One Ulta shopper recently discovered that her "catfishing" experience had multiple layers to it.
In the subreddit r/Ulta, the consumer detailed what happened, pointing out that her Bond Beauties box was way bigger than needed to fit her products.
"What a waste of packaging!" she wrote on Reddit before noting that the shipping box, seen in the final slide of her post, was also outlandishly huge.
"It was at least 2ft tall," she said.
"My partner was like, 'What did you order!?!?' I was so confused why the box was that big!! One of the 3 items was a lip balm and the other was an oil cleanser!" she added.
Most of the beauties box was cardboard, as the Redditor pointed out, so hopefully, it's recyclable. When cardboard ends up in landfills, it releases methane as it breaks down, with the heat-trapping gas contributing to rising global temperatures at a rate 80 times stronger than carbon dioxide.
Nonetheless, the use of the material in excess is still cause for concern.
Cardboard is made from paper, and manufacturers need 3 tons of wood to create 1 ton of fresh cardboard, per General Kinematics — assuming they don't use recycled paper.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, deforestation is a major problem, with more than 1 billion people dependent on forests for food, shelter, and work.
Trees also protect against the negative effects of warming global temperatures, which have been linked to extreme weather events and changes in food supply.
The United Nations Development Programme pointed out that deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for up to 20% of all heat-trapping gas emissions, but forests soak up 8.4 tons of CO2 annually.
Other Redditors chimed in with their catfishing experiences, with some wondering if the oversized packaging was a marketing tactic.
"So who is Ulta trying to impress with the big box then? The customer that knows they didn't order anything to amount to a box that size," one person wrote.
"Needs to look big and expensive in store though it's repackaged samples. Had the same for a hair sampler and I was really surprised when I got it home," another said.
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