affiliate matters and manners- newbie query

Newbie, esp. to being an affiliate, although I used to use commission junction back when that was a railroad station . Anyhow a couple quick questions I hope someone can help with. I am recently signed up at Clickbank and have just started with 3 products.
1. Is it ok to buy your product through your affiliate link? If i am interested enough in something to sell it, I am pretty sure eventually I am going to want to buy it. Can I buy it through my own affiliate link (assuming they don't have any offers or deals specifically for affiliates). Is that frowned upon or perfectly OK? With the bigger buck items it would be an option I would want to pursue, assuming I can't get a review copy.
2. In clickbank I get a hop-code but not much else. If I go to the sales page of the vendor, they often have links to their affiliate programs but they don't tend to mention Clickbank, often seem to have at least one other affiliate program. Is it normal practice to use the affiliate banner ads, etc along with your hop? That would seem the logical way to do it, but again do not want to breach any ethics.. Thanks in advance