Putting Instagram Influencers’ Product Recommendations To The Test – Wireless Art Light, Candle Warmer, and Faux Pine Trees

I have to admit that I’m a total sucker for products that are being recommended on Instagram. I try to control myself, but I do end up making quite a few impulse purchases each month while scrolling Instagram. Sometimes, I’m very pleased with those purchases. Other times, I’m not so impressed.

So here are three purchases I made last month, based on Instagram influencers’ recommendations, and what I truly think about them.

*This post contains affiliate links.

I’ve been wanting a picture light above this piece of artwork in our living room for a very long time, but art lights are hard enough to shop for when you have available wiring where you want to put the light. But when you want a picture light in an area where there’s no wiring at all, that makes things even more difficult.

When I saw this particular wireless, rechargeable picture light being recommended by an Instagram influencer, and the price was reasonable to me, I decided to take the chance.

Well, I’m thrilled with it. I would rate this 5 out of 5 stars. It looks really nice, and it took about five minutes to hang it on the wall.

When it needs to be recharged, it can be easily removed from the wall by simply lifting it off of the hanger, which looks like this…

It’s kind of a similar idea to a French cleat, where those two prongs that stick out go into these two cutouts on the back of the light to hold the light in place.

So when it needs to be recharged, I’ll simply lift it off of the hanger, plug it in, and then return it to the hanger.

The light comes with a remote control and can be dimmed, but it can also be turned on and off at the light by touching the plastic thing on the end…

So this was a great purchase. I highly recommend it, and you can find it here.

I started seeing this dimmable candle warmer all over Instagram, and finally gave in. I do love candles, and this seems safer than having lit candles, and I’m sure it’s healthier as well. Plus, it’s a cute little light, and it’s perfect for a kitchen countertop.

This purchase was just okay for me. It’s not great, but it’s not horrible. I’ll give it 3 out of 5 stars.

The problem is that it just doesn’t smell the same. I buy highly scented candles, and it took three days of use with this light before I could smell my highly scented candle outside of the kitchen. (When one of these is actually lit, I can smell it all over the house.)

I don’t understand why it took three days of use before I could finally smell it outside of the kitchen, but even when it did seem to reach its full potential with this candle warmer, the scent was only about 60-70% of what it is when the candle is actually lit.

It’s decent, and if you worry about a lit candle around kids or pets, it might be worth it. I personally prefer my candles to be lit so that I can enjoy the full fragrance. It is a cute little countertop light, though, so I’ll enjoy it for that purpose (while it fills the kitchen with a light scent) each evening.

I’ve seen a couple of people recommend these faux mini pine trees, and I finally decided to give them a try. I bought two of them to flank my front door on the front porch. I’ll be honest. I was prepared to be disappointed with them because…well…they’re fake. Fake trees. For my front porch.

Well, I’m THRILLED with them!! I give these 5 out of 5 stars.

I need to get different planters for them since these are looking old and worn after a few years of use, but I’m so excited now to spend some time giving my front porch a refresh. I need to restain the porch boards, repaint the door, and do some general cleaning. And then I need to find the perfect planters for these cute little cedar trees.

This is how they look straight out of the box…

So they do require a bit of work to get them looking nice and full. I do think the picture on the Amazon product page is a little misleading. That picture looks fuller than what I could achieve with my actual tree, but I’m pleased nonetheless.

I achieved a fuller look (without exposing the not-so-nice center stem) by bending each branch away from the center stem right where the two attach…

And then about two inches out from the center stem, I bent the branches back up…

That gave it a fuller look, while keeping that center stem hidden from sight. And then, each of these little things (leaves?) can be fluffed up and spread out to make it look fuller…

There are several different styles from this company, and I’ll definitely be getting more of them. You can find the 3-foot trees that I have here, but I also plan to get some of these little 2-foot plants as well.

I think they’re beautiful, and they don’t look obviously fake to me at all. Now if you’re a plant person, and you thrive on spending your days in your garden or working on your landscaping and tending to your plants, this is obviously not for you. 🙂 But if you’re like me, and you’re proud of yourself for just keeping two real plants alive and don’t feel like you can bite off more right now, but you want to add a little something to your porch, I think these are great.

Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.

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