After weeks of being bombared with TikTok ads for Halara clothing,I finally broke down and decided it was time to do a formal review on them for you guys.
As with all my brand reviews, this is 100% not sponsored. I used my own monies (almost $100 to be exact) to test out these TikTok-famous dresses and activewear. Keep reading for my honest The Halara reviews!
I Tried Halara So You Don’t Have To (Honest Halara Review) 2021
This is part of my Saw It On Social series where I review Insta-famous brands and give you the real tea. Find more past reviews here.
What I Ordered From The Halara Clothing
I got free shipping with my order since it was almost $100 for the 3 pieces.
First Impressions From The Online Site
As with most fast fashion companies, my first impression was “wow, what a bunch of skinny women.” I will give Halara credit for featuring black and brown models front and center, but all of their ads on TikTok and their models are size Small, thin women.
There’s a lot of fatphobia and racism with fast fashion stores these days. As always, I’ll never stop advocating for truly diverse representation. Halara, let’s see some plus size babes on the front page ok?
I also knew from poking around the price points is that my main goal from this would be to determine if Halara makes the same quality materials as a company like Outdoor Voices, since their price point is kinda high and closer to OV prices. Or, are they more like an Old Navy? If that’s the case, they are overpriced. Over $40 for a pair of leggings is too much unless it’s top-shelf made with recycled material like my favorite place to shop activewear, Girlfriend Collective.
I picked out a top, leggings and the famous Halara dress and checked out. It was a secure checkout process, which was great. I still didn’t give them a real phone number, though.
First Impressions From Physically Trying The Clothes
My estimated delivery time was 11-14 days. I placed my order on September 3rd and it arrived on September 13th, so the shipping was pretty fast.
The products arrived and I immediately put them on. And, it wasn’t what I expected….
Halara Activewear Reviews In My Feels Tank Top
So, first I tried on the In My Feels Tank Top. This is a mix between tank tops and sports bras. I love to wear tops like this with high-waisted pants and skirts and I don’t have one that’s white so I thought this would be great.
First impression was the fabric was really soft and stretchy, which I love. But the top is a bit tight. I can fit into it but it’s just tight enough around my rib cage it was a bit hard to breathe. As a reminder, I ordered their XL, their largest size, but this fit more like an L. It is a really nice tank top, though, and if it were a size bigger I would keep it.
Halara Leggings Reviews Everyday Leggings
A true test is if you can make good black leggings. They aren’t that hard. But Halara F*d their leggings up. I ordered an XL which they consider to be a US 16 on the leggings. I can’t even pull the leggings up past my tighs.
Normally I wear a US 12 or 14, so these are 100% not a 16. These have to be a size 8 or smaller leggings. I have no tolerance for companies who refuse to size their pieces honestly and it’s frustrating these leggings run so incredibly small.
Halara In My Feels Dress Review
The everyday dresses are the ones taking over the internet! They are basically dressed with tennis skirts / skorts ( shorts underneath). It’s the perfect dress for summer since you don’t have to worry about flashing anyone.
Just like with the top and leggings, this dress runs really small. It hugged me too tightly and isn’t at all flattering. The material is really stretchy, which I liked and I knew it would be a comfy tennis dress if it actually fit correctly.
It is a thicker material (more like what a swimsuit feels like but with a few layers) so you can’t see underwear through it. But it also may be a little too thick on hot hot days. No loose threads or anything, so that was a good sign. Plus, I liked the pocket on the shorts.
Some people say the Halara dress dupe is spot-on for Outdoor Voices’ activewear dress. My official Halara dress review? It’s cute. But not like Outdoor Voices because the size chart is all out of whack. Also, the cups built into the dress are a little wonky and lumpy. They may smooth out during the next wash though.
I can’t provide a Halara shorts review s I did not buy those.
A Closer Look At The Halara Clothing
A deep dive into the company!
Halara Sizing Review
Halara’s size chart is awful. On the Halara Dress, an XL is considered a US Size 12 ( wrong size, should be a 14) but on their leggings, an XL is a US 16. That experience makes it really hard for the customer to shop and shouldn’t be a problem that customers have to deal with.
And, when I got the clothes, what I thought would happen did happen: most things were too small and didn’t fit. Because they actually only go up to a US 10.
Halara Customer Service Review
Halara uses a Zendesk chat feature but nobody is actually there to chat with you. I have emailed the team to ask for a return but haven’t heard back from anyone yet. I’ll up date this post if I do hear back from them to let you know how that interaction is, but so far it’s not great.
Halara Return Policy Is Sketch
As with many of these overseas fast fashion companies, their return policy is sketch. You are required to email the customer service team first and they get to decide if your reasoning for returning items is valid. And they get to say no even if there are loose threads, the item looks different than it did online, or if the fabric isn’t what you expected.
I emailed them to return my whole order since everything was too small and haven’t yet heard back from them but I’ll let you know how it goes.
Halara Is A Dropshipping Company?
Free shipping on orders $49
Free express shipping on orders $159+
This messaging looks very similar to Shien... do my radar went off. Is this company owned by Shein? I did some digging and they aren’t owned by Shein. But I did discover through Halara clothing reviews Reddit forums have wrote stating that Halara is just a dropshipping company that sources all of its clothing from Aliexpress but marks up the prices.
I wasn’t able to quickly find the same dress on Alibaba but I also didn’t shift through the 65 pages of “white tennis dress” options on it. But, I would give a strong guess that they are a dropshipping company that puts all of its marketing dollars into original photos and TikTok ads.
Honest Halara Review – Are They A Scam Or Legit?
So, Halara is legit in the sense they skip pretty fast and seem to sell what they are actually selling online. Like, all the stuff I order from Shein doesn’t look like the photos online, but Halara clothing looks the same. So no, they are not a scam.
But, they aren’t for everyone. They aren’t for anyone over the size of 10 and I personally think you can find similar quality clothing at Target or Old Navy for cheaper. But, if you want a cute tennis dress and are small enough to fit into it, I think you’ll like the Halara Dress.
Tips For Buying Halara Clothing
That being said, Halara still is a Chinese company and you always have to protect yourself a bit when shopping those guys. Here’s my tips:
- Do not use your real phone number
- Use a credit card that can protect you from fraud or return issues
- Pay close attention to the size charts for each individual item
- Look at past Halara clothing reviews from customers to verify fit
- Size up!
- Use your “spam” email address (not your main one) since they WILL send you a crazy amount of email marketing updates
Share this with anyone who is thinking about buying from Halara!
