Most of the time when you see something that says "Like HID" or "HID xxxxk" (but the packaging looks sus... then chances are it's just normal halogens but with a higher kelvin rating (the higher the rating the more it goes from yellow to blue to purple).

Have a look in this thread for a proper way of installing HID's onto a car that has halogen's as standard. Although it's not ADR approved so you'll be taking your chances if you do a retrofit, but it's far better than getting a HID kit and using it in your standard headlight housing without projectors.

HID's aren't always safer, HID kits without projectors are particularly annoying. Have you ever driven on the road, at night with a 4wd or van behind you? Does it shine up your whole car, and glare from the rear and side view mirrors? Imagine that but much worse... much brighter, much more glare. I was driving home from work the other day and saw a wrx which was following a van, it was a white van but if you were in the wrx you'd think it was a blue van because it was probably a HID kit rated at 7300+k.

Having HID's that are rated too high are not only bad for other drivers but also for you. Apparently your eyes strain to pick up things on the road which are lit up (by poor lighting), whereas it'd be less stressful on the eye with halogens or HID's with a proper rating. My personal preferrence for HID's would be 43-5500k, simple because the output is still white and doesn't have much of a blue or purple colour (the colouring mean's there's less light output and you'll be seeing less!).