Thursday, September 18, 2008

A cub bear tries to prettify herself: fails

It's a fact that the older I get, the more maintenance I require to look my best.

But it's also a fact that the age at which I need to spend more time on my appearance - uh, NOW! - just happens to coincide with an incredibly busy time in my life.

So it's no wonder I'm always looking for a quick beauty fix and was instantly intrigued when the folks at Whitening Listerine Quick Dissolveing Strips contacted me and asked to review their product.

What could be easier than tooth-whitening strips you just put on and leave? No timing the removal, no messy clean-up afterwards. I could just pop them on before I went to bed and wake up with gorgeous, whiter teeth.

Easy as pie, right?

Yeah, not so much.

I did use the whitening strips as directed for two weeks and at the end of that time period my teeth did appear to be slightly whiter and brighter than when I started.

But the problem was getting the darn things on my teeth in first place. The very thing that makes these whitening strips so appealing - they dissolve! - makes them very difficult to deal with. If your fingers are even just a little moist they will get sticky and be rendered useless before you can get them positioned properly.

I ruined several strips just trying to get them out of the packaging and several more trying to get them on - imagine placing tiny pieces on saran wrap on your teeth and you start to get the idea.

This was the resulting debris from my very first attempt to use the strips:



It's not a pretty sight.

The folks at Whitening Listerine Quick Dissolving Strips very generously provided me with lots of samples, so the wasted ones didn't constitute a financial loss for me, but if had paid for them I would have been pissed.

In a nutshell: I think dissolving whitening strips are fantastic idea, but the execution and the packaging needs some work.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that my father often compares my skill and grace to that of a cub bear: if you are a careful and meticulous sort, wrangling these strips may not present a problem at all.

In either case, more information and fantastic money-saving coupons for Whitening Listerine Quick Dissolving Strips are available on this web site.

7 comments:

Heather said...

I tried samples of those a couple of years ago and they made me gag. Maybe I didn't put them on right or something, but they were NOT the thing for me.

Vodka Mom said...

They don't work so well on old, worn out veneers. crapola. now THAT would be an invention.......

Jaina said...

Interesting. I'll have to consider those sometime...but be sure my fingers are absolutely dry.

Betsy Mae said...

I love them! I got a pair in the mail a while ago and I thought they were the best ones on the market. Maybe it's because I have big old honking horse teeth!!!!

Bryan said...

Interesting review. Sounds frutrating but it's still got to be better than those ones you have to leave on for half an hour or painting your teeth with that goo.

Helen Wright said...

how do they expect your fingers to not get wet when putting something in your mouth?!? Do they include those 'dryer' things that the dentist has?

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you try this stuff...so I don't have to!

And, at this point in my life, I need so much "maintenance" that I am thinking of having my own powerlift installed in the garage, complete with airjacks, power-wrenches and even an air compressor to help inflate some of those special little areas that seem a tad deflated. Oil of Delay is only gonna get me so far!