Our resident gift guide supremo, Jess Baldwin, concocts another sumptuous line-up, this time for Mother’s Day, and being a multi-tasking Mum herself knows a thing or two about what they like. So, dive in…
Once more we are hurtling towards another annual gift-giving, and whilst you may pause momentarily to give yourself a quick pat on the back for nailing noel and acing Valentine’s Day, the big one is just around the corner: Mother’s Day.
Yes, that springy Sunday when the great British public attempt to thank their good ol’ Ma for creating, carrying, birthing, bathing and raising them…with a single gift. Yes, that’s all the grande dame gets for that morphine-fuelled slog and the years of sleepless nights which ensued, so by gum does it need to be a goodie.
Granted, selecting one present worthy of thanking someone for your entire existence is… tricky. So, forget the cliché flowers, we’ve created another stupendously good gift guide jam-packed with pollen-free gifts to delight Mater with this year; from sky-high snoozing and epic soaks to a dreamy bucolic spa escape, just a stone’s throw from the city. You’re welcome.
The savvy spa escape: The Langley
Ma an avid spa trekker? Then hop onboard the trusty Lizzy Line from Paddington and in just half an hour you’ll find yourself in leafy Langley. Buried deep within 150 acres of glorious gardens (designed by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown), you’ll find the town’s eponymous 5* hotel, The Langley. Formerly home to the third Duke of Marlborough, today the historic abode forms part of Marriott’s lavish Luxury Collection. The jewel in its crown? That has to be the vast subterranean spa, it’s a real bells and whistles affair with a state-of-the-art gym, indoor and outdoor pools, a plethora of thermal experiences and an impressive hammam.
Want a little more privacy? Head to the separate spa area reserved solely for female guests – perfect for a mother daughter spa day. Combine that with first-rate dining and it’s easy to see how this Buckinghamshire bolthole has become the go-to getaway for savvy spa-seeking Londoners. The Langley’s exclusive ‘Celebrate Mum’ spa package includes a half day use of their incredible spa facilities, a three-course lunch, a 90-minute Sisley facial and a surprise gift.
The Langley is one of Marriott’s 5* Luxury Collection hotels. Their ‘Celebrate Mum’ spa package is priced at £255pp, to find out more visit www.marriott.com.
The utmost soak: Wildsmith’s NEW bath salts
Whether you like a quick dip or a steamier, bubblier, cauldron-worthy affair, bathtime has always been more than just washing: it’s a ritual. Despite its apparent simplicity, history has shown that mere water and suds rarely cut it for fancy folk, with aristocrats and royals around the world eager to perfect their daily dunk; from the chalky-faced, flame-haired Queen of Scots who bathed in vino to Cleopatra’s lengthy soaks in sour donkey milk. Creative? Sure. Nailed it? No. Forget curdled ass milk, treat your loved one to Wildsmith’s new uber luxe bath salts.
Packed with minerals and doused in the highest-grade essential oils (linden, Roman camomile and cedarwood), the aromatic salts, inspired by the flora and fauna of glorious Heckfield House, nourish and hydrate whilst drawing out impurities. At £55 a tub they are undeniably decadent, but think of the hours of bubble-popping baths she treated you to as a nipper – go on, she’s earned a 5* soak by now, surely?
Wildsmith Skin’s new bath salts retail at £55 (500g), purchase at www.wildsmithskin.com.
The dreamiest massage: Four Seasons London at Park Lane’s ‘Sleep Experience’
Flanked by royal parks and crowned by a slick spa, the Four Seasons London at Park Lane hotel is a sky-high bastion of all things wellness with jaw-dropping views to boot. Teetering ten storeys above the thrum of Mayfair’s buzzing restaurants and revving Lambos, this peaceful haven is the ultimate antidote to city life – the perfect gift for any London ma, surely? In this vertiginous oasis she can while away the hours in the bubbling vitality pool, aromatic eucalyptus steam room and pink Himalayan salt wall sauna.
Sleep-deprived and surviving on Nespresso and Netflix? Book her in for a Deep Sleep Lavender Massage, part of the hotel’s exclusive slumber-focussed ‘sleep escape’ experiences. After an blissful lavender-infused hot mitt foot rub, a heavenly full body massage with rejuvenating acupressure ensues, before she heads off to one of their dimmed relaxation pods, duvet and all, for refreshments and a well-earned snooze in the clouds.
Four Seasons London at Park Lane offers various Sleep Experiences. Their Signature Deep Sleep Lavender Massage can be booked for 60 or 90 minutes with prices starting at £190. For more information, and for bookings, visit www.fourseasons.com.
The Michelin quality at-home dining experience: You Be Chef
Want to treat la famille to a swoon worthy Mothering Sunday sups without the rigmarole of a ritzy restaurant reservation? Turn to You Be Chef, the premium at-home dining company from Michelin-starred chef, Robert Thompson MBE. You Be Chef hauls stupendously well-sourced ingredients back to their Isle of Wight kitchen, adds a little Michelin magic and hey presto, before you know it, you’ll find a pristinely packaged, perfectly chilled, MasterChef worthy (almost ready) three-course meal on your doorstep in a jiffy. Et voila, a ‘homecooked’ Michelin meal that you can ‘knock up’ in your own kitchen.
Their Mother’s Day menu features a beautifully presented salmon starter followed by succulent truffle roasted chicken breast with crispy dripping potatoes and a creamy fricassee of spring vegetables, garnished with chicken skin granola and wild garlic oil. Cheers your epic kitchen skills over a zingy tart au citron with all manner of Instaworthy cheffy trimmings. The best bit? Nobody needs to know that your mealtime mastery is one big charade; from the black treacle sourdough to the dehydrated lime – hey-ho, mum’s the word, eh!
You Be Chef’s Mother’s Day recipe box is priced at £45pp (vegetarian options are also available). To Place your order at www.youbechef.com.
The most talked about breakfast in town: Tiffany Blue Box Café at Harrods
Ever dreamt of having breakfast at Tiffany’s? Then channel your inner Holly Golightly and head to Harrods. Once you’ve battled your way through the diamond tiaras and Narnia-worthy mink coats, you’ll eventually stumble upon London’s homage to the iconic jewellery house, Tiffany & Co. Enveloped in timeless Tiffany-blue and dripping in amazonite stone accents and hand-painted motifs, entering the Tiffany Blue Box Café is like stumbling into one of the brand’s iconic jewellery boxes – there is even the odd jewel scattered around for good measure.
Book the Champagne breakfast for two with Red Letter Days and you can kick off proceedings with a glass of perfectly chilled Harrods Brut NV Champagne before debating which of their classic brunch dishes you fancy; think eggs Florentine, Cornish crab muffins and Faroe-Islands smoked salmon, to name but a few. Of course, it wouldn’t be a true “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” without a cracking coffee (served in a Tiffany-blue cup, naturally) and a fabulously flaky all-butter croissant – tick.
Red Letter Days is a leading provider of unique experience gifts. Visit www.redletterdays.co.uk to book your experience at the Tiffany Blue Box Cafe in Harrods. Prices start from £90 for two people.
The afternoon tea: The Biltmore
Whilst afternoon tea is de rigeur in Mother’s Day guides, nowadays the headline-grabbers range from the sublime to the ridiculous, with everything from plumes of dry ice to drag queens outshining the sarnies. We believe that the food should be the star of the show… after Ma, of course. So don’t go off piste or avant garde, swerve the flash-in-the-pan pop-ups for a traditional tea at a London institution: The Biltmore – I’m sure when you tell Mater to meet you in Mayfair she’ll soon get onboard.
Fear not, classic doesn’t have to mean boring, rubbing shoulders with the smoked salmon on rye and egg coronation brioches you’ll find wild card creations like guinea fowl and truffle mascarpone, a bite-size mushroom parfait choux and the pumpkin tart with miso cream cheese. No spoilers here, we’ll keep the sweet treats under our hat, but leave room for ‘The Clementine’. The tea menu holds its own too. Found yourself in a decision paralysis? Opt for the Indian Cloud. Granted, it sounds more like a racehorse than a tea – floral and bright with welcome malty notes, with a dash of milk we’d put our money on it every time. Mother, afternoon tea is served.
The Biltmore’s Classic Afternoon Tea is £80pp or £95pp with a glass of Champagne. It is available daily 12:30pm – 5pm. For more information or to book visit www.hilton.com.
The prettiest bonbons around: CassPea
Think chocolates are too pedestrian? Granted, one doesn’t have to wrack one’s cerebrum too long to come up with a good old box of chocs for ma, but swerve the over-sugared, over-hyped big brand names in favour of a magnificent artisan chocolatier and you’re onto a winner. Pre-warning: we are not talking about your standard factory-filled fodder here, lord forbid. We are talking mesmeric works of art, so pinch-me pretty that eating them feels a little like a crime. Introducing… CassPea.
Created in London by a team of talented chefs, each of the eye-squintingly shiny, kaleidoscopic chocolate bonbons has been painstakingly hand-painted. Expect quirky flavour combos like zingy pineapple, yuzu and cardamon. Nailed it- these dinky masterpieces are bound to impress Mater – that is if she can bring herself to eat them. Don’t buy them too often though, she may become accustomed to gobbling up masterpieces and before you know it, she will be a total liability in the Saatchi.
CassPea’s chocolates come in beautifully designed boxes of 9, 15, 24 or 48, with prices starting from £15. They offer gluten, nut and alcohol-free options. Shop the range at www.casspea.co.uk.
The perfect polish – Perricone MD’s Vitamin C Ester Brightening & Exfoliating Polish
If Perricone MD seems familiar, it’s probably because you’ve heard the world’s beauty editors waxing lyrical over the award-winning brand’s refreshingly holistic approach to achieving great skin. The brand’s fiercely potent lotions and potions are designed to work alongside a nutritious diet and savvy supplements, not replace them. The brainchild of Dr Perricone himself; bestselling author, renowned nutritionist and acclaimed anti-ageing expert, his eponymous skincare line fills the pages of the glossies for a reason: it works.
Whilst your mother may not appreciate you lecturing her on her diet, Perricone MD’s latest skin saviour, Vitamin C Ester Brightening & Exfoliating Polish, is sure to win her over. Their latest hero product, an intensive weekly exfoliating treatment, combines ultra-fine silica granules with antioxidant-rich fruit extracts to eliminate dead skin cells and address dark spots, uneven skin tone and pore congestion. The result? A smoother, more radiant and refined visage, now what ma would turn that down?
Perricone MD Vitamin C Ester Brightening and Exfoliating Polish retails at £55.00, available at www.perriconemd.co.uk.
The must-have gadget: Winewizard
Few mas would jump at the chance to accelerate the aging process this Mother’s Day. But magically vamping up their vino’s vintage in just 1 second? That’s a far more tempting proposition. Forget creepy cloaks and dramatic dry ice, for ‘micro-oxygenation’ is to thank for this sorcery. Not au fait? In short, in just 1 second, the Winewizard device sends millions of micro-bubbles into your vino, increasing its surface area 10,000-fold and in turn, fast-forwarding the ageing process and improving the taste and aroma.
But does it work? Having put it through a rigorous Arb testing, we can confirm it does – though we find it particularly effective on reds. Oh, did we mention that it nips post-plonk headaches in the bud too? Basically, this tannin-softening, sulphate-squashing, flavour-enhancing wine wand is the smart gift for any budding oenophiles in your life. And yes, with one refill capable of aggrandizing up to 500 glasses of the good stuff, it means you can cancel that urgent shipment of extortionately priced Screaming Eagle – a wise investment indeed. Sante!
Each Winewizard refill works its magic around 80 bottles of wine (500 glasses). Available from www.vinalchemy.com priced at £49.95.
The must-have beauty cream: A Naydaya Neck Glory Serum
As a mum, my days are manic. There, I said it. They are a plate-spinning, lunchbox-filling, sock-hunting circus of a day. The madness, thankfully, is peppered with little reset rituals, where the noise fades and the mayhem subsides, albeit briefly; that first inexplicably delicious cup of souchong, the frosty walk home after the hectic school run and that first sip of vino at lunch… I mean dinner! Thankfully, I have a new reset ritual to add to my relax repertoire – it falls somewhere between cleaning my daughter’s teeth and finding my son’s left shoe each morning: applying Naydaya’s collagen-boosting Neck Glory Serum.
Fusing massage and lymphatic drainage this plant-based powerhouse formula soothes, brightens and tightens – even Vogue approves! But it isn’t tight skin which floats my boat after a late night… it’s obsessively massaging my knotty neck with its icy cool, in-built stainless-steel roller – sheer heaven. Buying for a new mum? Naydaya also have an innovative range of lotions and potions specifically designed for the emotional rollercoaster that is post-partum life – including their award-winning Vagina Victory Oil (definitely one for your other half and not your actual ma, folks!).
Naydaya’s Neck Glory Serum is available from www.naydaya.com priced at £42 (50ml).
The ultimate cheesy gift: A Cheese Geek Box
There are cheesy gifts and then there are cheesy gifts. This Mother’s Day, do her a favour, swerve the cliché ‘Mum’ mug in favour of an outrageously pungent cheese box from The Cheese Geek. Not sure where to start? Go for The Lionel; a brute of a box containing 600g of fabulous fromage. This well-balanced selection marries the team’s all-time favourites with intriguing wildcards, to spice things up – with tasting notes accompanying each cheese.
Wonder why they taste so good? It is only once each cheese is in season and has reached its perfect maturation that it makes the final cut. If she is already a loud and proud turophile, splash out and gift her an annual subscription so she can enjoy handsome hunks of the yellow stuff, courtesy of her (now) favourite child, every single month. Now that is a gouda idea. Sorry (not sorry).
The Cheese Geek offers monthly cheese box subscriptions as well as one-off purchases. Find your perfect box at www.thecheesegeek.com.
The perfect pamper package: Don’t Buy Her Flowers’ Mother’s Day box (main picture)
Despite raging PTSD I can still recall my early days as a new mother, surrounded by stained muslins, cold cups of tea and approximately 988 bouquets, in various states of decline. The first bunch was delightful, the second was nice too. By the 8th delivery, I was frantically hunting vase-like vessels, ramming unruly stems into tubular Tupperware whilst trying to rock a screaming baby. Ironically, the gift I valued most was a £1 box of bath salts, because it was clearly bought for me; for my aching back, exhausted body and frazzled brain. What did a new mum really need? Not flaccid flowers, they’re just one more thing to try and keep alive.
Now, I buy new mum friends R&R boxes filled with aromatic bath salts for rare moments of peace, comforting cashmere socks and indulgent chocolates for…well, let’s be honest, breakfast probably. Swerve arduous store-hopping and let Don’t Buy Her Flowers do the hard work for you. The UK’s personalised gift box creation company has a pre-selected Mother’s Day set stuffed with goodies for a well-earned candlelit soak; a luxurious bubble bath, a heated eye mask, scented tealights and a scoffy amount of Montezuma’s morish chocolate buttons. Job done.
Don’t Buy Her Flowers’ Mother’s Day box is priced at £44.50, with room to purchase extra items for her bundle should you wish. Alternatively, you can create your own personalised gift set with them online. Visit www.dontbuyherflowers.com for more information and ideas.
The go-to face masks: Faace
Granted, some mums breeze through whatever Mother Nature throws at them, blissfully plating up one batch of sugar-free cupcakes at a time. Whilst I am, of course, incredibly happy for them, I myself am just one red velvet away from metamorphosing into a top-blowing, knife-throwing lunatic – just for the day, mind you. Whichever camp your better half falls into when her oestrogen takes a nosedive, the chances are that at some point along the hormonal big dipper, her skin will take a battering (yes, even if she is humming Cindy Lauper whilst perfectly piping cupcakes).
Luckily, Faace (of Dragon’s Den fame) has just the mask for the job: Period. The organic lavender-scented vegan gel formula, packed with hydrating hyaluronic acid, plumps and soothe the visage, whilst green tea targets sun damage and zinc battles breakouts. This cocky cocktail may not have her dashing for the icing sugar, but this monthly selfcare ritual does provides a little TLC when she needs it the most – and frankly, any silver lining to this turbulent time is a win. Buying for a new mum? Then check out their addictive Tired mask, it is my new go-to after a long day!
Faace’s masks are available at www.wearefaace.com priced at £27.00 (100ml).
The all-in-one at-home facial set: FFS Ultimate Facial Pamper Set
A carefully curated pamper package is a great gift for a mother in need of a little ‘me time’. But let’s face it, life’s too short to spend hours contemplating cleansers and muddling your way through a myriad of masks. Ban befuddlement with this nifty (and superb value) all-in-one facial kit from FFS, containing everything they need to cleanse, exfoliate and hydrate. Sure, it has all of the usual failsafes; hyaluronic acid, squalane serum and a collagen-boosting moisturiser, but it also has some intriguing wild card inclusions, like the UK’s first 100% plastic-free dermaplaner.
Derma what? I hear you ask. Anyone that finds themselves doomscrolling skincare routines at midnight will know it as the terrifying-looking face shaver thingmabob that floods your Insta, transforming lacklustre lasses into glowing goddesses. Yes, we know it sounds offbeat, but then you didn’t think you’d get addicted to exorbitant mushroom tea or bacteria-ridden kombucha, did you? Yet here we are, fermented to the hilt… so, don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it – once you witness your new fuzz-free glow, you won’t go back.
The Ultimate Facial Pamper Set by FFS is available for £49.95 at www.ffs.co.uk.
The most colourful bath in town: Mum’s Bathtime Favourites by Lush
If you think Lush’s eco-friendly, anti-cruelty, fun-filled bath products are reserved for Gen Alpha, think again. Lush have been mixing up their pioneering plastic-free shampoo bars, good enough to eat face masks and insane kaleidoscopic bath bombs since power perms were en vogue and ghetto blasters were your go-to for street cool. With a stripped-back ingredients list rich in natural oils, flowers and fruits, Lush is your go-to for feel good soaks, whatever your age.
Their Mum’s Bathtime Favourites set aims to turn every exhausted mum’s bathtime into a fantastical escape, with 9 bath bombs and bubble bars to try, including limited edition numbers like ‘one long soak’ (a pastel-hued, skin-softening lemon myrtle and grapefruit oil bomb) and their popular slumber-inducing ‘sleepy bubble bar’, which marries relaxing lavender and sweet tonka with calming ylang ylang oils. Plus, as they are all nestled inside a colourful, re-usable tin designed by Kent-based print designer Charlotte Standen, you won’t even have to wrap it – result!
Lush have a huge array of fun bath treats for every budget. The Mum’s Bathtime Favourites set is priced at £58 and is available from www.lush.com.
