For the skincare obsessed, I recommend Elizabeth Arden’s Ceramide Lift & Firm 3-Piece Set (£68 elizabetharden.co.uk). This limited-edition set contains the brand's Advanced Lift and Firm Day Cream SPF 15, Advanced Ceramide Capsules Daily Youth Restoring Serum, and Advanced Lift and Firm Night Cream.
The Advanced Ceramide Lift and Firm Day Cream SPF 15 (xxml) is a fast-absorbing, lightweight SPF lotion that nourishes, firms, and protects the skin. It also replenishes lost moisture to increase hydration.
The Advanced Ceramide Capsules Daily Youth Restoring Serum (xxml) revitalises, re-texturises, and improves radiance. It also firms the skin, reduces appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and enhances hydration to smooth and soften.
Finally, the Advanced Ceramide Lift and Firm Night Cream intensely hydrates and visibly tightens sagging skin for a more sculpted look. It is ultra-rich and fast absorbing, leaving skin feeling comfortable throughout the day.
Another great skincare gift available this Christmas is the Origins Self-Care Masking Essentials Gift Set (£25 lookfantastic.com). Containing five of Origin’s best-selling masks, this set provides the perfect pick-me up for whatever skin concern you're dealing with at any moment, whether that’s excess oil, dry skin, rough texture, or clogged pores.
Included in the set is the Original Skin™ Retexturising Mask 15ml, Drink Up™ Intensive Overnight Hydrating Mask 30ml, Clear Improvement™ Active Charcoal Mask 15ml, Out of Trouble™ 10 Minute Mask 15ml, and GinZing™ Glow Boosting Mask 15ml.
My final skincare gift recommendation comes from hand care experts, Nursem. It is the British brand's Care Kit (£22.50 Boots), a gifting duo that includes Nursem's best-selling Caring Hand Cream (75ml) and Caring Skin Fix (50ml).
Designed for dry skin, the Caring Hand Cream is fast absorbing and uses naturally derived ingredients, including Manuka honey, white willow extract, allantoin, and pro vitamin B5, to immediately moisturise the skin, soothe inflammation and soreness, and protect dry and sore hands.
The Advanced Ceramide Lift and Firm Day Cream SPF 15 (xxml) is a fast-absorbing, lightweight SPF lotion that nourishes, firms, and protects the skin. It also replenishes lost moisture to increase hydration.
The Advanced Ceramide Capsules Daily Youth Restoring Serum (xxml) revitalises, re-texturises, and improves radiance. It also firms the skin, reduces appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and enhances hydration to smooth and soften.
Finally, the Advanced Ceramide Lift and Firm Night Cream intensely hydrates and visibly tightens sagging skin for a more sculpted look. It is ultra-rich and fast absorbing, leaving skin feeling comfortable throughout the day.
Origins | Self-Care Masking Essentials Gift Set
Included in the set is the Original Skin™ Retexturising Mask 15ml, Drink Up™ Intensive Overnight Hydrating Mask 30ml, Clear Improvement™ Active Charcoal Mask 15ml, Out of Trouble™ 10 Minute Mask 15ml, and GinZing™ Glow Boosting Mask 15ml.
Nursem | The Care Kit
Designed for dry skin, the Caring Hand Cream is fast absorbing and uses naturally derived ingredients, including Manuka honey, white willow extract, allantoin, and pro vitamin B5, to immediately moisturise the skin, soothe inflammation and soreness, and protect dry and sore hands.
Sisley | Eau du Soir Limited Edition
For the fragrance fans, you can't go wrong with gifting Sisley's classic scent Eau du Soir (£220 sisley-paris.com).
This year, the luxury French brand has released a limited edition version of its iconic scent, which has been created in collaboration with French painter Ymane Chabi-Gara. The collaboration was born when Sisley's Isabelle d'Ornano invited Ymane Chabi-Gara to dress the classic Eau du Soir bottle with one of her creations, One Day Painting 2.
Through her series One Day Painting, Ymane Chabi-Gara creates a dialogue between fragments of realistic images through different techniques and textures. Lines and colours, structures and movements respond to each other and create unexpected contrasts.
"The work fits perfectly with the impressions evoked by the fragrance. The vegetal scrolls and the rich, warm shade of yellow, in contrast with the soft blue, extend the olfactory experience to a strong visual one." explains Ymane Chabi-Garaw.
Originally launched in 1990, Eau du Soir is a chypre floral fragrance created by Jeannine Mongin, Hubert d'Ornano and Isabelle d'Ornano. It contains top notes of grapefruit and mandarin Orange, heart notes of oak moss, juniper, patchouli, pepper, iris, carnation, syringa, rose, french labdanum, jasmine, lily-of-the-valley, and ylang-ylang, and base notes of musk and amber.
Another great fragrance option is the Estée Lauder Youth Dew Indulgent Duo Gift Set (£66 The Perfume Shop). This limited-edition set contains a 67ml bottle of Youth Dew, an Estee Lauder classic, alongside Body Satinée (92ml), Youth Dew's body cream counterpart.
Youth Dew has been called one of the sexiest fragrances ever created, and more than 50 years after it was launched, it continues to entice with its sensual, yet timeless appeal. The captivating eau de parfum is rich with opulent flowers, rich spices, precious woods. It features top notes of rose, jonquil, and lavender, heart notes of jasmine, muguet, and spices, and base notes of moss, vetiver, and patchouli.
Body Satinée features the exact same fragrance. It is a luxurious, yet lightweight lotion that applies easily and absorbs quickly, leaves skin feeling smooth and silky.
Youth Dew has been called one of the sexiest fragrances ever created, and more than 50 years after it was launched, it continues to entice with its sensual, yet timeless appeal. The captivating eau de parfum is rich with opulent flowers, rich spices, precious woods. It features top notes of rose, jonquil, and lavender, heart notes of jasmine, muguet, and spices, and base notes of moss, vetiver, and patchouli.
Body Satinée features the exact same fragrance. It is a luxurious, yet lightweight lotion that applies easily and absorbs quickly, leaves skin feeling smooth and silky.
Aja Botanicals | Into The Mystic Votive Candle
Into The Mystic is a natural black wax candle that delivers an uplifting fragrance with warm, woody notes. Inspired by the magic of the forest, it boasts a natural fine fragrance, hand-crafted from cedarwood, lavender, oakmoss and galbanum essential oils. With its green, resinous elements, Into The Mystic will help you reconnect with nature and Mother Earth.
The candle is made using a natural wax blend made from coconut, soya and beeswax.
The candle is made using a natural wax blend made from coconut, soya and beeswax.
NEOM | Catch a Shooting Star Ceramic Natural Diffuser
Another great home fragrance gift option is the NEOM Catch a Shooting Star Ceramic Natural Diffuser (£5 neomorganics.com). Using it is simple, you just spritz or drop your favourite essential oil over the porous ceramic for a natural scent diffusion. The star can then be hanged anywhere you would like to inject fragrance – think door handles, wardrobes, bathroom hooks.
I recommending gifting the ceramic diffuser alongside one of NEOM's Essential Oil Blends. I love Christmas Wish (£22 neomorganics.com), a limited-edition soothing and traditional natural fragrance that blends fruity mandarin, spicy cinnamon, and comforting tonka bean with 10 other essential oils to help you relax and unwind. It also creates a gorgeous warming and calming vibe in the home during the winter season.
Julia Fox & John Guy | Hunting the Falcon
In Hunting the Falcon (£24.99 Waterstones), authors John Guy and Julia Fox examine the most recent archival discoveries and peel back layers of historical myth to present Anne and Henry in startlingly new ways. They show how Anne and Henry's relationship was tied almost completely to the major events of international politics at one of the great turning points of European history, and dispel any assumptions that a sixteenth-century woman, even a queen, could exert little influence on the politics and beliefs of a patriarchal society.
Anne was in fact a shrewd and ruthless politician in her own right, a woman who steered Henry and his policies - and whom Henry seriously contemplated making joint sovereign. Hunting the Falcon sets the facts and some completely new finds into a wide frame, unearthing the truth about these two extraordinary lives and their tumultuous times. It pays particular attention to the seven 'missing' years that Anne spent in France, and explores how she organised her side of the royal court in novel ways that ultimately sowed the seeds of her own downfall.
In this feat of historical research and analysis, Guy and Fox offer a brilliant retelling of one of the most consequential marriages in history and an exhilarating portrait of love, lust, politics and power.
Mavala | Reddy Set Glow Gift Set
For the women that love a classic manicure, the Mavala Reddy Set Glow Gift Set (£11.50 Fenwick) will make a perfect present.
The duo is made up of Mavala’s bestselling Roma (a classic red) and Red Diamond (a glitter red). As with all Mavala polishes, Roma and Red Diamond come in small bottles, measuring in at just 5ml. These small bottles are what makes Mavala one of the world’s best nail polish brands. The bottles are large enough to provide a good number of manicures, but small enough to be finished quickly, ensuring the polish doesn't last long enough to go dry and gloopy.
Lush | Relax Gift Set
Lush | Relax Gift Set
Featuring a soothing mixture of bath, body, and shower products all formulated with calming lavender as a key ingredient, Relax is the perfect present for women that not only love to pamper themselves but are in desperate need to calm their mind and body.
Relax includes Lush's Dream Cream, Sleepy Shower Gel, Twilight Bath Bomb, and Mini Sleepy Bubble Bar.
Amarula | Original Cream Liqueur
The sun-ripened marula fruit brings out the distinctive Amarula taste of vanilla and caramel with a smooth, rich texture, making it the perfect drink for just about any occasion. The key ingredient, the marula fruit, is considered one of Africa's botanical treasures. This exotic fruit is harvested by hand, made into a wine and then double-distilled and left to mature in oak barrels for two years, before being blended with fresh cream.
Gelf Alderson | River Cottage Great Roasts
With the book in hand, all you need are good ingredients, an oven, and some simple bakeware to create easy weeknight dinners, showstopping Sunday roasts, fuss-free breakfasts, tea-time treats, and indulgent puds.
Ensuring all meals and courses are covered, River Cottage Great Roasts is divided into chapters like Breakfast & Brunch, One-tray Wonders, Sunday Roast, Super Sides, and Puddings. Recipes include spiced whole cauliflower with preserved lemon and yoghurt, roast mushrooms with beer and dumplings, pot roast brisket with orange and star anise, ripped potato oven chips with smoked chilli and roast garlic dip, creamy fish pie, roasted cherry and almond crumble, and pears with ginger and toffee.
My final gift recommendation is for the home makers. It is the Ruggable Morris & Co. Strawberry Thief Minor Indigo Doormat (£189 ruggable.co.uk).
Made from Ruggable's durable, machine-washable material that is resistant to mould and fade, this doormat is perfect for any indoor or outdoor space. Its Strawberry Thief design is a direct translation of William Morris's recognisable block print textile, and depicts Morris's thrushes stealing fruit from his kitchen garden. Deep indigo contrasts with fresh reds, mossy greens, and golden highlights for a bold, inviting look that is guaranteed to elevate any living space.
The Strawberry Thief Doormat is a 2-Piece System consisting of a Doormat Cover and a Rubber Mat. Powered by SeasonShield, the Doormat Cover offers all-weather durability. It features heavy-duty bristle to trap dirt and mud, is machine washable, and uses UV-Resistant ink to withstand the elements. The Rubber Mat is made with heavy-duty, 100% natural rubber and utilises TreadTech to keep the Doormat Cover secure, dry, and mildew-free. It is water draining, enabling it to resist water buildup and mildew, and features a textured tread to ensure the doormat stays in place. Finally, the Rubber Mat features ClingEffect Pucks, a patented system to keep the Doormat Cover secured to the Rubber Mat.