One man’s trash is another man’s treasure–well, Sham, who goes @bysham on TikTok, found this out all too well when she hit the hand-me-down jackpot.
Sham posted her now-viral video of herself and friends recovering over $1,000 worth of beauty products in her influencer neighbors’ trash on Friday. The TikTok video has already racked up nearly 30k likes and 90,000 views.
@bysham it was $1350 w/ 8.25% tax #skincare #makeup #dumpsterdiving #fyp #nyc Material Girl (Bass Boosted) – Saucy Santana
Sham shared that her neighbor trashed a giant box full of unused make-up and skin products from brands like Anastasia Beverly Hills and Kiehls.
“We snuck the box into our apartment,” the video text details. “There was so much new product in there.”
The video will shock you; Sham shares each price of every product she found, and it’s mind-boggling how many top of the line brands was in that box– including an Advent calendar from Kiehl’s, which retails for $99, a 3-in-1 Infinite Pro Dryer for $40, and a $55 facial mist from Emma Hardie.
Sham captioned her video, “it was $1350 w/ 8.25% tax.”
Sham and her friends factored in New York City’s sales tax, making the retail value for their “Trash Haul 2022″—as Sham and roomies titled it—totaled $1,350. Her comments were chaotic as viewers were upset with the neighbor’s wasteful ways.
“That is so wasteful on their part,” one user wrote. “Thank goodness you found it. If they didn’t want it, they could have given it away.”
“Why not just put it outside her door with a ‘free’ sign,” another viewer expressed. “It’s probably less work than taking out to the trash and less wasteful.”
The other argument that viewers shared is that beauty brands gift social media influencers with a surplus of products just for them to be unused.
“All these beauty companies talking about sustainability—yet we don’t talk about PR gifts and trash,” a user wrote.
“Why do companies give products to influencers who don’t care about or have no need?” one user commented.
Sham’s video has opened the door for another conversation surrounding brands’ budgets for social media influencers and opened the minds of many to look for your next bargain—in the trash.
