Your “Does it Work?” team is back in action, testing out 17 new things to see if they live up to their claims.
Product reviewers include myself, as consumer writer, along with Beacon Journal food writer Lisa Abraham and home writer Mary Beth Breckenridge.
Remember, these are not scientific tests. We are three consumers trying these products — sometimes together, sometimes separately over time.
Tests conclude with a recommendation. Maybe we’ll save you money by telling you to “Skip It.” Or we’ll find you a great product with a verdict of “Snap It Up.” Other times, we neither love nor hate the product and so the rating can be “It Depends.”
Here goes:
Salon Express
This product ($9.99) got mixed reviews. It claims to give you “beautiful designer salon quality nails in minutes.” The product is basically a stamper that allows you to press different designs onto already painted nails.
None of us regularly gets nails stamped at the salon, but thought this might be fun to try for adults or specifically young girls or tweens.
The first annoyance was that it didn’t come with something called Nail Art Paint, which is special nail color that you need to stamp the extra designs onto your painted nails. So I had to run out to the drugstore and spend $4.99. I bought white, which basically looked like the old typewriter correction fluid product.
It was agreed we would rather pay $14.98 instead of $9.99 to have everything you need.
The product works — but there is a lot left to user error.
You put the Art Paint on an etched design, wipe away the excess paint with a provided scraper, get the imprint of the design on the end of the stamper, then align the design on your nail.
Yes, it does sound complicated.
When we got it just right, it looked great. When we didn’t, it was smudged or had parts of the design, or just looked so bad that you had to start all over again. That meant wiping off your base nail color and repainting that and waiting for it to dry.
For craft stampers, the best way I can describe it is that sometimes if you get too much ink, you will get some excess. The same thing happens here.
“It’s not professional grade,” Lisa said. “I see this more for tweens than adults. If you are an adult and you truly want your nails done, you’re going to have to go to a salon and do it professionally.”
Mary Beth said, “If you are buying this with the expectation that you’re getting professional nails, you’ll be disappointed, but if you’re just buying it for fun, it’s fine.”
I said it could be a fun activity for a mom and daughter. I did try it with my 12-year-old daughter and with some work and some extra time, it’ll probably work fine. I nearly messed up all of the nails I tried on her.
I asked her whether she would be interested in using the product again. She said no at first, but when she heard it was only $9.99, she said it was worth a try.
We all did like the fact that you could use the product over and over since you just need the nail art to put on the design.
Verdicts:
• Betty: It Depends.
• Lisa: It Depends.
• Mary Beth: It Depends.
Chilly Pad
The Chilly Pad promises to keep you cool for hours. You wet the “towel” and it stays cool. It comes in several sizes and the pad is larger than a hand towel.
The product, at $14.99, definitely stays wet and cool. After testing and putting it in the package for a week, the pad was still wet and cool and didn’t show any signs of mildew or smell.
We disagreed slightly on whether it truly felt cold. Lisa and Mary Beth thought it did; I thought it was OK, but didn’t feel like an ice pack or something really cold if you were really hot and looking for a nice, cold towel.
“I think it’s cold. I think it’s a thumbs up. If I’m an avid golfer, I think that’s something I’d want for the summer. It’s not that expensive,” Lisa said.
Mary Beth said: “This sorta reminds me of putting on a really wet bathing suit, which isn’t all that pleasant. It is cool.”
That wet bathing suit idea was something I just couldn’t get over. The material just felt weird to me. Mary Beth said it definitely wasn’t the feel of a soft terry-cloth towel, but she liked that you didn’t have to keep it in the fridge or freezer.
Verdicts:
• Betty: It Depends.
• Lisa: Snap It Up.
• Mary Beth: Snap It Up.
Pet Shed Monster/ Pet Shed Pal
We tried two different anti-shedding pet tools on the market on our veteran dog tester, Bonnie, a mixed-breed dog owned by one of our co-workers.
The Pet Shed Monster, at $19.99, is a comb with long smooth edges to both protect the skin and get down to the undercoat. It claims to reduce shedding by 90 percent.
Bonnie sat down as soon as we started using the Pet Shed Monster.
The tool did collect a lot of hair and she seemed to enjoy it. However, Bonnie’s owner said it would be tough to quantify whether the comb really reduces shedding or is simply a good comb.
Bonnie seemed to like the tool better than her normal brush.
The Pet Shed Pal claims to be the only vacuum grooming system that pets prefer.
I’m not sure how the marketers talked directly to the pets, but the pets we tried it on did not prefer the $9.99 tool.
The product has a little motor to collect any hair being combed into the chamber.
Bonnie was clearly freaked out once we turned it on.
“This is the look she gets when she gets a bath,” said Lynne, Bonnie’s owner. “It’s sucking it up, but it’s leaving a lot on the surface.”
Lynne said it seemed like there was still a lot of Bonnie’s undercoat still left after we turned off the vacuum. Lynne also wondered how the tool would work on pets with long hair.
Mary Beth and I tried the Pet Shed Monster and the Pet Shed Pal on our cats.
We had the same experience and anticipated what would happen: the cats enjoyed the Pet Shed Monster, which is basically a comb. They purred and sat still. But once we turned on the vacuum button, they all took off and never came back.
“Anything with a noise is going to freak out pets,” Lisa said.
Pet Shed Monster Verdicts:
• Betty: Snap it Up.
• Lisa: It Depends.
• Mary Beth: Snap it Up.
Pet Shed Pal Verdicts:
• Betty: Skip It.
• Lisa: Skip It.
• Mary Beth: Skip It.
Space Bag
The Space Bag has improved over time. In fact, in a previous testing 10 years ago with a different partner, I panned the Space Bags since I couldn’t get them to do anything but take some air out from around the items I was testing. There was no further condensing of the products.
This time around, we had better success, though not the completely flat versions that are shown on the boxes and commercials. While we liked two of the three types of Space Bags we tried, we did not like the third.
We tried the jumbo and large bags and were able to reduce the space of four pillows, a large comforter and a bulky throw blanket. A few times we had trouble getting the zippers to properly close but eventually got them.
“I didn’t like that they weren’t flat. The benefit you get by taking out all of the air is somewhat negated by the fact that they don’t lie flat,” Mary Beth said.
Lisa was not bothered by that issue with the smaller packages.
We also tested the hanging bags and were able to get a number of suit jackets to shrink down. We realized that the package will still be as wide as your plastic hangers bunched together, so you might try some wire hangers.
I wondered about the fluffiness of pillows after months of being smushed in the Space Bag, which sold for $19.99 for the larger ones and $9.99 for the hanging bag.
We also tried Space Bag Travel Bags, which do not use a vacuum. You roll out the air to reduce space in your luggage. We weren’t impressed by the travel bags, which sold for $19.99, and we weren’t able to do much more than move around our clothes when rolling them.
Lisa said it was no different than putting clothes in a large, zippered plastic bag.
Space Bag (jumbo, large bags and hanging bags) Verdicts:
• Betty: It Depends.
• Lisa: Snap It Up.
• Mary Beth: It Depends.
Space Bag Travel Bags Verdicts
• Betty: Skip It.
• Lisa: Skip It.
• Mary Beth: Skip it.
Pandigital Handheld Wand Scanner
This scanner, which we picked up at Bed, Bath & Beyond, says it “quickly and easily makes digital copies of your favorite photos and documents.”
We were pretty skeptical of whether it would work that easy or how the quality would turn out, but we were all pleasantly surprised.
There was a learning curve — a white mark on the scanner shows where you should align the picture or document. Once we figured that out, we had very few problems. The scanner is lightweight, you pull it down over the image and push a button.
Since the scanner is only one size, it will scan an image of an area 8.5 inches wide and as far down as you go, so you aren’t able to just grab a small portion of a document. You will have to use your own photo or editing program to crop the picture, but I didn’t have a problem doing that.
There’s the option of scanning in black and white or in color and in JPEG format or PDF for documents with multiple pages.
You can’t see the images when you are scanning, so you won’t know until you plug in the scanner to a computer to view it. When I tried a few more photos at home after our successful try at work, I had some hiccups where I had to re-scan some photos multiple times. I think it was a fluke, because the scanner was losing its charge. Plugged in and recharged, it worked fine.
The box says you don’t need a PC to operate the scanner, and that is true. You don’t need the scanner to be connected to a PC. It is portable and even comes with a travel bag. But you will still need to connect the scanner or the SD memory card (included) into a computer or a printer with a card reader to actually print your images.
The card that is included is 2GB, which says it can hold 700 to 750 photos.
“It makes surprisingly good scans,” Mary Beth said. “I have an old scanner and my scanner takes a lot longer to scan. It’s handy — you could sit in front of the TV.”
Lisa said: “I think it’s great. It’s affordable. It’s easy to use. We had to figure it out, but you turn it on, charge it up and it’s working. Everything comes with it.”
There was a $20 rebate on the $99.99 price, so it came to $79.99. (We are not sure how long the rebate lasts.)
Verdicts:
• Betty: Snap It Up.
• Lisa: Snap It Up.
• Mary Beth: Snap It Up.
Have you seen an advertised product and wondered if it really lives up to its claims? Suggest items to be reviewed by Lisa Abraham, Mary Beth Breckenridge and Betty Lin-Fisher by sending an email to labraham@thebeaconjournal.com or calling 330-996-3737, mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3756 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3724.
