De-influencing thread - reasons why NOT to buy things

[Whowhatwerewolf]

Like quite a few people on here I have been trying to reduce or eliminate buying new clothes or beauty treats in 2026. For the most part I've failed miserably but I'm going to keep trying. One thing that helps me greatly is being de-influenced from a purchase. Unfortunately I'm very easily influenced by advertisements but my saving grace is that I can be easily dissuaded from buying things also.

Recently two lovely posters (@Johanna and @Cortietat ) managed to stop me from buying overpriced Sweaty Betty pilates socks and a potentially somewhat wonky Eribé fair isle cardigan respectively by telling me what wasn't so great about these items. I'm so appreciative as this has saved me heaps of money. So I was wondering whether anyone else has anything they'd liked to be talked out of purchasing?

The idea is to post something on this thread that you're considering buying despite trying to save money via a no buy or low buy commitment or simply because you're not sure about a purchase. Other posters respond to say why you shouldn't buy. If anyone thinks what you're considering getting is the best thing since sliced bread and you should definitely proceed they keep quiet about it please as this isn't the thread for that.

So...is anyone in?

I was given a gorgeous VW dress from the....Anglo something range, cant remember the name and CBA to go upstairs to check. It was £600 new, worn once, and I was so shocked at the crappy quality of the fabric. It was polyester basically!. Lovely print but it was made to have a particular shoulder shape that was lost on (professional) cleaning.

I love her couture/bridal that you mentioned but I wouldnt bother buying any VW ready to wear, even though I covetted some things I saw for years.

Remove the appalling styling and its actually a lovely skirt.

But no way on earth is it worth £550! I am very much at the ultra budget end these days but back when I had money I wouldnt have expected to pay more than £50 for it. Classic case of paying for the name.

I bought this! Its crap!
Basically clear nail varnish.
Fuck all magical about it

Total waste of money. I used it 5 times and binned it a few weeks ago.

Purdy and fig is literally just weak essential oil with water added. It doesn’t clean and it leaves you with really smeared/streaky worktops. The smell lasts for about ten seconds after spraying it. The sellers are literally just sitting laughing to themselves every time anyone signs up (and then forgets to cancel their subscription)

A Dyson air wrap will damage your hair and you will have five years of regret as you grow out the breakage (if you ever can because you get past a certain age and your hair turns against you and decides that actually it is never again growing past shoulder length without going straggly and splitting off for no apparent reason)

HOW MUCH for a skirt?!?!?!?

£550 is more than my monthly mortgage payment.

It looks like a blue sack and your hair will get wrapped around the button on the back.

£29 for nail polish?

You are right, it's shockingly expensive for gold plate. The plating will wear off.

The only person it could suit has no tits and no hips and is basically a cylinder. It doesn't even look good on the model.

In one of the Adrian Mole books, Adrian's dad George said "Some people would stick tenners up their bums if you told them it was fashionable" and I think that this thread shows how true that is!

I learned a lesson many years ago about how to consider purchases. It was to think "Am I doing this because it will genuinely enhance my life or am I doing this because someone else has told me that I should and I am worried I might miss out?" It has never steered me wrong so far!

I am autistic and people who know me have learned not to ask for feedback on clothing choices unless they are OK with honesty that may not be flattering, because I struggle with lying convincingly. This makes me useful for honest pre-purchase screening.

I am available to give blunt feedback on your fashion wishlist items. I take payment in Felix pouches for CatOfHate.

@SpaceandcoI bought myself an airwrap & just couldn't get in with it at all. I already had the hairdryer so just wanted it for waving my hair. Apart from the fact that it took bloody ages to do, all the curls & waves fell out within 1 hour.

It was huge waste of money & after sitting on my dressing table unused for over a year I sold it.

If you want one, try the Aldi dupe that come out every few months. £50 & pretty much the same.

I got the aldi hairdryer dupe for £20 for dd & it's pretty much exactly the same as my dyson hairdryer - as much as I love mine, if it ever needs to be replaced then I will just get the Aldi dupe & save myself a lot of money!

The colour made me think of https://www.sofmilitary.co.uk/shop-military/clothing/army-cadet-military-jackets/fleece-jackets-military/the-original-army-wool-jumper-woolly-pully-green.html

If you wear makeup, the high neck will get covered in foundation from your chin.

Everything made by James Dyson is overpriced tat that breaks all the time.

100% of heated styling tools damage your hair. Your hair is made of dead protein called keratin, and heat denatures it like every other protein.

@Pusstachio don’t do it! The sparkling / boiling water tap will need a rude amount of space in the under sink cupboard for the gas canister and boiling water tank.

Guests won’t know how to work your tap and will secretly hate you.

The sparkling water part in particular will be very annoying as you’ll need to change the canister fairly regularly, which is a much more fiddly job from under the sink and you’ll be swearing about how annoying it is. Much more sensible, cheaper and easier to just buy a good Sodastream.

If you do go for a boiling water tap, there’s absolutely no need to go for a posh expensive brand as it’s pretty simple mechanics. Ours is Howdens own label one. It’s functional, it does the job. Although I do resent the cost of changing the filters.

Oh, and everyone in your household will burn themselves at least once. Including the kids.

Magnesium isn't a microorganism that will perish on contact with stomach acid, but an alkaline earth metal that you ingest as a salt (a chemical made of a metal and an anion). Some magnesium salts dissolve in water easily, others less so. The stomach acid is less important than you'd think: it's aqueous hydrogen chloride, and chlorine will bond more readily with hydrogen than with magnesium, so the magnesium will tend to stick with the anion it was bonded to when you bought it.

My 7-year-old one worked perfectly. One of the best things I've ever bought! I haven't even got it out for a retouch in 3 or 4 years.

A boiling water tap needs a "dead man's handle" to be safe, but I'd argue that they are then safer than a kettle. The ones at work have a dead man's sensor that you have to keep your finger on. I got scalded using one and because I reflexively pulled away, the water stopped so quickly that there was no blistering.

When I spilled a pan of water on my foot, there was blistering. If I dropped the kettle, I'd suffer a similar injury, because the water doesn't stop instantly but keeps coming out.

Can I just say I deinfluenced myself, saw the most gorgeous cashmere cardigan on Vinted in my size, new with tags and so cheap.

i dithered and someone else bought it at 7 am on Boxing Day morning!

I’m still sad about that one.

It’s a fair point. We’ve all scalded ourselves but not to blistering point.

Why not mix a drop of red varnish into a bottle of clear?

Why not use a nail buffer? They are brilliant. And cheap.

@Spaceandco no neither of you need one! I have one and it just gathers dust. It's very awkward and difficult to use and then the curls don't hold anyway. If you really need something to curl your hair with (and you probably don't) I bought a Tymo curl pro that works much better and is 1/10th the price. It's easy to use and the curls last!

Supplements including collagen have very little scientific evidence to back then up and are most likely doing nothing for you. I took collagen for a while and didn't notice any benefit. It's now sitting in my medicine cabinet unused.

The scales are very unreliable in terms of data accuracy. And I wouldn't buy from any company with such a low score on trust pilot!
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/humehealth.com