The instructions do not clearly state whether it is expected for the top light bulb and lamp strip to turn on when plugged in. I spent 2 hours through the process of elimination to find out that it is the lamp itself (not the remote) that you would need to connect to the smart life app(by a screenshot), and that it may be strongly possible that when the light/light strip do not turn on when plugged in (right after you finish installing and go onto add device) that they are not working only after re-reading the instructions over and over again. 
The instructions say “turn on the light” when adding device to the smart life app. And, the user guide that you access via the QR code on the manual redirects you to a YouTube video highlighting the features of the lamp and not a visual guide to setting up a device to sync with the lamp…
Anyways the lamp did not work for me so I am returning it