This was my other choice, but didn't pick it on the technicality that it's a gif.

Praise Halone.

I'm surprised their second balk was at the lye and not the lard!

Marketing idea: Set up a laptop to play an auto-scrolling Powerpoint presentation about your ingredients, but make the slides look like screenshots from Facebook.

THEN they might believe it.

Some won't believe the expertise of the person who made the soap, but will believe anything from Facebook.

It's the Instagram-flaunting "wealth" with a CHEAP blatant counterfeit (as though no one would be able to tell) that got me going. There are so many actually good counterfeits out there (not that you should support them), and someone spent money on this?

Again, I personally love the Birkin, and love the Himalayan Birkin. I'll never afford either and I'm okay with that. (I make and carry my own bags anyway.) If you find a super-cheap copy (that didn't have an "Hermès" logo on it) and it makes you happy, go for it! I'm happy for you!

It's a good thing we can't see the inside or I might be analyzing this monstrosity all week! XD

Info from buyleatheronline.com/en/blog/croc... (with alt text): I've attached a close-up of the MAL bag, and a picture from a genuine Himalayan Birkin. Can you see the pore at the bottom of the scales in the genuine croc? Do you see the difference in the scale shape?

But it's also missing a signature feature of croc skin: the pore at the bottom of the scales. Fun fact: crocs actually have hair! It's lost during the tanning process, but leaves a little pore mark at the bottom of the scales if it's genuine croc.

I bring this up because I'm certain this is embossed leather. I highly doubt the manufacturer would spend the money on the actual croc hides for this level of construction. The shape of the scales is too square. That's more of a caiman pattern than croc (which should be rounded).

Not going to get into a discussion about the ethics of exotic leathers here. Most leather is a by-product of the meat industry, so it is "not letting it go to waste." Some embossed leathers can be really good. So someone may have what looks like an exotic at a glance, but it may be embossed.

By the way, that's why it's called the Himalayan: the color gradient is meant to "evoke the landscape of the Himalayas." They use Niloticus ("Nile") crocodiles for the skin. Just wanted to clear up any confusion about it... the crocs are not "Himalayan crocs."

There are other things I want to comment on, like the proportions seem off... but that might be a matter of camera angle, camera used, and lighting.

It could* be made with the Himalayan-colored croc leather (yes, you can buy it) rather than embossed cowhide, but the gradient doesn't look top grade.

The piping on the sides looks way too thick (at least they used the croc leather for it), but the piping on the bottom doesn't even look like the same leather. It should match the croc, but it looks like it's plain white all the way across. What little you see of the right side panel doesn't blend.

I can't stop analyzing how bad this is.

The sangles (belt straps) are far too wide. They should sit comfortably within the pontets (the vertical hooks). They're also too wide for the plaques (the hardware on their tips) so the edge paint is obvious, *and the plaques are VERY crooked.*

This is Cooper. And this is how he plays with his banana-dog toy.

That said, 2025 was a bit of a bust for my business with the move and shoulder injury and more move and getting my studio set up again. But I have SO MANY ideas and design concepts that I want to launch in 2026 that I swear: Those who get it, *get it*.