Category: Product Reviews

Samsung SmartThings win

Product Reviews / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Over the last few months, I’ve been posting about the Samsung SmartThings Starter kit I received to test and review in a word of mouth campaign thanks to The Insiders.

Samsung SmartThings Win

Throughout the campaign there were a few challenges to make videos. Unfortunately due to my anxiety I was really struggling to participate in these challenges. I contacted The Insiders to apologize. In the last few weeks of the campaign The Insiders added a challenge for those that reported conversations, posts etc the most so they could also win their starter kit.

Luckily I’ve spoken to a good few people about the starter kit as well as posting about how I have used it on-line and reported back several times.

A few days ago I received an amazing email from The Insiders! I was one of the lucky few that gets to keep their starter kit. I will also receive 3 extra sensors including the Motion, Presence & Multi sensors!

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To say I am over the moon would be an understatement. I thought all the challenges were over. Because I thought this, I was gutted I would have to send my starter kit back. I couldn’t afford £99 to buy it but getting to keep it along with 3 extras is awesome. Honestly, I cant wait to receive them and put them to good use!

Along with the LGG4 campaign I have thoroughly enjoyed being an Insider! I can’t wait to see what campaigns are coming up next!

Bakerdays Amazing Personalized Cakes

Product Reviews / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Last week I was sent a tweet from bakerdays asking if I would like to review one of their 5″ Letterbox cakes.
Of course, it’s cake and I couldn’t reply quick enough!

Letterbox Cake

I was curious what a ‘letterbox’ cake was so I had a look on their website bakerDays.com to see what they were all about.

BakerDays is a Personalised Celebration Cake Specialist, providing quality personalised cakes for all occasions. The delicious range of recipes and sizes are available for delivery 6 days a week, and if you order before 2pm, BakerDays can deliver the very next day! The Letterbox cake is the baby of the BakerDays family. Being just 5” in diameter, it fits perfectly through the Letterbox allowing you to surprise anyone with the most delicious personalised gift.

OK, so you can literally post cake now!? How did I NOT know about this!? Why wasn’t I informed sooner?

Picking A Cake

Luckily the lovely Emma at bakerDays responded to me quickly. All 4 of us were quickly browsing through cakes deciding which one we wanted. We all love cake here, especially chocolate cake (when we manage to grab a slice before the Mr!). So when we spotted there was an amazing chocolate chip option, we instantly knew we had to try some. Eva (5) spotted a minions cake and surprisingly chose that over frozen. She also decided she just wanted it to say Merry Christmas!

After choosing our options and Letting bakerdays know what we would like I was told it would be in the post soon. I would either receive it the following day (Saturday) or early the following week.

Quick Delivery

When my postie knocked with the box in his hand the very next morning we were all overly excited! CAKE!! I couldn’t wait to open the box and see what was inside.

Instantly I was impressed by the contents of the box. The cake itself was well packaged in a lovely ‘Just for you’ cake tin, Along with this was a Christmas cracker, a cute card and a Baker Days leaflet.

Affordable

At just £15 for a cake of this size (Letterbox 5″), I am happily planning to have several of these made up for upcoming birthdays and celebrations! I love the fact you can personalize them & get to choose from 6 delicious flavours as well as several different sizes. This is including cupcakes! (I definitely have a cupcake order for the Mr on the cards!). I just know receiving this in the post would make anyone’s day!

Well Packaged

Upon opening the tin we found the cake was in a sealed packet on a cake board inside the tin. Sticking up was a little tag to help you lift the cake carefully out of the box.

I kind of just expected a cake in a box and was quite pleased it had been packaged so well. The plastic bag keeping it fresh for upto 14 days is quite handy. Although lets face it most of us wouldn’t let a cake sit that long!

Print Quality

I was honestly amazed at the picture quality on the icing as a lot of cakes we have bought in the past have been really pixel-y (probably not a word). This is something that bugs me quite a bit surprisingly! 😂

When I showed Eva she squealed in delight and was really impressed with the cake bless her. She wouldn’t stop nagging me the entire day to try it!

We decided to cut the cake into 6 pieces.. 2 for the Mr and I and a slice each for the girls. 😉

bakerdays minion cake

I was stunned at how easy it was to cut the cake and move it onto a plate too, I can mess this up easily, yet managed to almost cleanly move both slices onto a plate. Admittedly I left some of the base on the card though.. But on the upside, it was a yummy little tester haha!

Minion cake cut into slices with 3 missing.

Our Thoughts

I couldn’t wait to try a slice after my tester and found the cake to be such a light and fluffy texture. The icing wasn’t horribly sweet and hardened, instead, it was creamy and soft. The first slice didn’t last long as it was absolutely gorgeous and was soon followed by a second slice. I would perhaps like a slightly chocolate-ier (another word that probably doesn’t exist) flavour but it was still delicious and I would happily eat it all over again!

The Mr enjoyed it too he was really impressed with the icing. He thought the texture and consistency of the cake was lovely but prefers a much chocolate-ier cake (He is a chocolate cupcake monster!). He agrees that it would be a perfect gift though, especially with the extras.

Eva couldn’t scoff down her cake fast enough! I tried to question her but all I got was ‘Mmmm’ ‘Chocolate!’ ‘Minions eeek nom’ until she was done.

More Please!

Afterwards, she said it was really soft and yummy and asked for another slice.
She was greatly disappointed the Mr & I had already scoffed 2 slices each 😬 and instantly asked if we can test another 😂

Izzy unfortunately squished a bit of her slice and shook her head but admittedly she was recovering from chickenpox and off her food, so I ended up finishing it off for her.

Half eaten bakerdays cake

Enjoyable

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this review for Bakerdays. I will definitely be ordering more cakes with them in the future! Who wouldn’t want to get a cake in the post seriously? With so many options and ways to personalize your cake, it’s ideal for a variety of occasions.

If you would like to find out more about bakerdays cakes there are several ways to find them. You can either search the hashtag #bakerdays or visit @bakerdays on twitter; Find them Here on Facebook or go straight to their website Here.

Can you phone the fish?

Product Reviews / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I hardly expected ‘ Can you phone the fish ‘ to be something I’d hear twice a day. Thanks to the Samsung Smart Things Power Outlet it is now a regular occurance in our home.

 

To be able to put up our Christmas tree this year we had to rearrange the living room, as part of this we moved the fish tank onto a bigger sturdier table as I was beginning to panic daily at the way the smaller table bowed in the middle especially with both girls constantly leaning on it! Having moved the fishtank and bigger table the Mr realised it was going to be awkward to turn off the fish tank’s pump whilst the fish were fed and begun trying to think of a way to solve it.

Eventually I realised the Smart Things Power outlet could come in useful here allowing us to keep the new changes as I can turn the pump on and off via the Smart Things app as needed. I told the Mr he could do it on his phone too since the app allows you to share your account with several devices.

Can you phone the fish?

The Mr isn’t a great fan of technology though and still hasn’t installed the app, admittedly I keep saying I will install it and set it up for him but keep forgetting to do it! Instead every morning and every night the Mr turns to me and says ‘can you phone the fish’ 😂 it makes me giggle every time he says can you phone the fish as well as making it easier to turn the pump off and on.

Im absolutely in love with the Samsung SmartThings starter kit from The Insiders and slowly finding more ways to use it around our flat to make our lives easier. Im quite tempted to attach the presence sensor to Eva’s school bag next since it keeps getting lost in school at least that way we can beep it to try and locate it faster and save a ton of stress.

I wish there were more Power Outlet’s too so I could have the Kettle boil when Eva is almost home so the Mr can make himself a coffee without having to call me to put the kettle on… Hmm perhaps 2 Presence Sensors would be better so we could attach it to the Mr’s Backpack as he take’s it shopping.

I seriously hope I get to win my starter kit as I think I could quite easily get carried away buying extra’s for it!

Do you think Samsung SmartThings could be useful in your home?

CatchMyPain App Review

Helpful Ramblings / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
Areas

I came across this amazing app called CatchMyPain thanks to a member from a facebook group I am on. It is available on both the Google Play Store and the Itunes store by searching ‘CatchMyPain’. The app allows anyone with Chronic pain to track and log their pain. It even lets you send it via email making it really easy to share with Dr’s etc!

Catch My Pain

When you use create a pain entry there are 7 pages to complete. On the first page you are presented with a picture of the body and 5 colours to use. Mild pain – Yellow going all the way up to Dark red – Unbearable.

Using these colours you can colour in the area’s which are painful. You can then use colour to specify how intense the pain is in that area. I love this as I find it hard to explain why I am in so much pain. This way I can show people where and how much it hurts so they can get a better idea.

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Pain Intensity options

The body rotates allowing you to colour wherever on the body you need to and theres an eraser if you want to start again.

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On the following page are you are given the option to edit the time frame of your entry. This means you can log exactly when the pain started and for how long it lasted.

I find this handy if you have a particularly bad day and don’t feel up to making an entry until you are feeling better. Allowing you to track your pain accurately as you can enter earlier dates and times too!

Pain Intensity

Next up is the overall ‘Pain Intensity’ which you are given a slider to move. The slider starts from No pain up to Worst pain imaginable.

On the fourth screen, you are given a list of ‘Descriptions’ you can select. These describe the types of pain and you can even add your own. Perfect if you can’t find the right description in the list. You can add as many as you like too which is ideal.

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Condition

‘Condition’ is the 5th screen where you are asked how you felt during the time frame selected on the second screen. You do this by choosing a face to represent ‘Happiness’, from a crying sad face to a smiley face.

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As I have found this app so useful I chose to add on the Stress and Fatigue sliders too for only £0.65! I don’t tend to pay for in-app add ons but this seems a great feature.

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The sixth page is the weather here you can adjust time or date and sync it with your location. You can also enter it manually and it will log the temperature which you can adjust if needed.

Extras

As you can see on the sixth page there is also the option to buy the full weather feature for £1.96. I am currently earning Google Play Store credit using the Google Opinion Rewards app! (Thank me later haha!)

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On the final screen you have the options to add in any comments you wish.

Pain Chart

Having filled out several Pain entries I visited the Pain Chart to see what it showed. I was impressed that it had literally logged everything including the percentage of the body affected by pain!

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I like how it shows Happiness, Stress and Fatigue on here as it also gives people an idea of how the pain affects me. Using this chart I can also work out what actually helps me calm down and relax too. Blogging and Knitting are definitely helping me this week!

Medications

Another part of this app is ‘My Meds’ where it enables you to add any medications you take. You can edit the details of the drug as seen below and you can set the frequency they are taken too.

Again I decided to pay £1.14 so I could add on the Drug intake reminder as I am absolutely awful with remembering to take my tablets at the right time!

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There is also a built-in community, so you can chat with others, when you do this you are asked to set up a username and your display picture becomes the body from your last pain entry showing where and how intense the pain was/is.

Having had a look around the Google Play Store for a similar app several times before I was really happy and impressed when I tried this one out.

What more could you want? It helps you track everything, its an easier way to show friends, family and Dr’s if like me you are very forgetful and forget how to ‘word’ at times and all the data can be saved and emailed to anyone you want! This is a great app for a lot of #spoonies and I just had to share for those that hadn’t come across something like this before.

*This post is in no way affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by any of the companies mentioned in this post.

Ambi Pur 3Volution Review

Product Reviews / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
Ambi Pur Insiders kit

I recently signed up to SuperSavvyMe and applied to test the Ambi Pur 3Volution Vanilla latte plugin. Out of over 15,000 applicants, 5000 were chosen to take part and I was one of them!

Approved

I was quite excited when I got my email confirming I would be receiving my delivery soon. There was even more excitement when literally a few hours later the parcel arrived!

Inside the box, I found a SavvyCircle bag. This was instantly swiped by Izzy to carry her toys around in. Safe to say I wont be seeing that again any time soon!

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Contents

Inside the bag, was the Ambi Pur 3Volution Vanilla Latte Plug in & my welcome pack. This contained a guide to the project packed full of tips to spread the word, a booklet of research sheets. Inside, there was also a booklet containing 15x £2 Off Ambi Pur 3Volution plugin vouchers and 10x £1 Off Ambi Our 3Volution Refills.

Ambi Pur 3Volution

Of course, I excitedly opened up the packet straight away. I unscrewed the caps on the refills and pushed them in first. Then, I plugged it into my hallway socket straight away! Yes, I genuinely do get excited about trying out new things. I squeal like a child and HAVE to play with them instantly. I started off on minimum, wanting to see how it worked and how strong the scent was for each setting.

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It’s not the ugliest plug in out there but it is quite plain. After a few hours on minimum which was quite pleasant I tried it on maximum but found it far too strong. The Vanilla Latte aroma definately beats the mixed smells from neighbouring flats and any scent the cats have decided to leave by the door!

Pleasant Scent

Ive left it plugged in for over the christmas period and hopefully as it is near my front door anyone that visits will notice the pleasant scent of Vanilla latte or spot the plug in itself. Either way I will make sure to bring it up and see what people think about it.

To spread the word, I’ve already told my friend Charlotte about it. She loves stuff like this. She is first in line for a voucher or 2 to test one out! I have to say after just a day its made my flat smell gorgeous! I cant wait to see what our friends think of it and I’m quite tempted to get one for each room!

Any other SavvyCircle members blogging about their Ambi Pur 3volution?

Chicco Deluxe Rain Cover for Strollers Review

Product Reviews / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
Zeta Citi Zoom Stroller with Rain Cover

I discovered the Chicco deluxe rain cover for strollers after I bought a cheap second-hand stroller prior to ordering the Zeta Citi Stroller. It didn’t have a rain cover and as I knew the stroller was a temporary one, I didn’t want to buy the matching rain cover. Instead, I opted to buy a universal one.

The Mr and I decided to head to lakeside one day to find one and came across 2 in Boots we liked the look of.

Chicco Deluxe Rain Cover For Strollers

One had no pockets and looked quite thin. The Chicco Deluxe rain cover was thick, had a pocket on the back and mesh sides to let air in. I love this as it stops the rain cover steaming up on the inside when it rains. It also stated that it fits most strollers. Surprisingly the Chicco one was cheaper costing only £10 at the time, it seems the price has gone up to £15 since but I am sure I recall it being on offer at the times and receiving double points too.

Chicco Deluxe Rain Cover for Strollers Review
Covers the changing bag nicely too!

We’ve had the rain cover around 6 months now, it fits both strollers perfectly. Unlike previous rain covers I’ve had, it hasn’t torn even with Izzy repeatedly trying to kick it. Personally, I think even at £15 it is well worth paying out for if you are looking for a really good universal rain cover. Admittedly, the storage bag it came with ripped easily after a few times of use but that has happened with most storage bags I’ve had. Overall the rain cover fits really well on my stroller and the pocket is so handy. Definitely well worth the money in my opinion!

I did attempt to take a few more photo’s for this post but unfortunately, Izzy wouldn’t allow me to. Unfortunately I’m all out of bribes right now, sorry for the inconvenience!

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Buggy love!

Zeta Citi Stroller Review

Product Reviews / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
Sleeping in her stroller

Earlier this year I began looking for a new stroller for my 16 month old daughter (Izzy). Ideally I wanted something light weight with an umbrella fold that could be put away in a cupboard if we needed hallway space as we live in a flat.

I wasn’t happy with the stroller i had for tons of reasons and my main one being Izzy just wasn’t comfortable or happy in it which made going out stressful , so I started googling purple strollers, prams buggy’s etc in the hope of finding something comfortable for the little one and easy to push that i could fit a few bits underneath, could handle a few bags of shopping on the handles too and purple.. Of course!

I spent months researching different strollers but i found most were well out of our budget even second hand. I wanted something around the £60 mark whether new or used. Preferably in purple. I spent a good few months googling purple strollers/buggy’s/prams/pushchairs.

I came across the Zeta citi stroller on Amazon. I had seen one or two go past in town and loved the extended hood. Sunlight in Izzy’s eyes make a quick trip to town seem like a very longggg trip to hell and back.

Zeta citi stroller review

That pretty much sold it to me but the fact it came in purple! Amazing! I decided to give it a go as the price wasn’t bad at all at £29.95 & £10.59 delivery. I showed Izzy and she shook her head.. And pointed to the RED one!! :'( Of course I tried bribery but after a few tantrums (from me) I gave in and agreed she could have the red one.

I opted to buy the stroller without a rain cover as I already had a universal one ill blog about later. I did choose to add on the black & red foot muff for £7.95 from the same seller so I only paid one delivery fee, still under my limit of £60! At least there was a win for me even if it wasn’t purple.

When it arrived we pulled it out of the box, popped the front wheels on and put it up with ease. Izzy instantly went crazy and tried climbing in. She was over the moon bless her!

Izzy climbing in
Izzy loves climbing in by herself

Straight away the frame seemed much sturdier than the hauck stroller we had been using. The seat was deeper making it easier to get her strapped in without me having to wedge my knee between her legs whether the foot rest is up or down.

The seat reclines fully and easily by pushing down the two levers either side underneath the seat and can be adjusted to several angles, the foot rest adjusts too by 2 little levers underneath, meaning no matter how fussy Izzy is being I can move it around until she’s comfortable enough to stop moaning loudly.

Our previous stroller had a drawstring to adjust the recline which isn’t easy to do if you have a ton of shopping and a child screaming at you. Now I can adjust the seat quickly and easily, the adjustments are smooth meaning she doesn’t notice if I lay her back when she falls asleep upright.

One thing my Mr does find annoying is that when the seat is fully reclined you cant get into the shopping basket underneath without popping the seat back up which for some children is likely to wake them, for me its not an issue as Izzy doesn’t notice if she is asleep but I can see his point and know a few people whose little ones wouldn’t tolerate it at all.

Asleep within minutes of getting in

As I mentioned the main reason I was drawn to this stroller was the extending hood which has been extremely handy and one thing I hadn’t noticed on Amazon was that there is a small clear window across the hood allowing you to keep an eye on your little one even though they are world facing. Its the perfect position for me to see Izzy, however my Mr finds it a struggle and he says it would be better if the window was moved up the hood by an inch or so.

Being a shorty at just over 5ft and having a partner who is a good few inches taller we needed handles that weren’t too short making the Mr bend as he pushes and not too high for me, again I absolutely love the height of the handles personally but again the Mr would prefer them to be an inch or so higher and tilted back ever so slightly.

We attached the foot muff to check how it fits the stroller and Izzy as it is a universal foot muff. We found it fits lovely and comes right up to Izzy’s chest meaning on a cold windy day with her foot muff right the way up and the hood right the way down I can keep the majority of the wind and cold away from her without needing to put her rain cover over and making her moody. Since its got colder we are using the foot muff regularly and found it is soft and warm for Izzy and much better than our previous one.

Spot the baby!

We bought the Zeta citi stroller back in September and we’ve put it through its paces over the last 2 months doing shopping & school runs in all kinds of weather and overall I am very pleased with it. The Mr obviously would prefer a few changes because he is taller than me but for us short mums that just want something lightweight, easy to store for nipping around town in that can handle a few bags of shopping on the handles then its almost the perfect stroller. If only I had been allowed to order it in purple…

SmartThinking with Samsung SmartThings

Product Reviews / 8 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
sensor monitor

Last week I revealed the Samsung smartThings package sent to me from TheInsiders, I explained how I had used the SmartThings Power outlet to control the table lamp in my living room. It was so simple to use via the SmartThings app on my phone.

SmartThinking

I was sat for a while struggling to think of ways to test the other SmartThings and I had no suggestions. (hardly surprising after a 2yr break from blogging and a slow start!) Then a delivery driver annoyed me by posting a card through without knocking last week, he gave me an idea of how to use the SmartThings

Missed Deliveries

I’m sure we have all had it in the past where a sneaky delivery driver tries to silently push through a missed delivery card. I guess it saves them the few minutes it takes for you to answer the door and sign for a parcel. Its happened to me several times, some I’ve caught out and managed to get the parcel. Others I’ve missed and ended up having to collect from a sorting office. I was trying to think of a way to catch him out using the SmartThings. Living in a tower block of flats I wasn’t keen on the idea of attaching anything on the outside to alert me of their presence so the Multi-Sensor was out of the question.

SmartThinking Motion-Sensor

Motion Sensor

Eventually, I decided to try the Motion Sensor. I figured if I attached it to the inside of my letterbox, I could probably set it up to send me a notification on my phone if anything came through. At least this way I will know as soon as the card is put through the door. Then I can get to the door before they jump in the lift!

Letterbox Motion Sensor

Setting Up

I attached the monitors and synced them to the SmartThings app This really is simpler to do than I thought it might be! I chose to be alerted whenever the letterbox opens and closes. Then I set the notification tone to the noisiest one I could find. Now, whenever I receive letters or ‘Miss’ a delivery I receive a notification saying ‘You’ve got mail!’. This has helped us out loads this week as we have begun ordering presents ready for Christmas. I have already managed to catch a delivery driver before he got in the lif,t, so I’m really pleased!

Easy To Use

I have been majorly impressed by how quick, simple and easy it has been to set up & use the SmartThings and control them via the SmartThings App. Admittedly I get notifications whenever the door is opened and closed however as I have a 5yo daughter who has recently begun to try answering the front door alone it has actually been more useful than annoying. It also lets me know when my 16mo daughter is trying to post toys and pegs out the door too!

More SmartThinking Needed!

I’m still unsure how to use the SmartThings Multi Sensor and Presence sensor so if any of you have any idea’s you’d like me to try I’ll give it a go! Otherwise I shall hopefully have something figured out by next weekend!

Samsung SmartThings

Product Reviews / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
SamsungSmartThings

I previously posted here that I had been selected to test the Samsung SmartThings starter kit thanks to The Insiders!

So after a few weeks of having the Samsung SmartThings and trying to work out what to do with them, I eventually braved opening the parcel to see what The Insiders had sent me.

SamsungSmartThings
Samsung SmartThings Starter Kit

Inside the Samsung SmartThings Starter Kit

  • SmartThings Hub
  • SmartThings Multi-Sensor
  • SmartThings Motion Sensor
  • SmartThings Presence Sensor
  • Smarthings Power Outlet
SmartThings Plug

Setting Up

The Hub itself is a simple design. It connects to your router enabling all your Things to wirelessly connect allowing you to control them via the SmartThings app.

It is easy enough to set up the hub and connecting the SmartThings app to it is done by entering a short code that is supplied in the box.

Once you have connected the hub and set up the SmartThings app your ready to go!

SmartThings Power Outlet

The first thing I tried was the SmartThings Power Outlet to control our table lamp in the living room. To do this I plugged the lamp into the Power outlet which goes into your usual Plug socket.

I then went into the SmartThings app and Added ‘Living Room’ as a room. Then I had the option to turn the outlet on and off.

I was instantly impressed I could just simply use my Smart phone to turn the outlet on or off, set a timer or set it to interact with another product such as the Presence sensor or Motion detector. This means the possibilities are almost endless allowing you to use your imagination to come up with all sorts of useful ideas. After playing around with the app I also discovered you can see what the power usage is of the Power outlet.

Having Fun

I considered testing out all the Things and sharing the results all in one blog post. Instead I thought perhaps I could make this even more fun. Since I will be testing this for a few weeks I’llask my readers for some suggestions! So, What would you do with the Samsung SmartThings? What Should I test next and what should I try to do with them? Leave a comment with your suggestions and ill try them out!

Watch this space…

Helpful Ramblings / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Watch this space! The Insiders have once again allowed me to participate in one of their amazing campaigns. I can’t wait to share it with you all!

In a previous post I mentioned I received the LGG4 and LG Infinim headphones to test and review and posted a short & sweet review here.

This time However I have been invited to test out the Samsung Smart things! Im very excited to see what is in the box as the description describes the Samsung Smart things as being “the best way to cheaply and easily keep you connected and in control of your home.”.

I’m expecting the box to arrive within the next fortnight and will be sharing with you all just what exactly is in the box and my thoughts on the product itself so watch this space!!