I recently browsed through Temu’s “Best Sellers” list and couldn’t help but wonder if some of these items really best sellers, or is that just a marketing gimmick? I decided to put four of them to the test to see if they lived up to their labels. Here’s how they fared, tested in the order that I thought they might be most to least useful.
Where to Purchase
Temu listings come and go, so I’ll link to the listings I purchased from, and I’ll also try to include more “stable” Amazon links for the same products covered in this review. I’m assuming these Temu listings will be gone within days or weeks of my review being posted. When that happens, I’ll remove the link and just leave the Amazon listing here.
- Toothpaste Caps: Temu | Amazon
- Bottle Lamp: Temu | Amazon
- Retro Handset: Temu | Amazon
- Crazy Glasses: Temu | Amazon
Mess-Free Self-Closing Toothpaste Caps ($1.56 for a 6-Pack)
The first product I tested was a set of self-closing toothpaste caps that supposedly keep your toothpaste tubes and counters clean. The concept is simple: replace your toothpaste cap with one of these, and it will automatically close after each use.
Installing them took a little bit of effort, as they require some force to snap onto the tube, but once in place, they seemed to work as advertised. When I dispensed toothpaste, it came out in a thin, controlled ribbon, and the cap sealed itself when I stopped squeezing. I let the caps sit for 24 hours, then 48 hours, to check for crusty buildup, and surprisingly, they remained clear and functional.
Verdict: These surprisingly worked! They require slightly more hand strength to squeeze out toothpaste, but they prevent that annoying dried-up gunk from forming around the cap. I’m not sure how many people will go out of their way to use them, but they do what they promise.
Bottle Lamp ($8.90)
Next up was a rechargeable LED lamp that supposedly turns any bottle into a stylish light source. Right away, I noticed something was off, because the listing showed a tapered plug that would fit snugly inside a bottle opening, but what I received was a cap-style piece that just rests loosely on top.
The light itself functions as described, offering three color modes (warm, white, and natural light) and a dimmable feature. However, the shade doesn’t glow like you would expect from a “lamp.” Instead of looking like a lamp, it mostly just shines light downward into the bottle. It’s wobbly and doesn’t fit securely, which is disappointing given the misleading images.
To test battery life, I fully charged it and ran it on high until it died. It lasted 6 hours and 44 minutes, though around the 5-hour mark, the light became noticeably dimmer.
Verdict: It’s not entirely useless, but it’s underwhelming and not what I expected. If it actually fit snugly in a bottle and the shade illuminated, it could have been much better.
Retro Phone Handset ($7.42)
This one was purely a novelty, and a throwback to the days of landlines, but designed to plug into a smartphone. The build quality was cheap, but surprisingly, it worked! Calls came through, the volume control functioned, and the answer button even paused and played YouTube videos.
As a bonus, it can be used as a microphone, though the audio quality is what you’d expect: midrange-heavy and a bit crackly. I tested the call quality with Jacey, who said it sounded like I was talking through a tunnel but was still understandable. The biggest issue? There’s no convenient way to carry this thing around. Where are you supposed to put it when you’re not using it?
Verdict: It’s a fun gag gift but not something anyone will realistically use long-term. If nostalgia is your thing, you might enjoy it for the laughs.
Blinking “Crazy Glasses” ($2.80)
I knew this one would be a total gimmick, but I had to see if they even worked. The idea is that when you open your mouth, the eyes on the glasses close, and when you close your mouth, the eyes open.
In reality, they barely functioned. One eye got stuck immediately, and no amount of fiddling could get them to work consistently. I even tried lubricating the hinge, but that didn’t help. After a few seconds of amusement, the novelty completely wore off.
Verdict: Hard pass. These are the kind of cheap, mass-produced junk items that Temu loves to flood the market with. Calling them a “bestseller” is a stretch.
Final Thoughts
After testing these four products, I have to wonder if Temu’s “Bestseller” label is as arbitrary as Amazon’s “Amazon’s Choice” badge. Out of the bunch, the toothpaste caps were the most useful and might actually find a place in my daily routine. The rest? Straight to the boneyard, though I might pull out the phone handset now and then for a laugh.
Have you tried any of these products? Let me know what you think in the comments!
Video Review
You can watch my full video below.