We have all experienced targeted Facebook and Instagram ads; they are unavoidable. While most consumers probably just scroll past them or resist temptation and don’t give in, I do not. I wholeheartedly admit that I semi-easily get sucked into gimmicks and advertisements. Though I resisted many of these for a while, eventually they brainwashed me into buying the product or service. Below are reviews of some of the products I have bought; maybe these will help others make more informed decisions before making impulsive purchases.
- Flamingo Razor: This one wasn’t hard to sell me on. I love flamingos, so the name already called to me, and the brightly colored handles and free goodies with purchase made it really enticing. However, I was very soon going to be disappointed. First of all, I had a bad experience where the razor continuously kept falling off the handle. I contacted customer service, which was great, and they sent me a new one, but it had the same problem. Also, these razors rust very quickly and easily, and I also felt like I had more cuts with them. So unfortunately, these were a big thumbs down. I want to try Billie, but have been hesitant due to my experience with these razors.
- Easy Baby Travelers: If you haven’t seen these, they are diaper bag organizer bags. They have different bags labeled for different needs such as “Feed Me” or “Change Me.” I bought six of the bags and was super excited until I got them, and realized they didn’t fit well in my Vineyard Vines diaper bag. I only could fit two of them and they were squished. I have since bought a larger diaper bag, and can really still use three at most, but I am ok with that. Some of them are not necessary for everyday use. Overall, I like these bags and think they were a good buy. Now when I reach into the diaper bag, I can more easily find what I am looking for and it does make changing and feeding easier and more organized. Though you could buy your own cheaper bags, these are really cute and I like the embroidered names.
- Cirkul: I was finally enticed enough by this water bottle and flavored refills, that I gave in and decided to try it out. I liked the idea of it since I absolutely dislike regular water and the design was nice. My bottle came with two flavors, only one of which was really good. In the end, I decided that the price of the refills was just not worth it since you can just pick up some Crystal Light or MIO flavoring at the store for a couple of bucks.
- Grove Collaborative: We have all seen the ads for this company or similar companies that offer a bunch of free Mrs. Meyer’s products with sign up and purchase of a certain amount of products. After almost signing up with them several times, I finally decided to take the plunge. I liked the clean products and the free ones that I received. I even ended up ordering more the following month. But then, I got an email to renew my membership for $19.99. Ordering a few soaps each month and getting a little discount wasn’t worth paying $19.99 when I could just get them at the store whenever I needed them. For people who clean more than I do or are hardcore crunchy (I am only scrunchy), this could be great. But I just couldn’t rationalize it.
- Hello Bello Diapers: Another targeted Facebook ad, because Facebook knows that I have a baby. I finally bought these after seeing a decent coupon code for them (my husband has taught me to be thrifty like that!). I’ve been using them for a couple months and have been happy so far! I don’t feel like the boxes send quite enough wipes, so the last month I just added more for a discount. I haven’t had any problems with leaks and the quality seems good. In the past, I had tried Honest Diapers and the problem with the monthly boxes was that once he grew out of a size, I was stuck with a ton of leftover diapers. He is a size 4 now, and will be for a while, so these boxes are safe, but I don’t plan on using it for my baby due in May because I will encounter the same problem that I did with Honest. However, Hello Bello is also sold at Walmart, so I will probably still buy the newborn sized ones from there as well.
- MUTU System: I JUST purchased this a few days ago, so I hope to go into more detail about this one once I am postpartum and can truly see if it works. This ad stalked me on Facebook and Instagram. It must have known how much I hated my body after my past two pregnancies. Again, after finding another awesome coupon code, I convinced my husband that I needed it. I purchased both the program and the kit to go along with it. I plan on starting on Sunday, since they have modifications for pregnancy, so hopefully I can get a jump start on getting my body back after. To be continued…
I am sure I will be buying even more random targeted ad products in the future, and look forward to reviewing those as well! If anyone has recommendations on products that I must try, I would love to hear them!
