire amongst shoppers. That sort of ‘I must accumulate all of these products NOW’ and that gross ‘more is more’ culture which I find kind of disgusting and rarely true.

In the doc, you see a market in LA with tables stacked high with rip-off products sold for a few dollars (Huda, MAC, Kylie etc etc) some of which, when tested, contained fecal matter (barf), lead, arsenic and all kinds of other stuff. There was an interview with a woman who had bought a knock off Kylie lipstick and having applied it it fused her lips together, it actually contained superglue, scary, scary shit.

I try (as a human woman who is not impervious to marketing and lovely products) to consume makeup moderately. For my kit, I buy only brands I know and love. For my face, I don’t buy the cheapest of the cheap and I wouldn’t buy off Ebay or FB marketplace etc. I consider texture and smell and ‘does this feel like I’m literally painting my face?’ More and more I try to support indie brands and formula’s that feel and look great.

Anyway, one of the experts talked about thinking of the three P’s when buying makeup if you’re ever unsure and I thought it was useful..

Place – Is this a reputable website? If it’s a marketplace site, you are much more exposed to fake and stolen stuff.

Packaging – Is the font fuzzy, is the colour off? Are there any spelling mistakes in the description?

Price – Is it half the price? Does it seem very cheap? Probs fake then, sorry!

Also, the second episode is about vaping, that shit is also banana’s..