What I’m Testing This September: APLB, Hiya & More

Every so often the bathroom shelf and the kitchen cupboard both quietly fill up with things I've been meaning to try, and September has turned into one of those months. Some of it's been in daily use for weeks. Some of it arrived yesterday and is still sitting in its box looking at me. I thought it made more sense to bring you the whole shelf in one go rather than spin every single item into its own post, some of these genuinely don't need 1,500 words, they need three honest paragraphs and a link.

So here's the current state of things. I'll tell you exactly where I am with each one: properly tested, just started, or still in the box waiting for me to get round to it. No pretending I've formed an opinion on something I opened this week.

Hiya Health kids vitamins: the honest family verdict

This one I'm genuinely glad to get down in writing, because the kids have actually used these long enough for me to trust the reaction rather than just reporting the unboxing.

Hiya makes a chewable daily multivitamin aimed at kids from age two up, formulated with 15-plus vitamins and minerals plus a blend of organic fruit and veg, sweetened with monk fruit and mannitol rather than added sugar. Alongside it sits the Daily Biotic, a chewable probiotic with 10 billion live cultures aimed at gut health and immune support, and the Daily Greens + Superfoods, a powder built from 55 whole-food ingredients that you stir into milk.

The multivitamin and the Daily Biotic have been a proper win in this house. Both kids take them without a fight (they actually see them as a treat!), which is not nothing when you're dealing with children who have opinions about everything else that goes near their mouths. No sugar-crash gummy vibe, no fuss about the taste, just a quick chew and done. If you're after a no-drama way to fill nutritional gaps without the sugar and dye content of a lot of supermarket gummy vitamins, both of these have earned their place in the morning routine.

The Daily Greens + Superfoods is where I have to be honest with you, because that's the whole point of writing these up properly. It did not land. One of my two will drink it if I mix it firmly enough into milk, but doesn't particularly enjoy it. The other isn't interested at all, and outright objects. And I want to be clear that neither of my children are what I'd call picky eaters, so this isn't a fussy-kids problem, it's a taste issue with this particular product for us. It might work brilliantly in your house, plenty of parents online seem to get on fine with it, but I'm not going to pretend it was a hit here when it wasn't.

As for the Daily Greens + Superfoods, I'd rather flag it than leave it out. It's a genuinely well-formulated product on paper, 55 whole-food ingredients and zero sugar, it simply didn't win either of my children over. Worth trying if your kids are more open to a green-tasting drink than mine currently are, but I can't in good conscience call it a hit here.

APLB Glutathione Niacinamide Body Lotion: the actual review

This is the one I've properly used.

I was sent this through YesStyle. Glutathione turns up constantly in K-beauty skincare at the moment, and I wanted to see what it was doing in a body lotion rather than a serum, where it usually lives. The full ingredient list reads like a proper skincare product rather than a bargain body lotion: glutathione and niacinamide at 1,000ppm each, a genuinely high 12.3% concentration of Centella Asiatica extract, plus hyaluronic acid, hydrolysed collagen and squalane further down the list. It's fragrance-free, free from mineral oil and parabens, and formulated to be hypoallergenic, so it's a reasonable option if you're someone who reacts to scented body products.

In practice, it's nice. Genuinely nice, not damning-with-faint-praise nice. It's a milky, fairly thin lotion that sinks in properly rather than sitting on top of your skin feeling tacky, which matters a lot to me in a body lotion because I cannot be doing with standing around waiting for something to absorb before I can get dressed. There's no scent to speak of, which some people will love and others might find a bit clinical if you're used to a proper fragranced body cream, but for daily use on skin that occasionally gets a bit dry and dull-looking, particularly on my shins if I'm honest, it's done exactly the job I wanted it to do.

I wouldn't call it a dramatic, life-changing lotion. It doesn't need to be. It's a well-formulated, sensible daily body lotion with good actives in it, and it's earned a spot by the shower rather than being pushed to the back of the cabinet, which is usually the only verdict that actually matters with something like this.

Everything else currently on the shelf

The rest of this month's list is a mix of things I've only just started and things still waiting their turn.

Suri Pro 2.0 toothbrush

Still going strong since I first wrote up my honest first week with the Suri Pro 2.0, one button, no app, and I'm still not missing the mouldy toothbrush situation from before. I'll come back with the proper long-term verdict once I've had it long enough to actually test that 40-day battery claim properly.

VT Reedle Shot 700 2 Step Mask

Not started this one yet, it's newly arrived alongside a K-beauty order. Given how much I rate the VT Reedle Shot 100, which has genuinely become a shelf staple for me since I first tried it, I've got fairly high hopes for the sheet mask version, but I'll report back honestly once it's actually been on my face rather than assuming it'll be good because the serum was.

APLB Sheet Mask Collection (4 masks)

Also unopened. Four sheet masks covering four different concerns: the Tranexamic Acid Niacinamide one for pigmentation and tone, a Glutathione Niacinamide mask that's essentially the sheet version of the body lotion above, a Collagen EGF Peptide one for firmness, and a Retinol Vitamin C Vitamin E mask for the anti-ageing end of things. Sensible way to trial the brand across a few different concerns at once rather than committing to a full-size product before I know if their sheet mask formulas suit my skin. I'll report back on all four once they've actually been used rather than picking favourites in advance.

SKIN1004 Sheet Mask Collection (6 masks)

Also still unopened, and also a set rather than a single mask, pulled from across their different colour-coded lines rather than all being the same formula. SKIN1004's whole reputation rests on Centella Asiatica sourced from Madagascar, so I'm expecting the common thread across all six to be soothing and barrier support, but each one apparently leans into a different finish, hydration, pore care, brightening and so on. It's one of those K-beauty names that keeps coming up from people whose skin I trust, so I'm excited to work through this properly rather than just patch-testing one and calling it done. Watch this space.

NINELESS Sheet Mask Collection (7 pieces)

Same story, not started yet, and also more than the one item I mentioned. NINELESS builds its whole range around a handful of named lines, each aimed at a different concern: A-Control for acne and uneven tone, B-Boost for brightness, Mela-Pro for pigmentation, Hydra-Max for dryness, and an Essentials tier for daily soothing and sun protection. Their whole approach is built around adding nine beneficial ingredients and removing nine potentially irritating ones from every formula, which is a nice, sensible philosophy on paper. Seven pieces is a proper way to actually test that claim across more than one concern rather than judging the whole brand on a single product. Keen to see if it holds up in practice.

Thome CPR Triple-Synergy Wrinkle Care Serum

Unopened for now. It's built around a 1% collagen, 1% peptide and 0.1% retinal combination, which on paper is a proper actives serum rather than a gentle everyday one, so I'll be easing in slowly and reporting back rather than diving straight in every night. Have a look here if you want to see it while I get round to actually using it.

Slopehill hairdryer

Still in the box. It's a 2000W ionic dryer with a claimed 110,000 RPM brushless motor and a magnetic diffuser and concentrator attachment, which sounds properly promising on paper for the price point, considerably cheaper than the big-name salon dryers that usually dominate this category. Here's the one I've got, I'll let you know if it lives up to the spec sheet.

Karseell Argan Oil Conditioner

Also not started. It's built around a blend of Moroccan argan oil, macadamia oil, tea tree oil, chamomile oil, aloe and algae extracts. Argan oil is rich in vitamin E, which is the bit doing most of the work on shine and split ends. Given it's a standard everyday conditioner rather than an intensive one, I'll have a proper sense of how it performs fairly quickly once it's in rotation. Grabbed it here if you fancy following along.

CIGMAN CM-S04 16-Line Laser Level

Sent over by CIGMAN, and a proper change of pace from everything else on this list. It's a green laser level projecting 16 lines across four full 360-degree planes, two horizontal and two vertical, so in theory it lines up an entire room, walls, floor and ceiling, in one go rather than the single cross-line you get from a basic level. It self-levels automatically, has a pulse mode for outdoor use with a detector, and comes with a proper hard case, remote control and app control. I'll be putting it to use on the next DIY project rather than testing it on a shelf, so this is one where the write-up will genuinely mean something once it's actually been up a wall.

A few honest questions people ask about testing shelves like this

Right, back to actually using half of this

That's the shelf as it stands. Come back in a few weeks and half of this list will have moved into proper reviews, and the other half will probably have quietly vanished if it didn't work out, which is its own kind of honest verdict.

For more of what's actually earning its keep in my routine at the moment, have a browse through the rest of the beauty and wellness section here on the blog.