Wealden Times | 189 | November 2017 | Gift supplement inside

Beautiful
Gifts
Beauty
Jo Fairley selects the best Christmas
presents for cosmetics lovers
I’m one of the only women in Britain who can’t really
give beauty gifts. The assumption of the recipient is that
because I’m a beauty editor, lucky enough to be on the
receiving end of truckloads of product every year, most gifts-ofgorgeousness
must have been freebies and are therefore high on
the Scrooge-o-Meter. The bottom line with any beauty gift for
me, though, is quite simply: would I be happy to receive this
myself…? And these most certainly tick that box, big-time.
So: let’s start with some can’t-fail-to-please stocking
fillers/Secret Santa gifts/teacher pressies…
Incredibly good value is the Kneipp Herbal Bath Collection,
£5.95 (at lookfantastic.com): a kit of three of this fabled therapeutic
brand’s bath oils, in Balancing Lavender, Back Comfort Devil’s
Claw and Cold Season Eucalyptus. Beauty Kitchen Love Me
Little Princess Kisses Bath Bombs, £12 (Holland & Barrett),
are naturally scented with cinnamon and patchouli; from a
‘kitchen table’ beauty brand, these are skin-friendly, slightly
more sophisticated alternatives to the knock-you-out-at-100-
paces bath bombs that every teenager seems to swoon over.
And fill the stocking toe with this: Aromatherapy Associates
Precious De-Stress Time, £9 (aromatherapyassociates.com) is a
9ml of their wonderful De-Stress Muscle Bath & Shower Oil
– same shape as a satsuma, even more fragrant and w-a-y more
soothing. (It can also be dangled from a tree as a decoration.)
And now for the grander gestures – in ascending order of price.
Kaffe Fassett On Point Cosmetic Bag, £18. I’ve one of these brightly
coloured, tapestry-inspired make-up bags and it’s become my
favourite-ever – as capacious as Mary Poppins’s handbag. It’s just
one of countless fab Christmas offerings from brilliant British bath
and body/fragrance brand Heathcote & Ivory; I seriously suggest
an on-line mooch through their offering at heathcote-ivory.com.
Burt’s Bees Naturally Red Lips Gift Set, £19.99. Proving
that natural beauty and glamour can go together like
Santa and his sleigh, a three-piece kit from Burt’s Bees
that includes a Tinted Lip Balm, Lip Shimmer and
award-winning Lip Crayon for a ‘statement’ red lip
that’s good enough to eat (were you so inclined).
REN Energising Festive Sea(son), £22 (worth £25). I hate
wasteful Christmas packaging – those scent ‘coffrets’, for
example, which are basically destroyed when you take out
the plastic display liner. But REN’s beautifully illustrated gift
boxes this year will most definitely have a second life – perfect
for stashing jewellery or desk accessories. This kit contains
their fab new Atlantic Kelp & Magnesium Anti-Fatigue
Body Wash and Exfoliating Body Scrub, together with the
Energising Lotion – great pick-me-ups for tired bodies.
Benefit I Left My Heart in San Francisco, £24.50 (worth
£57.22), exclusive to Boots. No Christmas gift guide is ever
complete without something from Benefit, who never fail to thrill
with their witty packaging (this year inspired by the Summer of
Love in San Francisco, where Benefit has its roots) – and, most
importantly, the contents. Benefit’s fun-fun-fun product names
belie the fact that they offer some of the best face ‘fix-its’ out there,
and this contains some of my favourites: The POREfessional,
Hoola, Roller Lash, Gimme Brow and Browvo! Primer.
Perfume Society VIP Subscription, £25 p.a. You’ll be able to
buy this in person at Wealden Times Midwinter Fair, where
The Perfume Society – which I co-founded three years ago –
has a stand. Along with a VIP Subscriber card and a joining
box that brings the different fragrance families alive through
samples and accompanying ‘smelling notes’, the recipient will
enjoy event invites and access to our award-winning online
magazines: six issues a year, ensuring that any perfume-lover’s
finger is firmly on the pulse-point of all things fragrant.
Rituals Travel Set Skincare Men, £29.50. Not been inside a
Rituals store lately? Truly you don’t know what you’re missing –
there are some world-class home fragrances, all the packaging’s
been stylishly zhooshed, and their Christmas gift sets are fab.
Most of the gift boxes (which are colourful and unbranded) can
be reused – with the exception of this men’s set (because men
just don’t do that, do they…?). A great skincare set for any guy,
though, featuring the Samurai range as a Magic Shave, Cleanse,
Energize Face Balm and Shave Repair. Sure beats socks and pants.
Annick Goutal Trio Candle Coffret, £39. There are of course