New… Right Guard Total Defence 5 antiperspirant for women… giving you full protection

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:08:24 +0000

Right Guard have recently launched Total Defence 5 the latest antiperspirant in their range which is claimed to be the ultimate!

Keeping you cool, calm and protected Total Defence 5 combines the five essential benefits of an antiperspirant into one for round the clock protection.

1. Fights perspiration

2. Prevents odour

3. Long-lasting freshness

4. Heat response formula adapts to your level of activity

5. Low residue

With Right Guard Total Defence 5, you can stay fresh and dry all day and especially when it counts. The formulas are high performance antiperspirants that fight odour-causing bacteria and contain micro-encapsulated ingredients for time-released freshness. As your body works hard, the encapsulated ingredients are released by heat and moisture providing further protection when you need it most. Delivering more active ingredients per spray second, Total Defence 5 has 30% more protection power than previous Right Guard formulas.

Having used the Invisible antiperspirant for the past few weeks, I can really say that it does exactly what it is supposed to! I felt very reassured that the spray would not be noticeable on my tops and felt very protected all day long. The scent was actually quite pleasant and lingered longer than usual antiperspirants that I use. All in all I am very impressed, I have long since been a fan of the brand and will most definitely be adding Total Defence 5 to my basket!

Available in two sizes, a very handy 150ml (RRP £1.99) which is perfect for your handbag and a fantastic value 250ml (RRP £2.89) aerosol. With three original varieties to chose from – Invisible, Sensitive and Unscented – there is a Total Defence 5 for every occasion from work to the gym to an evening out.

The full range is available now at all leading supermarkets and pharmacies.

Stalking: Don’t become a harassed victim!

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:59:51 +0000

Ring Ring… the phone rings and your heart sinks when you realise it’s another Withheld number. This is the umpteenth call today and the caller has cottoned onto the fact you have blocked their number and tried to cut off all communication. There is a click and the answerphone picks up, you hear the same mundane tone that has left dozens of messages stating they are not going to give up calling. You wince and a cold shiver runs up your spine.
Funnily enough that is the only thing you have heard them say that you actually believe. You look at the clock and realise it has been exactly an hour since the last call, this constant barrage is never ending yet isn’t as bad as the 6 calls in 15 minutes the previous night.

The phone rings yet again, you jump at the unexpected break in the silence of your house … this time it’s one of your best friends telling you to do what you have been mulling over… call the police! They won’t take this seriously you say, surely someone calling constantly wanting to talk in a non-threatening way can only be classed as a nuisance? Your friend simply tells you, No hun, what you are experiencing is harassment and it’s not right.
Not wanting to overreact you agree to call the police if you receive another call, inevitably it comes as you are still on the phone to your friend and you calmly say you will call her back and it’s time the police were called.

All your details are taken and you are informed police officers will be sent out to see you. In the meantime a little detective work between friends unearths information you wish you hadn’t found. The caller has previous for stalking and harassment. As the panic rises, the tears start rolling down your cheeks and you heave great big sighs, this is the first panic attack in years and you cannot make it stop. Reading the article you came across is making your blood run cold and suddenly your phone is ringing and texts are coming through as friends, also reading the article, are now beginning to panic even more. The caller stalked their “victims” and tried to jump off a building with one… the words “Holy Crap” slide off your tongue as the air is turned blue with friends reacting to the situation.

The police turn up, meat wagon and all. Very discreet you say as you open to the door to two men in uniform who instantly put you at ease, they are here to help. Sat in the lounge you recall all that has happened, from the very beginning and play the messages back to the police. After checking the caller’s identity and police records they inform you that you have done the right thing by calling them and not answering the phone. If you answer the phone even to tell the caller to F-off it will still give them hope, they say. As a “victim”, they continue… Sorry, you reply, informing them you are not a victim, just very unfortunate. They proceed to inform you how serious this could be and what could possibly happen and what options are there. This still all feels very surreal as you sit in your lounge, staring at police officers talking about prison sentences, asking yourself how the hell this has all happened!

One of the officer’s contacts the caller and tells them to stop the tirade of calls and to break off all contact as this is a final warning. The officer handles the call masterfully well and you cannot help but feel a huge sense of relief. Hopefully this is now over! As the police officers leave, berating you for wishing them a quiet night, you close the door and finally breathe again.
Over the next couple of hours the phone remains silent, albeit only your friends call and text inviting you over to stay for the night. You simply reply Thank you but no, because then that will make me the victim.

Any form of stalking or harassment is a crime and should be reported to the police with immediate effect. Do not delay and hold out for ‘the next time it happens’ as it inevitably will and it is best to nip it in the bud as soon as possible. Stalking or harassment can happen in any shape or form and can happen to anyone. It can start as a few text messages, phone calls, emails etc yet develops into something that makes you feel very uncomfortable. Make sure you keep friends in the loop of what is happening and keep them involved as much as possible, just having a friendly voice on the end of the phone is enough to reassure you.

For further help call the National Stalking Helpline on 0300 636 0300 or visit National Stalking Helpline for further advice.

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Clintons – Perfect Valentine’s Gifts

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:04:47 +0000

What will you be doing on February 14th, more commonly known as Valentine’s Day? Admiring your rather large bouquet of roses? Being whisked away to Paris on an impromptu whim? I on the other hand will be sat down, feet up, remote in hand watching Holby as if it were any other day of the week. Next year will be different though, I am sure! If you do want to spoil the special person in your life this year what better place to look than Clinton’s!

Whilst searching for a suitable card for your loved one, take a glance over the fantastic array of Valentine’s Day related gifts for an added token of affection.

Ranging from cute (To the Moon and Back Teddybear from the Boofle range priced at £19.99), to the sentimental (Confetti Hearts Glass Photoframe – J’Taime photoframe £7.99) to cheeky, humorous presents (Ring for a Fling bell £2.49)

There really is something to suit most budgets and tastes.

To help your money go further, Clintons is offering wannabe love-ees these fantastic offers too:

· MTY Bear was £50 now £25
· Boofle hot water bottle and plush gift set was £30 now £15
· Amazing Value Mugs – only £2.99
· Spend over £5 in store and receive Valentines Bear for £4.99
· 50% off Paintball for Four, normal RSP £34
· 50% off Photographic Memories, normal RSP £39
· 50% off Model Makeover, normal RSP £37
· 50% off Pamper Indulgence Day, normal RSP £119

All gifts and experiences mentioned above are on offer until 14th February 2012

DIY or no DIY that is the question!

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:45:56 +0000

With everything currently going on in my life, money issues are a great worry and I am now looking to the future and ways to finance decorating my house exactly how I would like it or maybe even a newer, more reliable car. A loan, though unchartered territory, seems to be the best option for me at the moment.

I find myself looking around my house and noticing new things to change or fix on a daily basis. Whether it be completely decorating my bedroom with new wallpaper, a new carpet and accessories to match or a brand new sofa, I realise how much work I have to do! With just myself and Liv in the house now it is definitely time to put our stamp on our shell and make it a pretty bachelorette house! I am sure my friends would be willing to come to a decorating party with wine and pizza on offer, so I know DIY help is on hand!

On one shoulder I have the “materialistic Me” and the other I have the “practical Me”. I am certainly torn between what I would like and what I actually need and spending money on a newer car, with a smaller engine size would be a better move economically for me – albeit very boring. Cars are an item that constantly chip away at your bank balance whether simply filling with petrol/diesel or the need for a new tyre completely taking you off guard. A newer, smaller car with lower road tax would surely give me peace of mind and hopefully be kinder to my bank balance.

One thing I do know is it would most likely be cheaper for me to get a new car as I have grand plans for the house and am sure it will be a live in project for a long time! So I’ll definitely be sitting down to figure the exact amount I would need to borrow for a loan. In the meantime I must ensure I stay away from ALL home improvement magazines as they will only give me further ideas!

This is a sponsored post.

Competition to win Tesco Baby Newborn Wipes – Product of The Year Winner 2012 @TescoBabyClub

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:14:57 +0000

Tesco Newborn Baby Wipes

Winner of Product of The Year at the 2012 Awards

A huge Congratulations to Tesco who have recently been awarded “Product of The Year” at the 2012 Awards for their fantastic Newborn Baby Wipes.

As mentioned on the pack, these wipes are “as mild as cotton wool and water”, perfect for newborns upwards. With a plastic resealable lid that keeps the wipes fresh and full of moisture, they are perfect for any changing bag!

Currently the wipes are on offer at £1 per pack (normal price £1.36) so what better time to stock up!

Tesco Baby Club have been extremely kind by allowing me to give 20 people the chance to win a set of these Award Winning wipes!

For a chance to be one of the lucky winners simply any (or all) of them but please make sure you leave a separate comment for each action or your entries will not be valid

* Like Sim’s Life on Facebook

* Follow me on Twitter @SFRProdReviews

* Follow Tesco Baby Club On twitter @TescoBabyClub

* Tweet the following “Win 1 of 20 sets of Tesco Baby Wipes with @SFRProdreviews and @TescoBabyClub http://sfrproductreviews.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/tesco-baby-newborn-wipes-product-of-the-year-winner-2012/“

Good luck! UK entries only please. The winners will be drawn by random.org. Comp closes Wednesday 15th February 2012 at 10pm

Just Dance Kids review – proving exercise can be FUN!!

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:20:45 +0000

Before Christmas we were sent a copy of Just Dance Kids for the Wii to review. After living in a PlayStation 3 controlled house for quite some time it was nice to get back to playing on the Wii and feeling active again!

The Just Dance series has been recommended to me in the past and I was sure that I would enjoy playing with the game as much as Liv. Nothing could have prepared me for how active the dance routines actually are… the kids on the game CAN dance!! I was impressed with myself for keeping up with them and the fact that you attain points for mirroring the dance moves brings out my competitive streak! Liv is still of an age that she cannot fully grasp copying the moves however she thoroughly enjoyed herself jumping up and waving her arms alongside me!

With dance routines to songs such as Jingle Bells, Just The Way You Are (Bruno Mars), Song 2 (Blur) and Jump Up! (The Imagination Movers) it is very easy to find songs (out of the 30+ available) that will engage your child and have them jumping around the room. With an easy to use interface and intros to each song Liv was happy to use the control and scroll through until she found a song she recognised.

As opposed to other games in the range which feature avatars, Just Dance Kids features real children dancing to the routines which makes it slightly easier for children to relate to the game and follow the moves. There are several game modes (all allowing you to earn extra points! The Balloon mode was our favourite!) which prove to be great fun and before you know it an hour has past without you realising!! I was shocked when I checked the time and realised how long we had been playing, though we were on our feet dancing around the whole time!

This really is a great game that makes exercise fun for children! I wouldn’t put an age limit on the game as I enjoyed it just as much as Liv! With the ability to add up to 4 players on the Wii (PS3 and XBox 360 2 players max.) it is something the whole family can get involved with.

I have always loved the Wii due to the interaction required from players – I have never seen it as an actual games console, more of a fitness tool. Just Dance Kids is available on Wii, XBox 360 and Playstation 3 platforms (you do need the required motion sensors if not playing on the Wii!).

Full list of songs available… (the songs have been re-recorded by children!)

Recent Pop Hits:

Just the Way You Are – Bruno Mars
Love Me – Justin Bieber
Whip My Hair – Willow Smith
Start All Over – Miley Cyrus
Positivity – Ashley Tisdale
Intuition – Selena Gomez
Burnin’ Up – Jonas Brothers
Dumb Love – Sean Kingston
Wavin’ Flag – K’naan

Nursery Songs:

Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Frere Jacques
Eensy Weensy Spider
Hokey Cokey
Jingle Bells
Five Little Monkeys

Movie Hits:

Accidentally in Love – Shrek 2
Despicable Me – Despicable Me
Something that I Want – Tangled
The Lion Sleeps Tonight – The Lion King
Crocodile Rock – Gnomeo & Juliet

TV Show Hits:

Hold Still – Yo Gabba Gabba
The Robot Song – Yo Gabba Gabba
The Shimmie Shake – The Wiggles
Follow the Leader – The Wiggles
Jump Up! – Imagination Movers

Classic Pop Hits:

Song 2 – Blur
Istanbul – The Four Lads
Barbra Ann – The Beach Boys
Shake Your Groove Thing – Peaches and Herb
Lollipop – The Chordettes
Mah Na Man Na – Piero Umiliani
Feeling Good – Michael Buble
The Gummy Bear Song

YouTube Hits:

The Gummy Bear Song

* We were sent a copy of Just Dance Kids for the purpose of this review however the thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely mine.

Tesco Baby Event 2012 – 16th January to 5th February – @TescoBabyClub

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 22:04:59 +0000

Tesco’s biggest ever Baby Event both instore and online is running from

16^th January – 5^th February 2012!

With deals such as:

Pampers Baby Dry Carry packs are now £4.30 each instead of £6.49

Huggies Baby Wipes are now Buy ONE Get TWO free

The Baby Event is always has fantastic offers on selected products so it is the perfect time to stock up on nappies, wipes and more!

In previous events there have been larger items such a stair gates and highchairs on offer so it is definitely worth a gander!

Don’t forget to follow @TescoBabyClub for your chance to win great prizes every day during the Baby Event and keep your eyes peeled, as they have more great deals coming soon!

Truth… can YOU handle it?

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:15:22 +0000

Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.

Billy Joel

This song maybe considerably older than me, but it still rings true. It’s been a crazy week, working hard, and drinking coffee with friends, trying to make sense of men, but I’ve decided there just ain’t enough coffee in the world to make sense of the male mind!

I once thought I could read men like a book, but how wrong I was. My first foray back into the goldfish bowl of the dating scene has left me more confused than ever. We are told all the time “honesty is the best policy”, but that doesn’t seem to happen in the dating world. How difficult is it for a man to say “hi had a great time, but you’re not my type”. End of. Move on.

When discussing this post with my friend Kykaree (Not Even a Bag of Sugar) she raised her eyebrows and said “what, honesty and men in the same blog post? Just don’t try putting them in the same sentence!”

We are all guilty of sitting with our friends over analysing male behaviour – ‘how did he say it/ what else did he say/ what was he doing when he said it/ how was he standing/ what direction were his shoelaces pointing?’

Though surely if men were just honest from the start and told us how they felt then there would be no need for us to spend precious time dwelling over what was said and how it was said. If everyone was just honest about how they felt then surely no matter how much it hurt at the time you would appreciate just knowing the truth?

Another lovely friend gave her opinion (quote) “In theory that’s true, but it means that you are willing to be very blunt and could really hurt and embarrass someone by telling the truth.” Whilst that may be true, surely to be kept waiting for that phone call that never comes, to be looking forward to another date that’s never going to happen, to have your best knickers ready and your pulling top freshly pressed ready for action is so much worse than a polite “had a great time, but I’d like to see other people”. Or the old classic “it’s not you, it’s me“. To me, anything is preferable that just to be kept waiting…..and waiting…..and waiting.

I like to think that I am thick skinned and will take honesty on the chin as constructive criticism and work with it as such. Someone showing me the common courtesy to be honest would be seen as a sign of respect for me.

So none the wiser when it comes to the male train of thought, I am going to start the new week with a smile on my face ready for more over analysing no doubt. It seems expecting honesty is asking too much!

What are your thoughts? What would you rather? Potentially be hurt by hearing the truth, or kept hanging on?

Special thanks to a certain lovely lady for your help… your cups of tea rock!!xx

Gearing up for the First Date!!!

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:56:22 +0000

As Liv is with her father for a week or so and I am enjoying my free time, I found I had no excuses anymore, it was time to step it up a notch!
After a fun filled week of texting with Mr. B, some cheeky and some extremely cute (!!) it was time to arrange a first date. FIRST DATE!!! Arrr, the thought fills me with absolute dread and this is where my demons decide to make an unexpected appearance. Nevermind whether I like him, it’s all a question of will he like me? Is my butt too big? Am I too tall? Is he going to think I am crazy? Will he think my neck is too long? All these random questions which are apparent due to my insecurities about myself. I really do need to learn to love ME again. It’s all very easy for people to say that to me but for me to actually soak that information in and deal with that is a whole other ball game. When you haven’t had a “first date” for almost 10 years, you definitely revert back to a giddy schoolgirl state, where everything is over analysed and you can’t just sit back and savour the moment. The truth is… a lovely guy ACTUALLY wants to go on a date with me! Is he mad??!!

I did have a positive moment this week, which made me feel fabulous about myself and helped to dust away some of the demons so it’s only a matter of time before my head is fully around the “will other men actually like me?” dilemma.

So next week… we are meeting for a casual drink, at a neutral venue, just nice and chilled and if all goes well we will take it from there. It will be hard, I am normally quite blunt with my questions (in a nice way obviously!) so it will be a time where my brain definitely has to engage before my mouth opens. I am looking forward to it lots and I already know we will get on, but if not then hey! There are certainly more fish in the sea!

Well hello there 2012! My dating site experiences (part 1)

SFRProductReviews (Simone) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:22:25 +0000

The New Year is here and albeit 2012 is going to be one hell of a rocky road for myself and Liv, I am trying to remain optimistic and start the year afresh…

So, when one finds oneself ticking the “single” box on forms what do you do? Naturally the modern approach is to join a dating site and change that status!

With so many to choose from I immediately whittled the sites down by deciding I was going to be a miser and not use a paid site. One thing I found was there aren’t many free dating sites to choose from – by that I mean sites that allow you to send and receive messages without handing over money for this very important feature.

However my decision also meant that I was severely cutting into the quality and calibre of men who I could potentially meet, at the end of the day a lady is allowed to have high standards!

Writing a profile, even by a blogger is painstaking because for once you actually have to write about yourself in a humorous, easy to digest manner in order to “sell yourself”. I do believe my profile is an absolute masterpiece (yes, I shall blow my own trumpet!) and my profile pictures are the very best of a bad bunch.

What I have found is that no matter how much time you spend constructing the “world’s best profile” with correct spelling, punctuation and grammar, you will always (I put money on it!) receive the obligatory “hi hun hw ru?” (sic) messages. I have lost track of the number of messages I have opened full of hope when viewing the recipient only to find some illiterate message that takes me 5 minutes to decipher.

Guys… word to the wise… text speak is a HUGE no-no! Seriously! When someone has to strain their eyes and look at a message sideways to understand it then you are certainly not the Mr. Darcy I am looking for! It makes me giggle seeing how many men assume the “Joey” role of “hey… how you doin?” It worked for a tv character, it doesn’t actually work in the real world!!

Though for every 10 messages there will always be a nice one, a message that has been carefully thought out, by a gentleman who has actually read your profile and not just drooled over your image. These are the diamonds, the ones who have also chanced venturing onto a free dating site and who have sought you out from the rest of the pack.

At the moment it’s all about fun, I have no expectations on my love life, it’s just nice to find someone to talk to, who doesn’t actually think I am slightly crazy!

So my progress so far… well there currently is a man (let’s call him Mr. B!), who ticks all the right boxes and more importantly makes me smile and laugh. We are at the stage of arranging a date and actually meeting which is all very exciting but I have found myself resorting back to a schoolgirl state with my nerves. Fingers crossed and watch this space!