illooms LED Light Up Latex balloons – Review & Giveaway

Posted on January 8, 2020 by Fiona Martin

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illooms are the perfect balloons for celebrating with and the LED light up feature gives them a gentle glow so that they shine right through the evening but equally look stunning in colour and design during daylight. Available in a variety of colours, designs and finishes we were delighted to try out the world’s first latex LED balloons for our combined New Year’s Eve and birthday celebrations for my daughter who turned 12 on New Year’s Day. A fantastic way to ‘Light up life’s special moments’.

The illooms are simple to use and come with guided instructions on how to inflate and deflate. There is a paper tab you need to pull from the end of each balloon to activate the LED light inside, then you simply pump the balloon up as you normally would. With a minimum glow time of the LED light for 15 hours, although this may last considerably longer until it fades away, this allows you time to set up your balloons before any event. Fortunately I had a group of helpers to get ours pumped up fairly quickly on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.

There are some really fun and different designs of illooms to choose from, such as silver, gold, stars, marble, happy faces, aliens, special celebratory and themed designs for things like birthdays, halloween etc and even unicorns! We opted for silver and stars along with a special personalised balloon for the birthday girl. As you can see below they are quite pretty and vibrant in daylight.

When the lights go down, you get this really pretty glow…

They are so pretty close up.

The personalised balloons from illooms are foil and perfect for ‘Making moments more memorable’. Ideal for filling with helium and with a LED light that last for up to 24 hours they really do help to make a celebration special. They come with a large black sticker sheet full of letters, with duplicates for common letters that get repeated in names. You simply peel off the letters you want to use and then stick them to the balloon. I found this really easy to do and they stuck perfectly first time. They are available at Card Factory from £5.99.

Overall we are really pleased with the illooms and they certainly brightened up our evening with both adults and children enjoying the decor. I have to say also that a week later the balloons are still looking fantastic, although no longer glowing but have a great colour and fullness still to them so will make the perfect backdrop when my daughters school friends come to celebrate with her this weekend.

Stockists for illooms include: Card Factory, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda (selected stores) with an RRP from just £1

I’m pleased to say that I’ve teamed up with illooms to offer one of my readers to win both a Silver 5 pack & a Mixed colour 5 pack to use at their next celebration.

To enter the giveaway simply fill in the Gleam form below:

illooms balloon bundle

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

Illuminated LED Star Light – An Interior Delight from Maplin

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Fiona Martin

A star is not just for Christmas, particularly in the case of the Illuminated LED Star Light from Maplin that has recently taken centre stage on my hallway shelf. I’m rather fond of stars, if you hadn’t already noticed and this freestanding piece of home decor is suitable for anytime of the year or if you prefer just keeping it for the festive season then that’s fine.

Being battery operated means it’s super easy to set up and place in any location of your choice. Requiring two AA batteries in a little box which I have hid behind another item on my shelf, the light is simply operated with an on/off switch on the battery box. At 28cm tall and 27cm wide the light is a good size and the LED’s emit a warm bright light that gives a great glow in the evenings in my hallway. We don’t need the main light on as the glow is enough when passing room to room.

I absolutely adore this light and admire it every day. It looks good when it’s off during the day and even better when it’s glowing in the evening. It adds to the decor, ambiance and mood lighting for my hallway – a perfect choice!

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If you like gadgets then this next one is for you, a USB Clock Fan, also from Maplin. Who’d have thought but it is actually incredibly impressive. First off the chrome style finish gives it an edge over any white or cheap looking model. This is stylish and something I want to show off around my laptop. Secondly it works by USB which is amazing, don’t you hate endless products requiring batteries? Thirdly this actually works well in all aspects. The cord is bendy but stays put wherever you angle it to, the fan when on is effective, great for use in the warmer Summer months, to the point I’ve had to keep it switched off for now as it’s too damn chilly!

And the final feature of this fan is the clock which lights up when the blades go round. How cool does this look? Even my children were super impressed but I’ll be keeping this one for my laptop.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

Pink Gellac Gel Polish Starter Kit – Review

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Fiona Martin

Pink Gellac is Europes No. 1 selling gel polish brand and is really simple to use. I was pleased to try out their starter pack which comes with everything you need to to get your nails looking gorgeous.

The starter pack consists of:

1 x Colour 156 Tropical 15 ml
4 x Free Online Course
1 x Pink Gellac LED Lamp
1 x Pink Gellac Base2
1 x Pink Gellac Ultra Shine 15ml
1 x Pink Nail cleaner 50 ml
1 x Nail file 240-180 grid
1 x Orange Woodsticks
10 x Luxury Nail wipes
10 x Remover pockets

Being a busy mum of two I was really intrigued to see how a gel kit worked. I regularly cover my nails with regular polish but haven’t tried out salon gel treatments due to the time and the expense. To me, an at home kit means I can do my nails in the comfort of my own home while the children are otherwise occupied, and once I’ve got the kit there is minimal expense.

To apply the gel was a lot faster than I expected. The drying time is so quick that you can literally do anything once you have cured the nails under the LED lamp. The process is simple, push cuticles back using the orange stick then clean the nails to remove oil and dirt using the Pink Cleaner. Then apply the base coat, cure for 15 seconds, apply a couple of coats of colour, curing for one minute between each one and then apply the top coat and cure again for one minute.

Watch my video below to see the process from start to finish:

I am so pleased with the finished result, ultra glossy nails that are super smooth and just look rather fabulous! The colour provided, ‘Tropical’ is really fresh and summery, perfect for this time of year.

The starter kit from Pink Gellac is great, it’s compact, doesn’t take up much room to store, but allows me to do my nails from home to a high standard. It lasts up to two weeks and I haven’t had any chips or damage in this time, just a small amount of growth at the base of the nail which is to be expected.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.