Crest 3D Whitestrips Professional Effects Review

I've always wanted to whiten my teeth, but the price tag of most professional dental treatments has always deterred me from doing so. I've eyed Crest's 3D Whitestrips for a long time and finally splurged (and I use that term lightly because it is cheap for a whitening treatment...around $50). There are many different types of Crest Whitestrips but I chose the Professional Effects version with 20 treatments.

Each treatment comes with two strips, one for the bottom set of teeth and one for the top set of teeth. The strip is only long enough to cover your most front teeth (fang to fang), so don't expect to get your molars whitened too. You should apply the bottom strip first. To apply the strips, peel them and stick them on your teeth starting where the teeth meets the gum. Press over the strip until it sticks onto your teeth and into all crevices (this is important to get an even distribution of bleach) and fold over the rest of the strip behind your teeth. You use one treatment per day and leave them in for 30 mins each time. I believe you're also not supposed to use this more than twice a year.

Immediately upon application, the strips were a lot longer than I expected them to be. I already have a small mouth so these strips really stretched far back to my mouth, covering almost two of my molars. It was also more slippery than I expected them to be. These strips are meant to be "strong grip, no slip" but I felt like it wasn't as sticky as it could've been on my teeth, especially near the later treatments. In fact, when I applied the strips, it reacted with my teeth immediately and formed a foamy, white substance. All the application videos I watched on this product never mentioned this so maybe it was just a chemical reaction to my teeth. Either way, it was really unexpected. It was almost hard pressing down on the strips for them to stick because the foam wasn't helping them grip.

For some background, I have pretty sensitive teeth. I can't even bite into popsicles or ice cream. These aren't supposed to hurt but if you do experience pain, reviewers have suggested to take a one day break between treatments. I did experience some days with painful throbbing but it wasn't unbearable. I just waited a day until my next treatment and it was perfectly fine. 

Results are meant to be seen within a few days of treatment and many reviewers had corroborated this. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly see results until around the sixth day. The whitening was definitely more prominent in my two buck teeth than my other teeth, perhaps because they stick out more than the others. 

Sorry for the dry lips!

As a disclaimer, I drank a lot of teeth-staining substances (Coke, tea, coffee, etc.) near the end of the treatments, which definitely hindered the whitening process. Even so, I saw great results in the middle of my treatment but started to see more teeth staining, especially in between my teeth, near the end. After finishing the treatment, I've noticed my teeth is slowly going yellow again.

All in all, this treatment wasn't as effective as I had hoped. To be fair, I did drink a lot of teeth staining substances (bad Emily!). I still don't regret buying this relatively inexpensive product and would use it again if my teeth became really yellow again. However, don't expect extremely gorgeous pearly whites from this product. For that, you might just want to go to a professional.

A Day in San Diego: Zoo, Food, and Sunset(?)

Hello! So I recently went on a mini road trip with my best friends to San Diego. We really wanted to stay there overnight, but it was just too expensive and difficult to plan. We still had a great one day trip there and wanted to share my day there.

Our first stop was the San Diego Zoo. It is a really well known zoo and I haven't been to a zoo since I was a little girl so I was super excited. Side note, Triple A members get a 10% discount so bring your card if you decide to go. 

I think tigers are absolutely majestic. I'm pretty sad about their dwindling population.

Absolutely adorable

Pandas are so lazy and useless. I'm rather convinced pandas are my spirit animals.

We stayed for around four hours before leaving the attraction. We had a pretty good time, but my only complaint was the polar bear/frozen exhibit, where the only ice was the fake playpens for kids. Even the polar bear exhibit was just melted water with desert rocks. Plus, the polar bears were outside in the blistering heat. It's already bad enough this species is about to become extinct, but choosing to not invest in a better cold facility for them? Shame. 

Our next stop was the renowned Phil's BBQ. We arrived there at an odd time (2:50 p.m.) in hopes to avoid the notoriously super long line. When we arrived, we still saw a super long line out the door! We waited for approximately 50 minutes. I was surprised to see it as an order-and-seat-yourself type of restaurant rather than a serving one. 

I got the baby back ribs with a side of fries and cole slaw. The meat was so succulent and tender. The marinade definitely had a slight kick to it. I could tell the rub was so flavorful and was so different from the sweet honey bbq I was used to eating at other bbq restaurants like Lucille's. The ribs were absolute perfection. On the other hand, the fries were a different story. They were bland and soggy, the opposite of what french fries should be. The cole slaw tasted delicious though. Phil's is also more affordable than I expected, with a full rack being around $20. All in all, Phil's was worth the wait and I highly recommend you try to go here if you're in the SD area.

My friends and I really wanted to see the sunset, so we decided to visit Sunset Cliffs. We were really disappointed though because the sky was full of clouds so we couldn't see a proper sunset. We still had a good time and you couldn't really beat the view. 

We also planned on going to Extraordinary Desserts but were too pooped and decided to go back home and grab some dessert. 

I'm so glad I got to share this mini adventure with my closest friends in San Diego. We're all going to be significantly far away from each other for college, but I'm not too sad about it because I know we'll be friends for life anyways. 

I hope you enjoyed this little travel blog post and let me know what places you love in San Diego if you've ever been.