Christmas gift ideas – Page 4

Rubik’s Phantom Rubik’s Cube

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Family Life, Games, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, secret santa, Stocking Fillers, Toys

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

The Rubik’s Phantom is a mind-boggling, challenging puzzle related to the famous 80s Rubik’s Cube that many of us grew up with. This one is different though because it has a major difference. You can’t see the colours on the stickers unless you heat them up with the warmth of your hand. Without the warmth of your touch, all the sides are black!

Once you solve the first puzzle (ie getting into the intricate packaging) then the Cube itself looks harmful enough. It has the same black squares all the way around until you put light pressure on each one to reveal the colour. Quickly you realise that you can’t just sit and hold your finger over one sticker at a time, so you have to find ways of warming up the whole face of the Cube at the same time in order to reveal the different colours. The photo shows what the Cube looked like before touch, then after. This however, was only after I worked out how to hold the Rubik’s Cube in my hand long enough to get the full colour through.

The sides are in 6 colours (white, green, orange, blue, red and yellow) and each sticker seems to have a different ‘warm up’ time to it. Some of the stickers kept their colour for longer too, whilst others seemed to fade quickly. The trick is to get as many of the sides warmed up (and it took a good 30 seconds to get a true colour to come through) then work on solving the puzzle with one hand at least constantly on one face to keep from going cold.

The Rubik’s Phantom is one of the more challenging hand puzzles available with a 5/6 scoring for difficulty. The added pressure of remembering which colour each tile is or indeed remembering to keep the faces warm, adds to players’ cognitive memory, as well as using fine motor skills and general problem solving skills – vital if you’re to work out how to get the tiles warm enough! Incidentally, the heat sensitive faces need a temperature of 26C (79F) or above to change colour. How long it will take to complete the puzzle in anyone’s guess.

Available from £19.69 at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Rubik’s+Phantom&ref=nb_sb_noss

Taco Vs Burrito The Card Game

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Family Life, Games, Gifts for children, Home, Learning, secret santa, Stocking Fillers, Toys

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

If you’re looking for a different card game to play this Christmas or to give as a gift, Taco vs Burrito ticks all those boxes. A game for 2-4 players, it can be played by any age (although it’s recommended from age 7 years upwards), this strategy game is for all the family. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to play and each round is only about 15 minutes long.

Invented by 7 year old Alex, the game has causes a storm with its whacky but fun cards. The game has won numerous awards including Best Family Fun Tilillywig Award, Winner of Hot Diggity Award 2021, and winner of National Parenting Product Award 2021. There’s been over 500,000 units sold worldwide already and 17,500+ 5-star awards from users. All from the imagination of a small boy whose parents started a Kickstarter appeal for funding for him, to make his dreams come true.

How to play: each player is given either a Taco or a Burrito (hence the name) as a basis of the game. Using the 5 cards dealt to you, each player either adds a weird ingredient card from their hand (such as fresh brains or chocolate covered shrimp) or an action card. The aim of the game is to build up a disgusting meal with ingredients cards that have different point values, then use the action cards to either increase the points value of your meal, or smash the value of your opponent’s meal. There’s also the Hot Sauce Card which doubles the value or your meal or that of other players when you play it against them.

As the game progresses, there’s other action cards such as the Tummy Ache card, No Bueno card (to stop the action of another player at any time), or the Health Inspector. If you get the Health Inspector card, you have to play it immediately in the game, sending all the ingredients cards in your meal to the discarded pile on the table, never to be used again. That is unless, you have the Trash Panda card, which allows you to take any of the cards from the discarded pile and add it back to your hand.

The different variation of action cards to use against the ingredients cards are what make the game fun for everyone. The cards are colourful and easy to read and for little ones, it helps develop their reading skills as well as taking turns in play. The different type of action cards take a little while to get used to so I would have an adult sit and play until they all get hang of the game rules. It’s great fun though, and everyone understood how to play with each consecutive game, so this is perfect for Christmas time board games!

Available on Amazon from £24.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Taco-Burrito-Popular-Surprisingly-Strategic/dp/B07JZTBV9C/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2CBW8R4GRTDFZ&keywords=taco+vs+burrito+card+game&qid=1694957554&sprefix=taco+vs%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-5

My Picture Customisable Photo Gifts

Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Family Life, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Home & Garden

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Christmas is always a difficult time to buy gifts for some people. There’s the Grandparents who say, “I don’t need anything,” and the distant relative you don’t really know, plus the need to update everyone in the family on how big the kids are getting. Nowadays, there are some brilliant customisable options for personal gifts which can keep everyone happy.

MyPicture.co.uk is a website designed to allow you to upload photos and create custom-made gifts for the home. There’s everything available from canvas prints, photo cushions, framed prints, photo blankets and some specially designed items like this city map poster. We were sent the instructions on how to create this city map poster of London (where our reviewer lives and grew up) to show how easy it is to create as a Christmas present.

From the www.mypicture.co.uk website, click the dropdown for Photo Gifts and you can start the new City Map Poster process to customise your city or town to your own taste. You can search for a city area using a postcode or name and the diagram instantly updates to show you how it will look. It also allows you to add a marker (for instance if you wanted to mark a place where you met), add some text or co-ordinates and change the type of font. To make it extra special, it can arrive pre-framed and with the right accessories to be able to hang it straight on the wall!

There’s the choice of whether you have it portrait or landscape and different types of frame (black, white, silver, walnut, oak or without a frame at all) and the whole canvas is delivered to your door.

The whole process is completed online with the image updating in real time as you make your choices. I thought I knew what I would want when I started creating it, but as the live updates showed, I changed my mind and was able to adapt it to what I wanted. There’s a choice of sizes too which was handy to be able to choose which wall space I wanted to fit it in.

Once the frame arrived, tightly packed and in perfect condition, it was ready to be hung without any DIY needed to it. The enclosed fixtures (which are part of the design request and at a small added cost) are specifically for this type of print so they take the right weight. The sizes are a nice variety of 30cm x 40cm, 40cm x 60cm and 60cm x 80cm. The chunky frames are nice and sturdy too and as the print is already mounted in the frame, there’s no fiddling around with trying to fit it and get the grips on the back to move.

The result when it turned up really exceeded my expectations! The London city map poster was crisp under the Perspex covering and the black frame really added to the look. It’s a brilliant gift as well. I chose London for the city map poster because I was born and live here but you could choose a town or a co-ordinate of where you met your partner, or where you got married. The possibilities are endless!

mypicture.co.uk have the following promo code for 15% off:

Promo code (REVIEW15) – this goes on top on all other discounts active on My-Picture.

City Map Posters start at £17.90 depending on size and finish: https://www.my-picture.co.uk/photo-gifts/city-map-poster.jsf

Belledorm Cocoonzzz Silk Pillow Cases

Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Gifts for Her, Home, Home & Garden, Plastic free, Sustainable, Women

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

We often ask for gifts at Christmas which we wouldn’t normally buy for ourselves, but an even better gifts is one which we hadn’t even thought of!

Silk pillow cases are one such present. I’d never really thought about buying them for myself, thinking that they were not what they cracked up to be or a bit cliché. Given the chance to review them though, I was pleasantly surprised. I was sent two pillow cases, one in Ivory and one in Powder Pink. Each pillow case measures 52cms by 76cms (housewife size) and is made with 100% pure mulberry silk.

Opening the delivery, I found each individual pillow case was housed in a beautiful presentation box with ‘Cocoonzzz The Secret In Silk’ elegantly detailed on the box. If you’re buying Cocoonzzz pillow cases as a gift, this is the perfect way to present them as it’s not obvious that they’re silk pillow cases at first, but they do look classy and the word ‘silk’ is very intriguing! The pillow cases inside are wrapped in paper and sealed, so when you open them, the soft fabric falls out into your lap and you immediately feel the quality.

As for putting them on the bed and sleeping with them… they’re really easy to put onto the pillows as you can imagine because the pillows just glide in so easily! When you sleep on them at night, they’re lovely and cool and stay reasonably cool all night. Just like the claims on the website, they prevent creases forming in your face and your hair doesn’t go static or lose it’s shine because the silk keeps the moisture in your skin and hair, not soaking it away like cotton fabric does. It takes 20 minutes to get used to the frictionless surface though and stopping your head falling off the pillow! I would suggest only having your top pillow as the Cocoonzzz Silk Pillow Case whilst you get used to the texture then increasing your accessories.

The pillow cases are washable by hand only, as you would imagine with silk, and only ironed on a low heat. Each case is 100% real mulberry silk and reduces the likelihood of allergic reactions.

I’d never tried real silk pillows before but these are revolutionary! They do indeed prevent the moisture from leaving your skin, and they make bedtime even more luxurious and look fantastic on the bed!

Available in various colours for £108 each (but on sale at £54 at the moment) from Belledorm at:

https://www.belledorm.co.uk/product/cocoonzzz-silk-pillowcase

Oxygenetix Oxygenating Blemish Control SPF25

beauty, Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Gifts for Her, Women

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

If you’re looking for a way to moisturise and at the same time a way of conditioning skin so that you don’t get blemishes, then Oxygenetix have a product which might be of help.

The Oxygenetix Blemish Control Moisturiser works as a foundation to create a smooth canvas of your skin whilst using Salicylic Acid to clear the skin. As a product it has skin care benefits as well as making you look great and reducing the need for multiple products.

Most make-up products block the skin from ‘breathing’ but not allowing oxygen to the skin surface, upset the pH of the skin and can cause pores to be blocked when either too much make-up is used or is used frequently. Oxygenetix products all contain Ceravitae™ which promotes collagen production. The aloe vera base also helps to calm, soothe and cool the skin and is the friend of those with sensitive skin. Oxygenetix Blemish Control Moisturiser also has an SPF of 25 UVA/UVB to protect against the sun and prevent skin damage.

How well does it work? The Oxygenetix Blemish Control Moisturiser is cool to the touch and glides on your skin beautifully. It’s very rich so takes a little while to absorb into your skin but once it does, it leave a lovely base for either a moisturiser to go on top, or for your make-up to be applied. I found that the moisturising effect lasted all day, and my make-up didn’t slide off after a few hours. It left my skin very dewy and soft, which is a relief when I don’t get time to reapply my skincare throughout the day.

Oxygenetix Blemish Control Foundation is available from £90 at:

https://www.dermacaredirect.co.uk/oxygenetix-blemish-control-moisturiser.html

Edifier G5BT CAT Headphones

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Tech

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

I’ve come to expect great sound from Edifier and the G5BT gaming headphones from their Hecate brand do not let me down. Listening to music is a pleasure, with deep bass and a full immersive sound from the 43mm Hi-Res titanium drivers. The headphones are really well built and comfortable to wear, the ear cups are softly padded with memory foam as is the adjustable headband to give all day comfort. They also include a cute set of cat ears – an extra feature that you’re going to love – but don’t worry if cat ears aren’t your thing they are attached with magnets so can easily be removed!

Being targeted squarely at gamers, there is a dedicated gaming mode that adjusts the sound profile and gives a low latency connection. If you’re using a 3.5mm jack connection and your device is compatible, then you’ll also benefit from the certified Hi-Res sound.

It isn’t just about the sounds that you can hear, it is important that your friends can hear you. The headphones come with a boom mounted microphone that can be hidden away when not needed and a great dual mic noise cancelling system.

The final gaming touch is a full RGB system with 8 different lighting options which light up not only the earcups but the magnetically attachable ears too, personally I’m not a fan of the lighting but then again I’m not a teenage gamer! If like me you prefer not to use it, it is easy to turn off and best of all, the headphones remember the setting when you next turn them on.

The battery life is excellent, a 2 hour charge can give 20 hours of use – and up to 36 hours without the lighting but if connected with the 3.5mm jack then they’ll work fine without any charge at all. Connection is either by Bluetooth 5.0 or a 3.5mm jack allowing connection to a wide range of devices. I’ve been using bluetooth and have not had a single problem. Controls are pretty simple with easy to find buttons on the back of each ear cup covering all the normal features such as volume, track skip, answer a call etc.

The headphones come with a charging cable, 3.5mm jack cable and a hard carry case which is great for keeping the headphones in when travelling.

With great sound-quality and comfortable to wear these would make the perfect gift for any gamer young or old.

RRP £129.99 available from Amazon

Liforme Yoga Mat

Birthday Gifts, Christmas, cruelty-free, eco friendly, Family Life, Fashion, Fitness, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, health, Home & Garden, Plastic free, Sport, Sustainable, Women

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

By a certain age, or maybe it’s a certain level of fitness, yoga becomes less of a puzzle and more of a necessity. The company Liforme pride themselves on doing things differently to support and encourage the practice of yoga, and do so with their conscientious products. Their ethos to ‘Live for More’ by positively engaging communities is evident on their website, along with some delicious products any yoga fan will adore!

Amongst the products available was this Liforme Grateful Rainbow Yoga Mat which was sent to us to try out. It’s bright pink, printed with an eco-friendly, non-toxic design of a rainbow mandala and alignment markings which can be described as guides for your feet and hands. This mat is a serious bit of kit for serious yoga people and you can tell just by looking at it. There’s much more science, and thought, behind it than you realise though, as I discovered.

The Liforme Yoga Mat is made with a real natural rubber base (so that it doesn’t slide all over the place) and the top layer is made of eco-polyurethane. In all, the mat is 4.2mm thick but it feels thinner than that. It’s not chunky or clunky at all. The top eco-polyurethane layer is designed to be more grippy than other mats, so that you can practice without worrying about sliding all over the place, and the design is printed with durable yet eco-friendly ink. The same goes for all the designs of the yoga mats available on the Liforme website. The mat weighs in at a hefty 2.5kg though so if you’re used to your yoga mat being light-as-air, this is going to be quite a shock! The weight comes from the quality of the material though.

The dimensions of the mat come in at 185cm long and 68cm wide. That’s 73 inches long and 27 inches wide in old money.

As for the usability, the mat comes with a free carry case, which is needed when you have a rolled-up mat of this size and weight and need to transport it to several lessons a week. The real test is in a yoga class, which is where any yoga equipment needs to prove itself. The bright pink façade is very pleasing especially as you know in a dimly lit room and when you might need to wander around a bit, you can never lose it! The surface is nicely grippy. Grippy enough for a Downward Dog and to not face plant yourself. Liforme call this GripForMe technology and it allows you to use your full body weight in poses and not move an inch. Not even a millimetre for that matter, as I discovered when I was able to more pressure into some of the poses than I usually would. So in some ways, you could say that the Liforme Yoga Mat made me better at yoga as a result!

Liforme as a company have recently been awarded B Corp status. The B Corp status proves that Liforme has high standards of social and environmental impact as their core belief as a company and a quick look at their website proves that their high quality and non-toxic materials are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to responsibility. The mats bio-degrade in 1-5 years (depending on conditions) and believe that they have the world’s most planet-friendly yoga mat.

Truly a treat, the Liforme Yoga Mats aren’t cheap but they are suited to the serious yoga practitioner or fitness expert and look simply gorgeous. The unique design and alignment cues make this yoga mat stand out from all the rest, and a perfect gift too.

Available for £140 (but currently on sale for £105) at:

Liforme Grateful Rainbow Yoga Mat – Grateful Pink/Rainbow

XGIMI Elfin Projector

Birthday Gifts, camping, Children, Christmas, Family Life, Father's Day, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home & Garden, Learning, Tech

Disclaimer – We were loaned this item for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Are you struggling to treat the tech lover in your life this Christmas?

Look no further as the XGIMI Elfin Projector is a wonderful gadget and bound to be received well by any lucky recipient.

Projectors have certainly come a long way in terms of design and user ability since my childhood. Gone are the bulky space taking projectors and in their place are a new generation of slimline devices.

Elfin’s slim, lightweight design is similar in size to a standard book and can be transported easily in a bag wherever you go.

As a family of keen campers, we think the Elfin would make a welcome addition to our camping kit as it takes up minimal space, and would be a great way to entertain us all by providing some much needed relaxation during the evenings at the campsites we visit. The idea of a movie under the stars after a fun day’s camping really excites our children.

The XGIMI Elfin Projector was really easy to set up (remote control takes 2 x AAA batteries which were not included) and the user manual was easy to understand and came in a variety of languages.

The Elfin doesn’t come with a stand as standard but this can be bought separately for £72 from XGIMI.

Elfin’s Intelligent Screen Adaption (ISA) technology automatically optimizes your display in seconds meaning more time for movies!

1080p, 800 ANSI Lumens provides a crystal clear and vividly colourful visual experience for anyone watching thanks to its super powerful lens.

Choosing the right place to protect your movie is important. A patterned wallpaper wouldn’t be suitable so a plain wall is perfect. Our walls are a latte colour and this didn’t affect the colours at all, which was brilliant.

Alternatively, a projector screen can be used. We used our own projector screen outside to see how well the projector would work and it was perfect! The projected images were again crystal clear, and it felt like we were watching a TV.

The integrated Android TV™ delivers 5000+ apps, including Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, and Disney +. It was really easy to download these apps with a few clicks of a button and all that I needed to do was log in to my accounts.

Sound wise the Elfin didn’t disappoint, its two 3W built-in Harman Kardon speakers really enhanced our viewing experience with high-quality surround sound.

Overall I am really impressed with the XGIMI Elfin Projector and have really enjoyed using it, it’s an amazing piece of tech!

RRP £599

Available to buy from https://uk.xgimi.com/products/elfin

Edifier TWS1 Pro Earbuds Review

Birthday Gifts, camping, Christmas, Family Life, Fitness, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Tech

Disclaimer: We received the earbuds for the purpose of this review but all words and opinions are our own.

I have been trying out the Edifier TWS1 Pro wireless earbuds for the last week and I’m really impressed with them. They are comfortable to wear and feel very secure in my ear, I had got out of the habit of listening to music on the go as my previous pair kept slipping out and I never felt happy wearing them, so I am really pleased to have found a replacement that do actually stay put.

The earbuds are really easy to set up, simply switch on the Bluetooth pairing, connect & go. The earbuds power off when placed in the case and the lid is closed and power on and connect automatically to your device the moment you open the case.

To use the earbuds you simply tap them, controls include play, pause and skip to the next track as well as adjusting the volume and answering calls.

The Edifier TWS1 Pro earbuds feature Qualcomm®’s second-generation aptX™ adaptive technology which combines aptX™ high definition audio and aptX™ low latency, and dynamically switch to the best option depending on different scenarios. I found the sound quality to be excellent, with no distortion and perfect for my rock and pop playlists!

The charging case holds the earphones securely with magnets and once placed in the case the earphones start charging automatically A single charge provides 12 hours of playback time and the case provides an additional 30 hours of charge, so in total you can enjoy 42 hours of playback before you need to charge, which is enough for most people. When it does run out of charge the case has fast charging capabilities and reaches a full charge within 40 minutes.

I wear my earbuds when exercising so was pleased to discover that the earbuds have an IP65 dust and water-proof test rating making them the perfect choice for any outdoor activity.

The earbuds have a RRP of £49.99 and are available in black, dark grey, ivory or pink from Amazon