Olivia’s top picks:
Virgin Active Collection Club Membership—from £159/month
With its brand-spanking new makeover, new range of classes and trendy NYC loft-style studios, membership at the Virgin Classic Kensington is the dream gift for Mummy Cool, or Mummy Fit, Or Mummy Would-Like-to-Go-for-a-Gentle-Dip-in-the-State-of-the-Art-Pool-Now-and-Then.
Incredibly chic, but not intimidatingly so, this gym is friendly and offers classes for everyone, from yoga and pilates to rave spinning, boxing and cardio!
Mother’s Day Lunch Cruise—from £45 per adult
Or, for something more relaxing, and a chance to catch up properly, why not treat her to a dining and sightseeing cruise with the number one Thames Cruise company, City Cruises?
Passengers enjoy a sparkling glass of wine on arrival before taking their seats for a tasty two-course lunch. On the menu is seasoned chicken in a creamy leek, tarragon and mushroom sauce with dauphinoise potatoes and seasonable vegetables, followed by a decadent chocolate truffle cake with tea or coffee to finish.
Families can also head to the top deck, where they’ll see all of London’s famous sights, including Tower Bridge and the London Eye. A live jazz band will perform throughout the sailing, making this an unforgettable experience. Departing Tower Pier at midday on Sunday 11th March 2018, returning at 1.45pm.
CEO by Sunday Riley—£70, Space NK
Even out skin tone and tackle the visible signs of ageing with the Sunday Riley CEO Serum. This concentrated, fast-absorbing, rapid flash brightening serum works to seamlessly minimise the appearance of hyperpigmentation.
Regular use of this serum ensures the skin barrier is fortified, while pore size is visibly reduced. It helps to tackle the five signs of ageing—dullness, sensitivity, wrinkles, dehydration, uneven tone and premature fine lines. Simultaneously it also works to enhance brightness, luminosity and radiance.
Highly potent, the Sunday Riley CEO Serum absorbs into the skin easily. It is infused with vitamin C and features essential ingredients that help to enhance the complexion. Simply add this product to any routine by applying a small amount of the serum onto clean skin every morning and evening.
Eye SENSSE Eye Massager—£29.99
This amazing little device combines high sonic frequency vibrations and LED Light Therapy to target all eye concerns, from puffiness and dark circles to fine lines and impurities, instantly recharging and refreshing the eye area!
To instantly relieve tired eyes, the Moisturising Mode features fast and short sonic vibrations to gently massage the eye area, which will soothe tired eyes, boosting circulation to depuff and flatten fine lines, as well as increasing absorption of your eye cream. The Red LED Light Therapy, meanwhile, penetrates the skin to target inflammation and redness and to stimulate collagen production and circulation, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
NeoStrata SKIN ACTIVE Tri-Therapy Lifting Serum—£70
Formulated with a proprietary triple anti-aging complex to help volumise and sculpt skin, this wonder serum volumises slack skin for a more lifted appearance, renews tone and smooths skin, while providing surface hydration and exfoliation for increased luminosity. Whether your mum wants to look better without having specific skincare concerns, or she’s het up about one particular issue, this wonder serum does it all. As well as looking chic and smelling amazing, she’ll be the ahead of the curve as it’s only launching this month!
Bed of Nails Accupressure Mat and Pillow—£99.95
The ultimate 21st century acupressure meditation bed. Bed Of Nails Mats have been ergonomically designed for optimum coverage, whether whole-body or section. BON Mats are manufactured ethically from the best quality materials. Chic and pretty, in a mum-friendly way, it’s a relaxing, more passive way to look after your well-being.
When hearing the words “bed of nails” the picture that most often comes to mind is that of an elderly Indian lying on sharp metal nails whilst heavy blocks are stacked on top of him. It is a baffling image but as painful as it may look, it does not hurt, as the body weight of the fakir and the blocks are distributed evenly over the many nails.
Before the bed of nails was an aid for stunts in fairs and markets, it is believed to have been used by ancient Gurus and Yogis in the practice of healing and meditation. The origin of bed of nails is in Indian mysticism, and it is believed to have been around for thousands of years. Today it’s been reinvented it in a more modern form, as a mattress with more than 8,000 non/toxic plastic spikes, harmless to the skin but with all the healing benefits of its legendary ancestor! I find the mat relaxing, my boyfriend finds it stimulating, but both love it and hedge our bets that your mother would too.
Branche d’Olive Peony Scented Candle—£25
Branche D’Olive takes its inspiration from the renowned fragrances of Provence and was set up by co-founders Jane Comyn & Ruth Watson around their kitchen tables in Oxfordshire, where the company is still based.
Mz Skin Hydra-Lift Golden Facial Treatment Mask—£85
Transform dull, lacklustre skin with this luxurious face mask. Saturated in gold nano particles, Niacinamide, Vitamin C and Collagen to plump and firm the skin. Brightens and restores radiance, hydrates and smooths fine lines and wrinkles for a rejuvenated complexion.
Dr Levy Switzerland Décolletage Regenerating Silk—£290
And if your mum’s super serious about skincare, or you just REALLY love her and have a healthy bank balance, you couldn’t do much better than Swiss genius Dr Levy’s star products. Utilising stem cell therapy, these luxurious creams transform skin in a matter of weeks!
The Dr Levy Switzerland Décolletage Regenerating Silk is uniquely formulated to provide deep, long-term rejuvenating effects as well as to help correct and slow the visible signs of premature skin ageing.
On top of stimulating the very source of the skin’s own powerful anti-ageing system, the dermal stem cells, the Décolletage Regenerating Silk both treats and prevents premature UV and environmental-stress-induced skin ageing with the revolutionary StressCellRepair complex, proven to both increase and accelerate the repair of the skin cells’ damaged DNA and fibroblasts. Independent clinical studies have shown that in less than two months wrinkle depth is reduced by -26% and skin density increases by +12%.
Dr Levy Switzerland Enriched Booster Cream—£310
My all-time favourite hero product, this ultra-nourishing everyday cream features Dr Levy’s signature supercharged anti-ageing ArganCellActiv complex in a rich formulation to nurture dry skin as well as providing extra moisturising for normal skin in cold winter conditions. It is rapidly absorbed while offering long-lasting support and protection for the skin.
As the number one Botox doctor in Switzerland, Dr. Phillip Levy has paved the way with innovative procedures producing breakthrough results—with no surgery. To complement his extraordinary clinical results, Dr. Phillip Levy has searched for the most powerful cosme-medical ingredients to awaken the skin’s own regenerating potential.
The ArganCellActiv® complex exclusively contains ArganCDV, the first plant-derived stem cell extract scientifically proven to boost the vitality of dermal stem cells—the source of skin’s natural wrinkle-fighting cells. Combined with an epidermal stem cell activators and nine other concentrated anti-ageing & nourishing ingredients, Dr. Levy Switzerland helps deeply vitalise and reactivate the skin’s own unique regenerating system.
Alex’s top picks:
Bomo Art leather bound journal or sketchbook—£39.50 and £47.50 from Pen Heaven
Now, I’ve called a moratorium on paper-goods-buying until I make some inroads into the stock I already have, but this gorgeously old-school range is testing my resolve—red leather bindings, thick, high-quality paper, elegant vintage prints… be still my beating heart.
At least I can indulge in one as a gift for my mother—who doesn’t love a fresh-paged, blank-slate, winsome new journal? As someone who has always preferred to write on paper rather than a screen, I know she’ll use it every day. For the artistic mother, there’s also the matching sketchbook option in a range of designs; I like the classic Roses and the chic Birdhouse.
Bloom & Wild Clarendon letterbox bouquet—£44
What would Mother’s Day be without flowers? Bloom & Wild’s magnificent bouquets are seasonal, long-lasting and astonishingly convenient, given that many of them are packaged in a flat box that fits through a standard letterbox. So you can send you mother truly surprise flowers from wherever you are, without all the worry about delivery and timings.
I love the Clarendon Mother’s Day bouquet; coming with a card and bursting with soft spring colour, it is also paired with a travel-sized pack of Cowshed’s skincare heroes (Lazy Cow Soothing Bath & Shower Gel, Wild Cow Invigorating Bath & Shower Gel and Knackered Cow Relaxing Body Lotion), so your mother has treats for the bathroom as well!
Mama Dearest Brunch Club at Chi Kitchen—£25 per person
Finally, somewhere to enjoy a meal together with a twist. Chi Kitchen on Oxford St will be hosting a special one-off Mother’s Day brunch on Sunday 11th, led by MasterChef champion Ping Coombes, who will be revisiting Southeast Asian dishes she learned to cook growing up with her mother. The menu includes White Curry Mee with Prawns and Fishcakes and Mango Sticky Rice with Coconut Ice Cream, plus a free Kir Royale for all mothers on arrival.
Whether your mother is an avid MasterChef fan, passionate about Asian cuisine or you both just want something different from the the ubiquitous British spring fare, this one’s a winner! Book soon though, as places are limited and will sell out.
Midday to 2.30pm, Sunday 11 March; £25 per person for Ping’s Mama Dearest brunch set menu served with unlimited Malaysian tea and coffee.
Lucy’s top picks:
Orla Kiely Pruners in a Pouch—£30
The perfect combination of pretty and practical for green-fingered mummies in the country, especially at this time of year: after all, we don’t want her to have slacked in her gardening duties when we take our friends home for bucolic summer weekends. We’ll just have to ignore the slightly unfortunate image of an elderly gent in Speedos if you lose the second R.
Furry slipper boots—£18.99
Don’t have cold feet about the risk of chilly tootsies (sorry!) after recent insane weather. These soft, fluffy booties are not only lavender-scented, but also microwaveable, which sounds highly improbable but immensely appealing.
Kate Spade Lemon Recipe Box—£28
When life gives you lemons, make… a recipe box. Well, why not, if it’s as easy on the eye as this one? Maybe not one for humourless harridans who refuse to be gender-stereotyped, but if your mum were one of those, she wouldn’t be expecting a Mother’s Day gift, would she?
