wonderwhatif
Member Since: January 26, 2015Reviews
Hill's Science Diet Adult Hairball Control Chicken Recipe Dry Cat Food
Generally, I prefer the round kibble shape to the triangle, but quality-wise, this food is as good as the other Hill’s Science Diet variations and my cats don’t seem to mind the triangle at all. I’ve been feeding this only to one cat, who has... +
Generally, I prefer the round kibble shape to the triangle, but quality-wise, this food is as good as the other Hill’s Science Diet variations and my cats don’t seem to mind the triangle at all. I’ve been feeding this only to one cat, who has long hair and frequent hairballs. Since I already use a hairball aid, he’s gotten better, but still sometimes has hairballs.
Since mixing this with his urinary vet food, he has not suffered any hairballs, so I imagine it must be helping. He can sometimes be a bit strange about new food, but wolfed this down right away, so he seems to really like it!
Like the other Science Diet bags, this has the modern ‘velcro’ style reseal closure, which is great for anyone who can’t store the bag upright. As always, when switching food for your cats, take it slow and mix it in gradually to avoid tummy upsets.
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Rimmel London Lasting Finish Lipstick
There were some things I liked about this lipstick and some I didn’t, but overall it’s nice. However, if you’re looking for a long-lasting lipstick, this isn’t my favourite. It lasts ok, but makes lips feel very dry and also comes off a... +
There were some things I liked about this lipstick and some I didn’t, but overall it’s nice. However, if you’re looking for a long-lasting lipstick, this isn’t my favourite. It lasts ok, but makes lips feel very dry and also comes off a reasonable amount throughout the day. After around 6 hours of wear, it was faded around 50% and had begun to bleed outside my lips. It continues to come off when touched and I don’t think it would survive messy foods or tons of kissing without needing re-application.
One thing I really want to praise about it is the applicator. I’m pretty bad at applying lipstick exactly on my lines, especially when it’s a bold colour; but the slightly pointed shape and flat tip makes it so easy to get a better line. My hands shake due to a medical condition and even I was able to do a good job thanks to the good design of the lipstick shape.
The colour is lovely, though far too dark and red for me. I think this colour would look nice on very dark or olive skin. It’s a cool-toned kind of dark crimson shade. The name is also hilarious. I enjoyed telling people I was wearing ‘thirsty bae’, but your mileage may vary on that.
Basically, I liked the boldness of the pigment (though the shade was not right for me) and loved the applicator shape, but I wouldn’t wear this as a long-lasting lipstick past a few hours and I did feel it dried out my lips and felt uncomfortable over time.
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Arm & Hammer Cloud Control Clumping Cat Litter (Multi-Cat)
I’ve been using natural cat litter for a while and what prompted that change was the fear over dust clouds in traditional litter. With three cats and a 10K vet bill I’m still paying off, I can’t afford to take their health for granted with... +
I’ve been using natural cat litter for a while and what prompted that change was the fear over dust clouds in traditional litter.
With three cats and a 10K vet bill I’m still paying off, I can’t afford to take their health for granted with something that could be dangerous!
So I’m absolutely thrilled this product is on the market. My cats took wonderfully to wooden litter, but I know many folks who have cats who hate it, or they need the ease of a clumping litter.
For those people, it’s important that this Arm and Hammer litter delivers on it’s promises.
Well, I’m happy to say it does!
Not even a small amount of dust when pouring it or scooping. It clumps just as well as other clumping brands.
As for the smell? I found it actually contained smells better and smelled less than the brand I used to use. The granules are really fine, so even though they still get tracked around (what litter doesn’t??!??) they are much less noticeable on the ground.
I’d heartily recommend this to anyone looking for a traditional litter, who is concerned about the health effects of dust clouds!
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Rocketbook Everlast Fusion
I thought these were AMAZING. I was hyped about the idea, reusable notebooks is a green initiative that I hadn’t even heard of before and though the execution was good too. My only minor complaint would be that they don’t come with any kind of... +
I thought these were AMAZING. I was hyped about the idea, reusable notebooks is a green initiative that I hadn’t even heard of before and though the execution was good too. My only minor complaint would be that they don’t come with any kind of simple guide to help you understand the features, you do have to poke around and experiment a bit.
For me the most important feature was the ability to translate my written lists into actual typing text (still in beta) and I was really impressed with this feature. Admittedly, I have a really simple barebones writing style, but it translated almost perfectly. Privacy buffs should note, though, that to have this feature, your info and writing must go through Rocketbook’s servers, something that might bother some. With regular scans, this doesn’t occur and the feature can be turned off easily.
Being able to send your scanned pictures to email or a drive, is really just a bonus. For me, the whole point of this thing is the re-usability. If you go through a ton of notebooks (I do) this is really going to help you reduce your use of paper. I can only imagine how useful this will be for students who take endless notes and don’t want a room cluttered with them.
This particular book has lined, dotted paper (neither show up in the scans) and a few really useful ‘template’ pages. I would recommend this type more for those who need ‘organisation’, for workers of an office environment or those who run their own business from home. For students and those who need a more blank notebook, check out the other Rocketbook types to find your perfect fit!
I had no issue with scan quality and it looked perfect. Of course, I have a modern smartphone with a great camera, but not sure if that would be the difference, since most people do.
Two of my big concerns were the paper and the pens. Let’s talk about paper first. I was worried it would just feel like a whiteboard (it doesn’t). The paper is definitely not ‘natural’, but surprisingly close to it. It feels like paper with a very flexible, thin mix of plastic coating in there. It’s surprisingly flexible and I was worried it would ‘rip’ out of the notebook’s spiral binder rings, but even tugging very hard, there was no issue with that. Writing with the pen does feel a little bit like writing on a shiny surface and it takes a couple of seconds to dry, so those who are left-handed or lean their hand on their writing, should be aware that this might not be great for them. I personally found I never smudged it and it dried very quickly.
As for the Frixion pens, they are not super expensive to replace. In fact, these pens already exist and people use them for other things. A pack of 7 coloured ones will cost you $20 here on Amazon and you can also use them to make disappearing art or messages on regular paper. One thing I will say is that they should remove the erasers from these. The instructions state that you should only EVER remove ink via the wet microfiber cloth. I’ve heard people say using the eraser can cause problems with the book over time. So if I was Rocketbook, I’d remove the erasers from the pens to prevent this problem occurring.
Wiping the book clean is so easy, though I wish there was more info on the microfiber cloth (do I need to wash it over time). The reality is, Rocketbook can be as simple or complex as you like. There’s a big level of customisation using the symbols (sending different types of pages to different places depending on which symbol is crossed) and a lot of finicky settings in the app. But you can also ignore all of those and just take photos of your pages and clean them off; a relatively simple use.
For somebody who takes endless lists and loves to sketch, this is a brilliant product and I’d heartily recommend it. If you rarely use notebooks and have no need of it, it won’t be the best buy for you. This particular Rocketbook is ideal for those who need to organise their work (or home) life and want some useful templates alongside the dotted and lined pages.
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Panasonic Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones (RPHD610NK)
This is my first pair of over-the-ear headphones from Panasonic, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Thankfully I found that these headphones are comfortable, provide very good audio quality, and they look great. Because of the deep and well-balanced... +
This is my first pair of over-the-ear headphones from Panasonic, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Thankfully I found that these headphones are comfortable, provide very good audio quality, and they look great. Because of the deep and well-balanced audio and the comfort of the ear cups, they’ve become my go-to headphones when playing my PS4, despite suffering from minor Bluetooth issues (something I see again and again in Bluetooth headphones).
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Audio
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I tested these headphones with my music and with my TV; both gaming and watching - just to see how it would handle different kinds of audio. I found that these headphones did a great job providing clear and very crisp audio. With music, in particular, I found everything sounded great, not too much bass and not too little. I often find headphones have too much bass for me, I prefer to hear the words clearly and have the bass be an accompaniment to it. When watching TV or movies on my smart TV, I found that dialogue was clear and easy to make out, while music and sound effects didn’t drown out everything else.
Basically, the audio was super well-balanced. With other headphones I’ve used with my PS4, I find myself having to tweak game settings to get the right balance, not here.
The noise-cancelling works very well and easily drowned out the sound of my AC! It can be a little startling when used with the ambient noise enhancer. For example, you accidentally touch your ear and suddenly all the sound comes back, so be aware of that.
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Design
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A lot of the design features found in these headphones are pretty standard stuff at this point for a product like this. You charge it via a micro USB (included) and the battery life lasts 20+ hours on just a few hours charge. You can plug an AUX cable into your headphones if you prefer that, or if the device you are listening to doesn’t support Bluetooth (which is most things not made in the last 5 years). All the controls can be found on the headphones themselves, mostly along the edge of the right ear, and there aren’t so many buttons that you’re likely to be confused by what button does what once you spend some time with them. The volume is not controlled by a button, but by a slider which you can use to adjust it.
The buttons could be done better. They feel like they are made more for design than function because other than the volume slider (good choice) they are difficult to feel and distinguish. They are very flat, discreet and visually nice, but for fingers they are difficult to find and figure out.
The earpads and the part of the headphones that rests on your head are very well padded and the earpads in particular have a wide range of movement, so you can easily adjust how they sit on your head. The headphones are also very adjustable, and were easily able to fit my partner’s head which is quite large. I found them extremely comfortable. The combination of the padding (which feels high end) and the moveable attached cup, meant that I was only starting to get sore after 5+ hours of wear.
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Bluetooth
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I had some issues with the bluetooth connectivity of these headphones, but only small issues and only a few times. For the most part connecting devices to these headphones via bluetooth is easy and works consistently. However on a few occasions I did find that the headphones were over-zealous about connecting to multiple devices at once. After I had connected to my phone and my smart TV at different times, I found the headphones would frequently connect to both at the same time when I didn’t want them to, forcing me to turn my phone’s bluetooth off anytime it was nearby.
Connecting the headphones to my smart TV was unusually difficult. The first time it would not connect no matter what I did, and it only worked when I came back a few days later for a second attempt. I don’t even know why it later worked when I did nothing different. On a few occasions while using these with my TV I found that the audio would go in and out rapidly for a few minutes, until it eventually fixed itself. I can’t be sure what caused it, or if it was related to my TV specifically. I did have a similar issue with audio occuring on another bluetooth headphone, so it could be my TV or the netflix app; hard to say.
Suffice to say, I’ve never used a Bluetooth product that didn’t have hiccups like this, so it’s not a big issue for me.
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Features
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These headphones have a ton of interesting features, some of which I’ve seen before and some that are new to me. If you are connected to an Android device or an iPhone, you can set up your Google Assistant or Siri to work with a button on these headphones. Once you do that (which only takes a minute) you just press the button on the headphones and it will activate those features, which makes it easy to use them (or in my case, easy to accidentally activate them multiple times when I’m trying to learn which buttons do what).
Another feature, this one totally new to me, is the ambient sound enhancer. Lots of headphones have features designed to reduce ambient sound (these as well) but this is the first time I’ve seen a feature which actually enhances ambient sound. If you’re like me, you hate when you have your headphones on and someone tries to speak with you, forcing you to take them off and ask them to repeat themselves. This feature enhances those kinds of sounds, which makes it possible to hear what is going on around you, such as people talking or metro announcements for example. The feature isn’t flawless though. You activate it by covering the right ear of the headphones with your hand, which reduces your volume and stops noise-cancelling until you remove your hand again. This means if you only notice something you want to hear as it’s happening (for example, you see someone speaking to you) you will need to activate the feature and likely still need to ask them to repeat themselves. You CAN set this feature to be always on, but I found it affected my volume levels too much, and not having noise-cancelling features on eventually became annoying.
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Pureology Strength Cure Best Blonde Purple Shampoo
Hair type: Short, thick, naturally wavy, greying/ageing hair, brunette mixed with a lot of grey, silver and white. Note: I used this with the matching conditioner. Since I have so much grey, silver and white in my hair right now, I use blonde... +
Hair type: Short, thick, naturally wavy, greying/ageing hair, brunette mixed with a lot of grey, silver and white.
Note: I used this with the matching conditioner.
Since I have so much grey, silver and white in my hair right now, I use blonde shampoos when I want to bring out those colours. What’s interesting about this one is that it makes the grey, silver and white hairs blend into each other, making them look a lot more unified. I think this is because it makes the tone whiter/blonder and helps them look more blended. Since it makes them a little brighter, it also makes them stand out more against my brown hair.
Like many blonde toning shampoos, this is a purple one. It’s a super dark, indigo style purple. The smell of this shampoo is amazing, it’s really fruity and sweet without being overpowering.
In terms of hair quality, my hair was left fluffy and light and nice and soft. I’d definitely use this again.
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Pureology Strength Cure Conditioner
Hair type: Short, thick, naturally wavy, greying/ageing hair, brunette mixed with a lot of grey, silver and white. Note: I used this with the matching shampoo. Since I have so much grey, silver and white in my hair right now, I use blonde products... +
Hair type: Short, thick, naturally wavy, greying/ageing hair, brunette mixed with a lot of grey, silver and white.
Note: I used this with the matching shampoo.
Since I have so much grey, silver and white in my hair right now, I use blonde products when I want to bring out those colours. What’s interesting about this one is that it makes the grey, silver and white hairs blend into each other, making them look a lot more unified. I think this is because it makes the tone whiter/blonder and helps them look more blended. Since it makes them a little brighter, it also makes them stand out more against my brown hair.
This is a super dark purple, indigo coloured conditioner. While I loved the smell of the shampoo, I loved the conditioner smell even more. Normally conditioner does not smell so good, but to me this smelled like a Lush bath bomb; heavenly!
My hair was left fluffy and light with a lot of softness. I’d definitely use this again and would recommend it to other white haired folks!
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Vega One Organic Chocolate Crème Protein powder
I’m always needing more protein, since I eat so little meat, so every time I see a product like this I get excited. More protein and extra benefits of greens, with a yummy chocolate taste; sign me up! Sadly, it doesn’t deliver on anything other... +
I’m always needing more protein, since I eat so little meat, so every time I see a product like this I get excited. More protein and extra benefits of greens, with a yummy chocolate taste; sign me up! Sadly, it doesn’t deliver on anything other than the nutritional benefits. That’s not to say this product is bad, but just that if you want a product that tastes like chocolate creme, you’ll be unsatisfied here.
The prominent taste here is dirt, with a heavy helping of sweet taste. It’s our old friend Stevia. I’m not a fan of Stevia’s bitter taste, but my far bigger problem with it is that brands overuse it. Stevia is far stronger than sugar, but they heap it in there in an attempt to hide the earthy or green taste and as a result it ends up tasting far too sweet and almost fake (though Stevia is natural). There is a cacao, bitter chocolate taste here, but if you’re looking for a protein powder that doesn’t taste bad, I can’t recommend this one.
It has a lot of benefits sure and it might be a good fit for the kind of person who drinks green smoothies. If you don’t mind an earthy and strong stevia flavour and are willing to drink anything for the benefits, this might be right for you. However, I really require a flavour that I can stand and just didn’t like this one. I will say, to its credit, that when shaken in a protein powder cup, it doesn’t get lumpy, but I just didn’t like the taste.
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Dove 0% Aluminum Deodorant Cucumber & Green Tea Scent
I really like the deodorant overall, unfortunately I just didn’t love the scent. It has a really sweet, perfumed style cucumber scent that I found too strong. I have a pretty strong nose and would catch the smell whenever I moved my arms, which if... +
I really like the deodorant overall, unfortunately I just didn’t love the scent. It has a really sweet, perfumed style cucumber scent that I found too strong. I have a pretty strong nose and would catch the smell whenever I moved my arms, which if you love the scent is a good thing!
In terms of effectiveness, the deodorant did a great job. It kept me dry with no sweat smell, even though it’s close to 30 degrees here right now. It easily lasted until night, which is when I tend to re-apply. The deodorant is soft cream type bar with a bit of a shine, so it glides on super easily. It’s not overly soft (like some), so it doesn’t clump up under my arms.
I also really like the idea of having a deodorant without aluminum, so I hope they bring out some more scents (or even a scent-free one) as I’d consider buying a different scent in the future!
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Terra by Battat – Marine World
These Battat figures are great value! This time instead of getting fences for the animals, you get a selection of red and green Coral stand-ups and rocks; perfect for that ocean feel! There’s an impressive array of underwater animals here, so a... +
These Battat figures are great value! This time instead of getting fences for the animals, you get a selection of red and green Coral stand-ups and rocks; perfect for that ocean feel! There’s an impressive array of underwater animals here, so a lot of opportunity to teach kids about each species (though it doesn’t list what they are) and to do some underwater projects.
The paint job on these ones is nice and pretty high quality compared to other sets. The open-mouth on some of the whales looks a little cartoony, but it means that they make great bath toys as well, scooping up and dumping the water!
If you’ve used the other Battat sets, you pretty much know what to expect, but the underwater theme is a cool one that most kids don’t learn enough about. In fact, even people know very little about our oceans and seas and these toys are a great start to discussions about conservation, or simply to teach a love of and respect for life on our planet. There’s a good range of sizes here, from larger whales to smaller creatures.
Overall, it’s a great quality and good value set of aquatic themed toys!
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