Hey guys! I am done my first semester of school! I am so happy to be done, the past couple of weeks have been super stressful. Now I have a lot of fun content planned for the next couple of weeks. First I wanted to share this review of a Netflix series that I watched. As some of you may know, I studied Communications at university. One of my favourite courses was my television course, so I really enjoy watching and reviewing tv shows.
Some of you might have already heard about this series on Twitter because it features Marlena Stell. While Marlena is a pretty controversial person within the makeup community, the series is not just about makeup. The series is an investigative documentary into the manufacturing and marketing of four huge industries: counterfeit makeup, e-cigarettes, cheap furniture and plastics.
I watched the first episode because it was about makeup, but I was so intrigued that I watched the rest of the series because I liked its narrative style. Every documentary has a narrative, and this one is quite interesting. The episodes are generally broken into four parts: background history of the issues, the current issue, how the issue is connected to another part of the world and then back to the USA and the future of the industry/issue. I found the background helpful for understanding the issue. Even the makeup one shared info I didn’t even know about the cosmetic industry!
I won’t spoil the series if you are interested, but I do want to share some things that really stood out to me. First, they interviewed Colourpop for the counterfeit makeup episode. It blows my mind that Colourpop has a five day turnover from having an idea to creating the product. No wonder they can have a new palette launch every week. I also found the fact that they talked about the scarcity tactic, of only releasing a few products to drum up demand, very interesting.
The vaping episode was crazy to me. Vaping has been all over the news the past couple of months, so it was good timing for them to have an episode focusing on the topic. A fact that really stood out to me was that 63% of teens that smoke Juul don’t even know it contains nicotine. I definitely recommend everyone, whether they use vapes or not, to watch this episode.
I have heard of fast fashion before, but never fast furniture. I never realized how dangerous and unsustainable furniture from IKEA is. They said that there is a death from furniture tipping over every 30 minutes. It’s crazy that a piece of furniture, that would easily be redesigned, is killing so many people. The episode really looks into the politics of the furniture industry. I found this episode extremely informational since I didn’t know much about the topic.
The final episode just really hit home something I think a lot of people already knew – that plastics are extremely bad for the environment. I keep on telling people this fact, but only 9% of the world’s plastics have even been recycled. I know that plastic is bad for the environment, but this episode really drives home the fact that big industries are doing so little.
I really liked the overall theme of the series, which was that it’s really up to the consumers to make a difference with our purchasing power. If there is no demand for the product, then the suppliers will have to cease production.
Anyways, I would recommend this series to everyone. Its an hour an episode, so that’s a great way to spend an afternoon over the holiday break!
xoxo
Lea
Leave it to Lea 