PAPIER 2019 DIARY AND PERSONALISED NOTECARDS £21.99, £49.00
Here at WLL we’re suckers for pretty, high-end stationery, and Papier does some of the prettiest, highest end around, in a fabulous range of designs. The hardback personalised A5 diaries include weekly, monthly and yearly overviews, with space for goals, important dates and to do lists – the ideal gift for the scary control freak/endearingly (annoyingly) scatty special person in your life. Or why not give ill-mannered relatives a gentle shove in the direction of thank-you-letter-writing with these gorgeous personalised notecards?
BRATOXIN NATURAL SMOOTHING SERUM, £99.99
Freakily proportioned Victoria’s Secret supermodels, bald fannies, grotesque buttock implants… one could be forgiven for saying thanks but no thanks to further dubious Brazilian beauty exports. But that would be to deny the world the magic that is Bratoxin – ‘the Brazilian facelift that works in minutes’, using ingredients from the Amazon rainforest. God knows how it works, but believe us, it does, giving frazzled festive features a spookily smooth veneer in no time. Prob best to avoid if she’s easily offended/sensitive about the passage of time.
LUMITY NATURAL ANTI-AGEING FACIAL OIL, £60.00
You may be starting to detect a pattern here, but hey, we’re not as young as we were, and neither are our friends. This heavenly-smelling unguent contains a blend of 32 botanical oils and extracts – simply massage in before bed and wake up to radiant, glowing skin and the ability to face another day after yet another night of Christmas cheer. Actually, we’re tempted to keep this one for ourselves: it’s not cheap, but what price soft cheeks and selective amnesia?
KJAER WEIS/CAROLINE ISSA LIPSTICKS, £44.00
Caroline Issa, perennially chic fashion editor and Instagram influencer, has joined forces with cult beauty brand Kjaer Weis to produce two gorgeous red lipsticks, just in time for Christmas: Amour Rouge, a pretty corally scarlet (great for warm skin tones) and Sucré, a deep, blood red (perfect on cooler complexions). The velvety formulas glide on smoothly and come in reassuringly heavy silver bullets inside smart burgundy cases. Best of all, 25% of all sales are donated to Women for Women International, a charity for marginalised women in war-torn countries – which should assuage any residual guilt you may feel about spending more obscene sums on wholly unnecessary beauty products.
ALEXIA PECK SCENTED CANDLE & PAPERWEIGHT, AMARA, £78
Yes yes, scented candles are a gifting cliché, but with jolly good reason: you’d have to be a professional churl not to like pretty flickering things of perfumed joy. And these from Alexia Peck, named after glamorous global destinations, are particularly pleasing to the senses. Choose between New York (smoky fig), Hamptons (honeysuckle & pear), Paris (tuberose & black jasmine), London (amber & rose) and – er – Norfolk (samphire & seaweed). The gorgeous marbled paperweight lids will come in handy on those chilly winter evenings when you decide to leave all the windows open.
PAXTON & WHITFIELD STILTON, £6.75 – £150, & TAYLOR’S HISTORICAL EDITION RESERVE TAWNY PORT, £40
Let’s face it, Dry January’s going to be 31 days of unadulterated misery, so you might as well give festive cheer when you can. Best given to somebody you plan to see on the Big Day when it would be unthinkably rude of the recipient not to share it.
POUND & TAP BENCH, from £9.99
Oh just look at it! The colours! The shapes! What a nice toy, and apparently it ‘promotes dexterity, hand/eye coordination, and manipulations’ (? Is this a good thing?). What havoc might it create in a household with apparently perfect children? Worth a try, surely?