u/gooobegone

Hello!

My ears were pierced when I was an infant by my well meaning Mexican family. As far as I understand they used the akimbo strategy, piercing both my lobes simultaneously with 2 guns.

As a result, my lobe piercings are beyond fucked. One of them I have to do a literal sideways Z motion to get jewelry in. The other is a more standard \ kind of shape.

Growing up, I wore straight posted earrings and hook type earrings all the time, but around teenagehood I stopped. I still wore them maybe once a month. Last year (I'm 28 now) I got more into wearing them, but them being so fucked up became an issue. They're very sensitive and easily inflamed (I have some metal sensitivities but even besides that). A few months ago, my right one (Mr sideways Z) even bled while I was removing my fave dangly earrings. I have 0 idea why it bled. But this scared me away from earrings for a few months (I know I just reset this god forsaken process).

Recently, I decided I wanted to put some jewelry in them and not remove it, as I do with my nostril piercing. So I got some cute clicker hoops that I loved and....I couldn't get them in. I could get them halfway in and then excruciating pain and like hitting a brick wall. I thought maybe the crookedness meant I couldn't wear hoops. So I got an 18g flatback labret (same as my nose).

I go to put this in and it just won't. I use a teeny tiny needle as a taper to insert flatback labrets in my nostril but even this tried and true strategy was not working for the lobe. I'd put it in, put the labret post on the end and it was stopped in its tracks by my apparently miniscule lobe hole.

I tried to get this thing in for 30 minutes. Finally, I tried just inserting the labret post from the front and realized it would only go in halfway, same as my beloved clicker hoops. I realized my earring holes are just way too small (esp the back hole) or something despite this being a difference of mere millimeters.

So now I'm just trying to determine if I have to go to a piercer and pay new piercing prices to fix what my parents have done to me or if y'all think I can maybe stretch these myself to wear my new labret and clicker hoops.

Thanks for your time y'all!!

Tldr: lobes pierced as an infant, v crooked, wanted to lock in and get forever earrings but clicker hoops would not go in, then flatback labret (18g) would not go in from front or back. Need help determining if they're too crooked and fucked up (need repiercing) or if I can do this myself w/ stretching.

Agh just so annoyed y'all. Especially because the first time I tried to make the order it went through and took my money but the order didn't register so I had to contact support and then resubmit the order and now it's been processing for 5 business days. Meanwhile other folks already have their bug friends!

I'm so happy for them but what's going on with my guy!!! If my order gets cancelled I fear I WILL cry.

😭😭😭😭

Hey y'all!

I was absolutely taken by the new lightning bug. I have some fun money left in the tank so I went for it, despite him being online exclusive and me usually refusing to interact with online exclusives.

(sidebar: it's bizarre to me he is an online exclusive. Makes 0 sense. To me he feels like a major summer release, especially with the glow aspect. And I can't even begin to guess why theyd choose to make him exclusive).

A lovely person on here had posted a $10 off coupon. Now I'm Canadian, and I know all coupons are in USD. So I added a few items I wanted to my cart to get to $40 USD worth of items (about $60ish CAD I think). I want to also add that I've used these coupons IN STORE before with no problem. So I didn't expect to have any issues online. I put the code in my cart and was elated that it applied, no one had used it yet!

However, I noticed it wasn't changing my total. It said applied and was sitting in my cart but just not changing the total.

So I thought maybe it was because the lightning bug was too new, that it wasn't eligible for coupon use. But when I tested it with other, not new, bears it still didn't work.

I used the chat feature and asked customer support and they were ALL over the place. They are, ofc, not trained to help Canadians at all which was a problem. I seemed to know more than the CS agent did. Until, I finally explained everything clearly enough and the CS agent said something fascinating, she said that "this coupon is associated with a different account number than yours, can you provide me with that account number". I told her I couldn't, that the code was a gift. She then quickly said "it's probably expired" (it 100% wasn't) but I was still stuck on this statement about the coupon not matching my account number.

To be clear she didn't explicitly say this was why it wasn't working. She for some reason became very convinced it was expired. But it felt important/revealing that she said that. Considering I've used USian coupons before, I'm wondering if maybe they've coded their website such that you can't use them on Canadian orders (despite being able to use them in store) OR theres some weird thing tying certain coupons to your account.

Hey!

This will be split into two pieces. The intro and the review. Skip to the review if you want!

Intro

A couple weeks ago when these were announced, I immediately became obsessed with the concept. I've never tried an ole henriksen lip balm or any product. I didn't have too much interest in them, as I do still have some of my usual daily driver lip balm left (Lush snow fairy lip mask) and try not to jump the gun on purchases. But these new chillers did something to me.

Something about the packaging, the colors and transparent caps, the cooling sensation, and the flavors reminded me exactly of something I had as a kid. Every time I looked at the photos of them, I was filled with some kind of warm nostalgia. I'm sure their marketing team would be delighted to hear this lol. I'm not proud that I was emotionally affected by a set of lip balms, but hey it's true.

After they just barely missed the sephora sale, I decided I'd sit on it for awhile before splurging. I definitely wasn't going to get all three, I couldn't convince myself the cost made sense. I was most obsessed with the green one. So I thought if in a week I still want this, I'll consider it.

Then they dropped the minis set and I decided to go for it. It was an okay price for 4 lip balms (which btw are about the same size as quite a few drug store lip balms. For example, my NYX smushy balm which I use to seal in other lip balms is actually smaller in terms of product amount than one of these minis). And it would mean I get to have them all, including the set-specific blackberry!

The review:
I had never tried an OH balm before, so this was my first experience with the formula. It's thick, so so thick and cushioney. It's not sticky on the lips, but hair will stick to it (I don't mind). I was really suspicious that the formula would be anything special, anything to warrant the price. But truly it is better than cheap lip balms. It's thick and nourishing and lasts on my mouth for hours and hours if I don't eat. I can put it on before bed and wake up with it still on. The scent is strong and long lasting but somehow not in a way that sickens me, like some other lip balms. I'm obsessed with how it feels on my lips. Just so plush and kind. It also immediately like dissolves (?) any crusties like bits of loose dry skin. Most lip balms I have just kind of soften them and I have to manually get it off (gross, I know) but this one fully dissolves it somehow.

The cooling is also lovely. I know some folks were blind sided by it, but it was actually part of what made me so interested in them. I love a lip balm that feels weird and this one has maximum cooling! It's definitely not plumping or even really irritating at all. It somehow feels soothing. And it's the most long lasting lip product chill I've ever experienced. I think it lasts for at least 4 hours as long as the balm is still on your lips. And you can reactivate the sensation by pressing your lips together.

The way this balm kind of "dries out" is also unlike other products I've used. Usually, lip balms will get fully soaked into my lips. Good ones leave behind smooth, soft lips. Bad ones leave behind drier lips (like when you get your skin wet and then it feels drier than before). This one dries out much slower for one, I think because of its intense thickness. And it does so in like layers. The glossiest top layer is the first to go, and then you're left with some color (from the tinted ones) and a kind of even thicker balm feeling. Like those really thick butter based stick balms. It's almost like having two products in one. I'm truly impressed by it.

One thing I will say is the colors are not very pigmented. Idk if that's normal for the brand. I don't want a super pigmented lip balm, so I don't mind. And they're absolutely noticeable, but they're not like colored gloss levels of pigment. I think weirdly guava is kind of most pigmented because I think they put a tiny bit of a white base in there. Watermelon is most pigmented in swatches, but really sheers out on application. Blackberry is a lovely, almost ghoulish purple. A true purple, not a berry or anything. It's wonderful. So fun.