Tag: Gifts for Teens

SJCam C200 Pro Action Camera

Birthday Gifts, camping, Children, Family Life, Father's Day, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Sport, Summer, Tech

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

What’s better than taking up a new action hobby or sport in 2024? Making a movie of it! Father’s Day has cranked up a notch this year with the high definition SJCam C200 Pro Action Camera.

This camera is absolutely tiny! At less than 7 centimetres tall, it fits inside your pocket, let alone in your hand luggage to go on holiday, or even to take on days out. The 20 MP quality can record in 4K at 30 fps and has an impressive average of 120 minutes battery time. The field of vision is 135 degrees and records in jpeg with features such as time lapse, slow-mo and can even be used as a webcam.

Less of the technical details though and more about what fun you can have with the camera!  The small size makes it easy to adapt to different environments and because it’s waterproof and has a touch screen, you can use it for all sorts of activities. On holiday, it can be used at the beach or by the pool, or you can attach it to one of the enclosed mounts and put on a bike or take on a hike with you. Inside the box is a waterproof case, back clip, frame mount, base mount, curved and flat mount and other accessories including a cleaning cloth, adhesive stickers and USB cable. Everything you need. In case you were worries about how much room this takes up as a box, everything packs into a box which is smaller than the size of a brick!

The SJCam C200 Pro has a built-in stabiliser, giving you anti-shake video thanks to gyro technology and it has automatic face recognition so that you can focus on the action, and not just randomly filmed footage. This makes sense when you realise this is a camera that you don’t look through the view finder, it’s very much a ‘stick it up and go’ type camera where you rely on the settings and view the content later.  The controls are all from the 1.3” touch screen which is easy to use, but it’s not obvious by looking at the camera that it’s also waterproof to 30 metres (98 foot).  It’s excellent for all adventures, but imagine taking it on a high-speed boat ride? Or even surfing or sailing? 

You can share all the footage via Wifi too, so anyone with a phone or device can see a copy of what you’ve captured. I prefer to remove the SD card from the device though and put the card in a computer to transfer the data faster. I wish I could say I was an expert at editing film, but with the right software, you can have some expert level editing going on with really high quality movies from the SJCam C200 Pro.

There are more features to the SJCam C200 Pro but they’re all a bit high tech for a beginner like me. What I will say though, is that taking this camera out and playing with it has really encouraged me to try out some different sports that I wouldn’t normally, just to see how good it can look on camera. It’s also made me explore my video editing software on my Mac so that I can start to use the video I do have and learn how to use the more advanced features of SJCam S200 Pro. So if you’re looking for a project this summer, or want motivation to get into a new sport and keep your hand in photography, this is an excellent way of discovering a world I hadn’t even thought of.

Even better, if you want to get your teenager off their phone and outside more, you could do worse than buy them an SJCam C200 Pro and tell them to go out and explore, just to get the camera working for them. For less than £130, you never know what Kelly Slater or Bode Miller it might inspire.

Available from £129 at: https://shop.sjcam.com/product/cameras/action-cameras/c200-pro

Elements of Art – Book by Susie Hodge

Birthday Gifts, Books, Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers

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

I am not an artist. I didn’t study art at school or college and I don’t have any areas of artistic flair so I am a complete novice on the academia of art and the techniques behind it.  Elements of Art is a book which anyone, artist or otherwise, can pick up and read, become immersed in a whole new world and learn what the artists were trying to convey.

I had no idea that there are seven essentials that make up any artwork; colour, value, line, shape, form, texture and space. They’re fundamental components of any artwork regardless of the media. Then there’s the principles of art; balance, contrast, emphasis, harmony, unity, proportion, rhythm, movement, variety, repetition or pattern, and scale. See? There’s a lot more to art than you might think!

The book is broken down into two section, Part 1 is the elements of art and Part 2 uses 30 famous works of art as examples to put into practice the elements. There’s artwork there from Jan van Eyck to Andy Warhol and not just two dimensional but sculpture and film too. The chapters are packed with information but also beautifully illustrated and easy to read.  I particularly like the detail that Hodge goes into with each of the artworks. It not only brings the artwork to life but ties in the knowledge in Part 1 of the different elements and makes them relevant to other artwork you might see which is not featured in the book.

I really liked reading through Elements of Art and started flicking through as soon as the book arrived. It’s really easy to pick up and put down, so although it’s not a huge, chunky book it’s actually more of a coffee table book.  I learned loads about art and how it applies to the era it was created in but also about the elements and principles which I’d never thought of before.  You can read the book cover to cover or just delve in to where your favourite artwork is, so you don’t need the commitment of sitting down and reading every single page, unless you want to!  

This book is particularly good for art lovers who don’t have an art education and I couldn’t help but think of the GCSE and A-Level art students who would benefit from this and really enjoy it. Either way, I know that this is a lovely book to keep or to give as a gift and provides an insight to enhance any art outing.

Available in paperback from £15.99 at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elements-Art-Ways-Decode-Masterpieces-ebook/dp/B0CDXPPLP2/ref=sr_1_1?crid=IHMK54K7VZFM&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.vfzuaAQbP1JqW8bxF8NRT7ots3hVZ2uLZ2-kqPjMX008GM_DGvFdq__b31l6WaS0B05wqrSYQwsE6Kk98E3BeC_ptLfEDmmDRI8334RI2m8crPXBSFcrNQZDO_ANYolk7a92ouoDn83gacKeFthTkl2fkY_IoMsZ9OXFsiGD_tyvUmLfurP-USztendRsWwhMEg83KrdzphoHv6gYKCN5-ZZQOWC1iefhQJ99GumjZ4.4XPQgnbNdDGxP8vtVfOz-YEe9iB8sHu5okzhq6z8bU0&dib_tag=se&keywords=elements+of+art&qid=1713703639&sprefix=elements+of+art%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-1

TOZO Tonal Dots T12 Wireless Earbuds

Birthday Gifts, Children, Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Home, Summer, Tech

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

The TOZO Tonal Dots T12 Wireless Earbuds are some nifty headphones which for the price, do everything you expect them to do and more.  We were sent a pair to review this week, which are perfect for the summer and those sports activities that are starting again soon.

The TOZO Tonal Dots T12 are wireless stereo earbuds which come in their own carry case which acts as a charger case too.  The charge case has a digital display to show you how much charge the headphones have, so that you know to charge them or that you have up to 15 hours of full charge left- which is pretty much a whole plane journey or 2 weeks plus of running, gym or walking.  I haven’t needed to recharge them yet, but judging by other TOZO earbuds, it shouldn’t take long with a USB cable fast connection.

The Tonal Dots are easy to connect with Bluetooth 5.3. Yes, you need a phone or appliance with Bluetooth 5.3 but most of us do nowadays, then connecting is easy because my phone (and laptop) could ‘see’ the TOZO headphones when they were in the charge case and kept the connection. There’s a great range to them too; I could walk all over the house and still be connected and the connection didn’t drop at all. Even going outside was no problem. These TOZO Tonal Dots T12 are great for sports because of the distance they connect over, but also because they are waterproof and sweatproof! You can wear these swimming, although I haven’t tested them yet, but with a long connection range it means you can be at the gym and still connected to your phone nearby, or at the pool and your phone be on a lounger somewhere. 

There are 16 preset EQs with the Tonal Dots so that you get the sound you need with whatever music or even audio files you listen to, but you can personalise it too. I liked the quality of the sound with these TOZO earbuds, and how easy it is to change the presets. The Smart Touch control is a must on earbuds, and they work perfectly on these headphones, plus are quickly responsive.

The carry case and compact design make them perfect for travelling and for sports. The wireless charging also makes them easy to charge on the go, so that hotels and planes can charge for you whilst you are travelling or getting unpacked.  The waterproof quality makes them doubly useful and at such a low price (and currently on offer at some places) means you can keep them for work or children are going to love them for their ease and quality but without such a high price.  Perfect birthday presents too!

Available from £39.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TOZO-T12-Headphones-Cancelling-Waterproof-Black/dp/B0C8NNCWGL/ref=sr_1_3?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZiSbXPGeasQZix3NSt-dCoSV0TYrPr5_RFgDTIrue3r0xNMQ4v9cRQrcLO-dJa1G7BplSvG5Y8yzzcqzSeFDd66dWqNgjUA9NIs06yPPqkPzgp-tBG22WG46R2Ce3Nlidqpk6tZnDicuCEJF7KZo3Q.reyIJ45G6hWblS4_hEZaHAypzEL7pFgOVfszDcE42Ic&dib_tag=se&keywords=TOZO+tonal+dots&qid=1710172852&sr=8-3

Tower 1.6l Soup Maker with Sauté Function

Autumn, Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Family Life, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, health, Home, Tech, Winter

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

You may think you already have all the kitchen products you already need, but have you ever tried a soup maker?  I sometimes make soup at home, standing over a saucepan endlessly stirring in order to make a vegetable soup or maybe a stock and I didn’t think anything of how long it takes until Tower sent me their 1.6 litre Soup Maker, complete with sauté function…

 The appliance is a bit bigger than a kettle, and looks stylish in chrome and black. Having never used a soup maker before, I had a look at the instructions (Tower always have really good instructions for their products) and realised it was really easy to make a soup in a maker like this, and far less time consuming.

The Tower 1.6l Soup Maker has 5 functions; Smooth and Chunky (for making soups), Sauté (for cooking bacon and other small pieces of meat before adding them to the soup) and then Juice and Blend.  The Juice and Blend functions are primarily for making smoothies, so not only is this a soup maker for the winter but also a smoothie maker in the summer! To make any of the types of soup or smoothie, you just add the ingredients then press the function and the machine does the right amount of blending or mixing for you, and knows how long to heat the soup for in order to create it at the perfect temperature.

Inside the soup maker, there is a blending blade for creating the smooth soups and mixing up the smoothies. There’s a level on the outside to tell you the minimum amount of liquid to add to the jug and a maximum so that you don’t overfill it.  There’s only a few ‘rules’ about making anything in the soup maker; like you can’t add ice to it (presumably because it will blunt the blade quickly) and you need to cook all the meats before you add them to the soup, but that’s easy with the sauté function.  Everything else can go in and either be blended or cooked as chunks.

So after reading the instructions I was keen to try out this soup making.  I added a mixture of vegetables (courgette, carrot, swede and onion) as chunks to the jug of the soup maker and added a litre of stock made up from a pre-packaged stock cube.  You can add other things at this time like any butter you want or herbs etc but I was keeping it as a simple vegetable soup.  Press the Smooth function on the top of the soup maker and it automatically knows to blend all the ingredients and that it needs heating for 21 minutes.

Whilst I walked out of the kitchen to do some work, the soup maker did its thing. I could hear intermittent blending and heating, and there was tons of steam coming from it (so make sure it’s not anywhere near something that could get damaged or hurt!) which helped warm up my kitchen on a dull day!  When the 21 minutes was up, the alarm sounded and the timer finished so I knew my soup was done. That was it. I didn’t need to do anything else to it except just serve it, which I did with a dollop of fresh yoghurt.

The soup is super hot when you pour it out but it’s beautifully blended and on the Smooth setting there are no lumps. It’s much easier to use than standing over a hot saucepan and allowed me to get on with other things. The Chunky setting allows you to make soup with chunky pieces – just make sure you sauté the chicken or bacon first using the Sauté function or in a frying pan.

I also used the Soup Maker as a smoothie maker using the Juice function.  There’s a recipe in the instructions on how to create your own smoothie from scratch but I used some frozen fruits from the supermarket, yoghurt and milk. Adding them all to the jug, you just choose the Juice function and leave it to work its magic. The programme is only 2 minutes long and made a lovely fruit smoothie. You can’t add ice to the smoothie so I left the frozen fruit out for a while to let it thaw. Look at the yummy results!

The duel use of the soup maker with being a juicer and smoothie maker as well makes this an excellent gift, especially for those who aren’t great at recipes like students or anyone pressed for time. The soups make a lovely change to salads and in winter time are a welcome hot comfort for lunch instead of a sandwich.

Available online from £69.99 at:

https://www.towerhousewares.co.uk/soup-makers/16l-soup-maker-saute-function

Artificial Wisdom by Thomas Weaver – book

Birthday Gifts, Books, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Stocking Fillers

A stunning cover image and thought-provoking twist of a title make you want to look inside this book to see if the story lives up to the title. And for the most part it does. The story is easy to read and moves along at a decent pace, even when at times it is dealing with complex issues and ideas. The world Artificial Wisdom is set in is both frightening and believably based on the news topics of today. The characters are likeable, or not if the plot demands, and in a few cases a little too good to be true. The author, Thomas R. Weaver, takes you through the story in such a way that you care about the outcome.

In a not-too-distant future, political leaders are much as they are today and have failed in their actions to stop climate change. The world is failing, countries becoming uninhabitable from heat, flood or famine causing migration challenges and human disasters. The super-rich have built floating climate-controlled islands, to escape the unbearable heat, that are run on their behalf by a unique artificial intelligence. The nations of the world have, rather surprisingly, agreed that one person must be given absolute power to make the hard decisions and save the human race from extinction. But who will they choose?

Against this background, the book’s main character, Marcus Tully, is a journalist who believes in the truth above all else, consequences are not his problem. He is supported by a team of misfits, all with the special skills needed to help his work of uncovering the truth and exposing those in power. He is following an anonymous lead to the ultimate story. But what is the truth and is it more important than saving humanity? The death of his wife in a climate change tragedy beyond imagining has taken a toll on the man.

Artificial Wisdom is essentially a mystery set in a future built but taking its ideas from the paths unfolding in the present. Climate change has not been solved, political intrigue is still rife, political corruption is still prevalent, conspiracy theory is everywhere, information can be deep faked and artificial intelligence is evolving. The author’s writing brings the reader along with each new idea and builds the world in a credible way explaining how such things could have happened.

This is Thomas R. Weaver’s debut novel and is ambitious in its reach. Full of twists and turns but perhaps a few too many coincidences and fortunate connections. However, this aside, the story rattles along and keeps you wanting to read to its conclusion. The concepts and situations challenge you to think about what you would do in this disturbing future timeline. The ending irked me slightly as it required a character to betray principles written in stone for the rest of the novel. However overall, I would recommend this novel to those who like a good mystery novel.

Available from £14.99 at:

www.amazon.co.uk/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&channel=glance-detail&asin=B0CJT79SXG

Papersmith Calypso Notebook and Primo Pen

Birthday Gifts, Books, Children, Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Home, Learning, Stocking Fillers, 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 like me and relish the thought of a new notebook to start journaling, making to do lists or sorting out your life, then Papersmiths is a brand you’ll love.  If you’re returning to school or university, the colour options of both notepad and combination pen work as a lovely gift too.

Papersmiths’ A5 Notebooks are soft covered and come in 9 different colours. Unlike other notebooks, each one has numbered pages, going up to 236 pages in all and the page numbers are coloured as you progress through the book. We were sent a ruled-page version but you can also have plain pages or 5mm dot grid, depending on what you want to use it for. The notepad is bound with a thick 15mm spine and has a double contents page at the front for ease of making notes.

The cover is British made, in the Lake District and the inner pages are made especially for fountain pen ink, although you can use any pen or pencil and it’s bound together in Buckinghamshire, England by a 4thgeneration binder.

The accompanying ball point pen you can see in the photos is also part of the Papersmith range.  The Primo Pen, which is new to the available stock, is aluminium made for hardiness as well as being light to hold and has brass accents.  I especially liked that this ballpoint writes really finely, much finer than mass produced ballpoint pens and doesn’t leave heavy ink blobs on the page when you put the nib down to write. There’s a nice flow to your writing when the ink is constant and easy. It may be pricy for a pen, but you can buy refills from the Papersmith website so that your pen can keep going for a lifetime! If however you prefer a different thickness of line, you can swap out the refills from ballpoint to gel and change the style of ink to suit your needs. They’re available in 6 colours to match or compliment your notebook.

Papersmiths also have a range of stationery accessories available, such as pen clips, notebook bands, diaries and desk planners as well as the refills mentioned above. You can also ask for the notebooks to be personalised before it’s sent out, and gift wrapped too!

I shall be using my new Calypso notebook for journaling ideas and using the page numbers to create a content at the front for future reference.  Colour coding my notebooks in the future won’t be difficult with the ample amount of colours available on the Papersmith website, and for anyone using the notebooks for school or university, you will find it easy to use these beautiful notebooks.

Notebook (Calypso) available for £22.00:

Calypso Notebook

Primo Pen (Peacock) available for £14.00:

Primo Pen – Peacock Green

Audio Pro T3+ Peter Eugén Bluetooth Speaker

camping, Christmas, Family Life, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Home & Garden, Tech

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

Gear yourself up for the Christmas gift buying season by familiarising yourself with the latest gadgets out there. You won’t be disappointed by all that Bluetooth speakers can do nowadays, and I bet there’s at least someone in your life who could benefit from one!

Audio Pro are the Swedish speaker company who have been in operation for over 40 years. Their website shows the full range of different speakers they have on offer including multiroom speakers, Tv speakers, speakers which connect with smart apps and Bluetooth speakers like the Audio Pro T3+ which we have been reviewing.

In conjunction with self-taught artist and designer Peter Eugén, Audio Pro have created the Addon T3+ Bluetooth speaker.  The collaboration is made even more special by the fact that the Addon T3+ is a special edition created by Peter who is best known for his rock music portraits and recent watercolours.  So with these two artistic worlds meeting to make cutting edge technology, what can you expect?

The Audio Pro T3+ Bluetooth speaker has 1 woofer and 2 tweeters in a sand coloured frame with brass accessories.  The buttons on the top are for on/standby, Bluetooth pairing, BT/AUX source selection and volume.  At the back, there’s a USB charging port, power connection and AUX, with cables provided in the box. You’ll spot in the photos that this limited edition also has a “Peter Eugén” edition plate too, so you know you’re the owner of a select few!

Although the T3+ can connect with AUX to any appliance, this is after all a Bluetooth 4.0 speaker so that’s how I initially set it up. There’s instructions both in the box and online but if you’re like me and want to play with the gadgets first, you’ll find it easy to get started. Simply turn the speaker on, click the Pair button and your laptop, phone or anything Bluetooth compatible will be able to find it.  Pair up and it’s as easy as that – just start playing the music.

The Audio Pro T3+ supports various sound systems including Apple, MP3, WMA and FLAC. It also supports whatever you play on your device so I went onto YouTube and played a movie soundtrack through the speaker with ease.  The battery lasts for up to 12 hours on full volume if fully charged, and 30 hours on half volume. Speaking of the volume, I was pleasantly surprised at how loud this speaker could go, far greater than any of my devices but also louder than what I could attain with other Bluetooth speakers.

The quality of the sound is very good, given that it only has one woofer. The balance is excellent with no dead spots around the speaker where there isn’t a balance.  For the price of this speaker, I would say the quality of the sound is superb and the ese of use makes it excellent value for money.

The colour of the casing might put off some of the teenagers who are undoubtedly the target audience for the price range.  However, for the grown ups, who appreciate the design and who Peter Eugén is, the speaker makes a big impact and can be used for anything including taking outdoors or as a speaker in the office during the day. The ease of carrying it around and setting up are the main plus points.

I look forward to seeing what else the innovative Audio Pro come up with next in their speaker range but in the meantime, I’ll keep playing The Stones on my T3+.

Available from £180 at: https://www.audiopro.com/en/product/addon-t3/#black

LensPen Smarty Smartphone Camera Cleaner

Birthday Gifts, Family Life, Father's Day, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home & Garden, Mobile Phone, Stocking Fillers, Tech

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

If you’ve received a new smartphone for Christmas, or take a lot of photos on your camera you’ll know that the smudge factor is real when it comes to the camera lens. I hate it when I take what I think is the perfect photo, only to find that when I view it, there is that misty blur on all the photos because the lens isn’t clean. It’s the price we pay for handling our phones all day, but there are ways of reducing the smudges.

LensPen Smarty Cleaner for Smartphones is a tiny yet useful gadget for cleaning your camera lens on smartphones. Suitable for all makes of camera phone, the pen is only 4cms long and can fit in your pocket, or in the bottom of your handbag without even noticing it’s there! The cap screws loose to reveal the head of the pen which is a carbon cleaner. There’s no detergent or alcohol involved, just a pad which is small enough to fit through any camera phone casing and erases away all the grime.

I tried this on my iPhone, especially as I frequently get blurry smudges and I can’t clean them away easily with just a tissue or corner of my shirt. The LensPen is small enough to fit, comfortable to use and with minimal effort, it dissolved away the greasy fingerprint on my camera lens.  To prove it works, I used it on the front of my camera phone on the touchscreen. The pen does indeed eradicate fingerprints anywhere!

Available online from $5.99 at: https://www.manfrotto.com/us-en/lenspen-smarty-smartphone-cleaner-black-ln-smarty/

Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity Gift 1000 Piece Jigsaw

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, eco friendly, Family Life, Games, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Home & Garden, Stocking Fillers, Toys

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

My grandparents lived just one street away from Great Ormond Street Hospital (or GOSH as it’s known) so I was all too aware of the hospital whilst growing up, especially with the efforts to raise money in the 1980s for its complete rebuild.  The hospital is known for life saving work for children who are the most sick and not just in London or the South East, but many children are taken there from all over the world. The hospital was founded in 1852 with only 10 beds at a time when there was very little government funding for general health and in 1915 saved my grandmother’s life when she had malnutrition when she was 4.

So when Great Ormond Street Charity asked us to have a look at some of the items on their gift list for Christmas, I was not only very happy to help, but given the fantastic charity items available today, there were lots of great presents to choose from!

GOSH have their own charity shop and specially selected gifts for Christmas 2022. Among the gifts are collectable teddy bears, items inspired by Peter Pan (JM Barrie donated the copyright of Peter Pan to the hospital in 1929) candles and endless Christmas cards.  There’s toys, games and this very lovely 1000 piece jigsaw of Great Ormond Street Hospital from Gibsons.

To anyone who likes jigsaws, the first thing you look at with a puzzle of this size is how difficult it is. Yes, more pieces makes it more difficult but the design is a big factor too, along with the thought of whether you will get bored or constructing it, which typically takes at least a few days, depending on your skill, time and how many people are working on it! At first, I thought it was just a cartoon, but when it arrived and I started to look more closely I realised that it was a history of Great Ormond Street Hospital, along with pictures of the events. Starting with Charles West who was the Principal Founder, we go through some of the more important figures (such as Princess Tsahai who chose to train and work at GOSH) and events such as electricity first being used in the operating theatres in 1898. Can you imagine performing an operation today without any electric light?

I found myself reading all of the captions and looking at each of the cartoons before I even opened the box!  There is also a challenge within the drawing to find all of the letters which spell out Great Ormond Street Hospital, which I shall leave to you to find!

This is a gorgeous puzzle which would not only please anyone who is a puzzle fan, but as it’s for charity it will also make anyone feel quite humble at the thought that the gift will benefit children too.  I would suggest though, if you keep it for yourself, that you don’t use the diagram to find all the pieces, and instead piece it all together without so that you can enjoy reading all the facts and history as you go along.

So, how long did it take me? Well, it’s currently on my dining room table in nearly all of the 1000 pieces still… I’ll get back to you when it’s finished!

Available on the GOSH website for £16.00:

Great Ormond Street Hospital Jigsaw

Aldi Make-Up and Skincare Gifts

beauty, Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Fashion, Gifts for Her, Gifts for teachers, health, Women

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

Christmas at Aldi is always wonderful, and we’ve been working with the team there again this year to bring you the best in their products! We have been sent a hefty portion of their beauty products to show you what’s on offer this year – both in store and online, and introduce you to some new favourites.

Aldi make gift buying easy with their selection of items such as these three scents from the Hotel Collection. Each pyramid also doubles up as a bauble so can be used as gifts, decorations or even Secret Santa.  The scents, which are 30ml each, are No 1 Lime, Basil & Mandarin (white box), No 16 Bergamot Oud (black box) and No 2 Blackberry & Bay (purple).  Each fragrance is specially mixed for Aldi to be as contemporary as possible and similar to what you might find in the department stores this year. No more old-fashioned granny perfumes! At £2.99 each these are great #StockingFillers or #SecretSanta gifts.

For more extravagant gift sets, the Lacura Spa Rice Milk & Cherry Blossom Gift Set and Fizzy & Fabulous Bath Trio are both £7.99. Both very different gift box sets, the Fizzy & Fabulous set is three Christmas themed bath bombs. The Christmas Tree and Snowflake are both Lavender and Bergamot whilst the star bath bomb is chocolate orange flavour.  It’s best to use one bath bomb at a time, but in this set you have two bombs which are relaxing and calming (lavender and bergamot) whilst the star bath bomb is more Christmassy with it’s chocolate orange scent. Suitable for any age, kids love these when they dissolve in the bath and they leave your skin soft too – plus smelling of the lovely scents! Great stocking fillers or #GiftsForTeachers and Secret Santa.

Aldi also have a beautiful range of make-up available this Christmas and this is only a small portion of it.  We’ve previously featured the Lacura serums and Lacura foundation and they have so much more including this Quad Eyeshadow Palette. With four colours, two of which have a shimmery texture to them, they can be used alone or in conjunction with one another to create an effect for Christmas. The nude colours are great for all year round though, and easy to blend.  Priced at £3.99 they’re another stocking filler idea! Why not round off the look with the Lacura Eyeshadow Primer as well, at £2.99. Use the primer as a base before you put on your eye shadow and it prolongs the look and feel of the Palette all day.

Lips don’t go unnoticed this Christmas either. This Perfect Nude colour for Lacura Lipstick (£2.99), Lacura Lip Liner (£2.99) and Lacura Lip Gloss (also £2.99) work together perfectly. You can either use all three to make a glossy, polished look, or use them individually for daytime or a quick fix.  As they’re all the same colour but different textures, they work in combination to create the Lacura look.  The Perfect Nude colour can be worn all day too, or dressed up for night. You won’t find many lipsticks for £2.99 on the market and especially won’t find the whole Lacura Lip Look for less than £10!

Skincare is a big part of Aldi’s Lacura range.  We tested some items including the Pineapple Microdermabrasion Scrub.  Containing pineapple enzymes (you can guess how they like to eat away at the impurities!) this scrub can be used several times a week. Just gently massage onto wet skin and rinse thoroughly.  It really left my skin feeling softer and smoother, taking away dead skin and the remains of make-up. I loved this, and at £3.99 it seems incredibly good value for a 100ml tube.

I was intrigued by the Lacura Multi-Peptide Moisturiser (50ml, £6.99) not least because of the pump-action dispenser!  The moisturiser boasts 7 peptide complex, stem cell extraction for hydrating and smoothing.  It’s very much like a serum, and not heavy but does absorb into the skin easily. I used this after the Pineapple Microdermabrasion Scrub and it glided on effortlessly. It leaves skin soft, and more like a base to put a foundation or make up on top as it isn’t reflective like the Lacura Caviar products.  Still, it lasts all day and I can’t believe that it’s only £6.99 compared to the extortionate costs of moisturisers available elsewhere.

Also in skincare is the Intensive Eye Cream.  With vitamin A, B5, C and £ complex, and with grape seed extract, this is also for smoothing and hydrating the skin, but mostly around the eyes although you could use it for the mouth and bridge of the nose too if preferred.  I thought this was even more hydrating than the Multi-Peptide Moisturiser, which it probably should be as it’s for the eye area but this cream left my skin feeling dewy fresh too. The 15ml tube will last a long, long time as you only need a tiny amount and at £3.99 it’s an absolute steal!

Read here to find out about the Aldi fragrances – there’s a lot of them and you won’t want to skip what’s on offer!

Oclean Flow Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, eco friendly, Family Life, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, health, REUSABLE, Tech

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 an electric toothbrush, you will be astounded at both the range available and the price of them! Oclean have launched a reasonably priced toothbrush at less than £25 which is both rechargeable by USB and sonic.  They sent us one this week to try out.

The Oclean Flow toothbrush has everything you would expect but at that surprising price.  It has Sonic Technology, so that’s sonic speed to the brush oscillation which is 38,000 strokes per minute. It has 5 easy to use brush modes (Morning, Night, Standard, Whitening and General) with a 2-minute smart timer. Flicking through each of the modes is just at the touch of the one on/off button so there isn’t anything complicated to learn or read up about in order to get your routine. You can even do two of the modes back-to-back if you want to go the extra mile.

The toothbrush comes with one brush head which is made of DuPont bristles. I liked the bright orange bristles, which make it much easier to see in the dark mornings! They also act as an indicator to let you know when the brush head needs replacing.

Charging is easy with the USB Type-C lead which comes with the toothbrush. The Type-C port is at the base of the toothbrush which is accessible from a lid which flips open. You know when there is 10% or less charge left in the toothbrush because the round button flashes red to indicate it needs charging. One single charge can last up to 25 weeks though with morning and evening brushing.

When using it, the instructions give you a warning that it may make your gums tingle if you haven’t used an electric toothbrush before, but as I usually do, it wasn’t a problem for me. I liked the firmness of the bristles and how easy it is to use especially with just one control button and nothing too complicated for late at night or early in the morning. The same goes with the 2-minute timer so you don’t have to think much. My teeth were left clean and fresh afterwards, as you would expect!

It is surprising that this brush is so cheap and that it’s aimed at adults and teenagers because it’s rather sophisticated for what it can do, but easy to use. I think most children would be able to use it easily, and the white look and packaging makes it universal for everyone.  Perhaps good for taking on holiday, especially with such a long charge amount and the ability to charge from a USB outlet? It’s a fabulous present for anyone and looks like it’s a lot more expensive than it is!

Available for £21.10 at:

Edifier TWS1 Pro True Wireless Earbuds

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

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

I have never had wireless headphones before, and with all the commuting I do and going to the gym, I really should have done before now!  Opening these pink Edifier ear buds, it was nice to have them in their own case, which also doubles up as a charging unit.  The buds fit snugly in the magnetic case where they snap into place and fit the connectors to charge.  

Placing them straight into my ears was obviously the first thing I did, but like any good reviewer, I tried to connect them to my iPhone X without reading the instructions.  It turns out that these TWS1 Pro headphones are super easy to set up. From my phone, all I had to do is go to the Bluetooth settings and the headphones were already there. I just clicked on ‘connect’ and the headphones were working, playing the songs from my phone straight away. They turn themselves on when you take them out of the case and turn themselves off again when put back in place.

Using the headphones was easy too. It was just a matter of tapping once (on either ear) to play or pause, twice on the left ear for the previous track and twice on the right for the next track.  Volume up and down is a hold on either ear bud. It’s one tap to accept a call and 2-3 taps to disconnect a call on your phone too.

The ear phones stayed in for the whole of my cycle and weights workout which I was surprised about.  The sound is balanced between both ear buds but there’s not the best bass on them and I can’t find a way of changing the settings. There’s a long battery life on them and they’re very sharp when listening to audio books etc.

For the price, these are great stocking fillers or for teenager who already have a smart phone.  It’s difficult to go wrong with how easy they are and compact but well designed in the case and they come with not one but two sets of spare ear pieces.  I am converted to using these headphones now instead of my wire ones for everyday use and I’m not going back!

Available for £59.99 at:

Yankee Candle Advent Calendar

Christmas, Gifts for Her, Gifts for teachers, Home & Garden

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

Advent Calendars are no longer about chocolate! Instead, there are some gorgeous gift calendars that are both festive and useful like this Yankee Candle Snow Globe Wonderland.

I’ve never tried a candle advent calendar before but I do love Yankee Candles. They remind me of Christmas Day, the only day that my family allow us to light cinnamon or cookie scented candles because, ‘Its not Christmas otherwise’!

The Yankee Candle Snow Globe Wonderland Advent Calendar is obviously not for children but this could be suitable for a teenage candle lover. There are 24 windows (instead of the new 12 Days of Christmas trend) so you have the whole of advent to enjoy and light a candle.

The first window has a glass tealight holder and a small tealight.  Subsequent windows have either larger candles (37g) in glass jars or are the smaller tealights that fit into the tealight holder which was in window 1.  I counted 12 of the larger candles and 11 of the tealights, plus the glass tealight holder and candle from 1 December.  

Each candle has it’s own unique colour regardless of whether it’s a tealight or a full candle.  Some of the flavours include Cinnamon Stick, Wild Orchid, Spun Sugar Flurries and Winter Night Stars.  I do love cinnamon flavoured candles, especially at Christmas, but under window 24 for Christmas Eve, there is a special candle called… Christmas Eve! A fresh, spicy scent it is very familiar to anyone who loves Yankee Candles or who goes into one of their shops around Christmas time.

Yankee Candle have really thought about how to organise this calendar with the tealight holder in the first window, culminating in the special scent for Christmas Eve. There is enough life in each candle or tealight to last a whole evening in the run-up to Christmas, and if you don’t want to light a candle at that time, they can be stored easily.  If you’re wondering, no, the smell of the candles is not overwhelming like in some retail shops. You can’t really smell them when they’re in the box and when each one is lit, they’re not too powerful either. It’s a gorgeous gift for a friend, or for your daughter in the run-up to Christmas, especially if you don’t want to give chocolate!

Available for £39.99 at: https://www.yankeecandle.co.uk/yankee-candle/candles/shop-by-collection/christmas/advent-calendars/advent-book/ORCL_1716520E.html