Mother’s pride – my gift guide
It’s all about the women this week, with International Women’s Day tomorrow and Mother’s Day this Sunday. Despite my inner cynic, I still love Mother’s Day – it’s a good excuse to properly spoil our mums and there’s no shortage of great gift options around at the moment.
Beauty brands tend to highlight the twee-est stuff for Mother’s Day, but all the mums I know are super-cool and don’t want floral soaps and Cath Kidston wash bags. They like Liberty and Space NK or small batch organic oils. They love trying new fragrances (Amanda Carr’s We Wear Perfume site is great for discovery) and are just as swayed by chic packaging as the rest of us.
Perfume in particular is a no-brainer gift option for mums. Whenever I speak to women about how they discovered fragrance, it usually stems from a nostalgic story about their mother having a signature perfume or a getting ready moment that involved a spritz of something impossibly glamorous. So for me the idea of giving your mum a new fragrance or – even better – an appointment to create something bespoke is quite special. This is something you can experience at Perfumer H (the super-luxe option, below) or you could go for the more informal option, which is a perfume making workshop at Emmanuelle Moeglin’s Experimental Perfume Club. I did one of these last year and I loved my perfume (it was made of masculine smoky notes and I named it after my dad).
Off the peg, two of my most sprayed fragrances this winter have been the epic reissued Baccarat Rouge 540 by Maison Francis Kurkdjian (which smells like the most sophisticated burnt caramel with a woody musk twist) and Guerlain’s Mon Guerlain (below), a full-bodied coupling of of vanilla and sandalwood. I won’t lie, the bottle definitely played its part. This palm-sized faceted bottle is jewel-like with its dome stopper, mesh ribbon and rose-coloured juice inside (you can also get it engraved).
But if your mum prefers her gourmandes on the less syrupy side, then the new Jo Malone London Honey & Crocus cologne (below) is a good call. It’s part of the new limited edition Jo Malone London English Fields collection and is a gentle breeze of honey, lavender and almond milk that comes in a simple ceramic bottle. It’s by Mathilde Bijaoui, who also made the Christmas blockbuster, Green Almond & Redcurrant, so if your ma loves a marzipan-sweet note, you’re onto a winner.
Aside from fragrance, a few other fashion and beauty buys have caught my eye. Burberry’s brand new Belt Bag comes in a range of sizes and colours, complete with interchangable ‘belt’ strap. I like the simple shape and Birkin-style utility. New on my radar is Tal Angel (top and below), the most beautiful range of silk twill scarves, designed in Israel and digitally printed in the UK. At $198 and in a limited edition, this particular design is very reasonably priced but you won’t see it everywhere.
And beauty-wise, I don’t know any mum who doesn’t love a new lipstick or a facial. If you’re in a last minute fug, Bobbi Brown does brilliant make-up lessons, or book her an Omorovicza facial at Liberty where she can also stock up on the cult Miracle Facial Oil. If your mum’s a Le Labo fan, you could also intro her to its brilliant (but indulgent) body range – the hinoki scented Le Labo body lotion is possibly the most intoxicated body lotion I’ve ever tried.
And while you’re in Regent Street, here’s a quick heads-up; the new L’Occitane store (below) is beauty retail nirvana. Head to the beauty box bar to make up a hand-picked box of beauty treats. And don’t miss the Pierre Hermé hand creams and macaron counter there too. #yourewelcome
If you want something more cultural than material, then I’d suggest a trip to Chatsworth House to see its phenomenal art collection. Their Wedgwood afternoon tea also looks amazing if you can fit it in. Failing that, a day out to the reopened Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge is a must for any art-and-craft-loving modernist mum.
If all else fails, you can’t go wrong with a brilliant book or three. My top picks – Alyson Walsh’s latest, Know Your Style (below), Tina Brown’s memoir, The Vanity Fair Diaries and, ahem, my own of course (bottom)…
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WORDS: Disneyrollergirl/Navaz Batliwalla
IMAGES: Tal Angel; Perfumer H/Disneyrollergirl; Guerlain/Disneyrollergirl; Jo Malone london/Disneyrollergirl; Tal angel scarf; L’Occitane/Disneyrollergirl; Style Forever/Ayumi Takahashi; The New Garconne
NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links and PR samples. Please read my cookies policy here
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