Snow season is green season around here, but the Awards kept us so busy we could barely come up for air. So instead, we sent the elves out on a mission: track down this Christmas’s greenest, best value holiday gifts and kits from £5 – £30 – max! Here’s what they came back with.
GREEN PEOPLE – REFRESH SHOWER GEL
Sweet Orange & Ginger £5.50
The Snow Season Elf Haul – details
From TOP LEFT clockwise:
NEAL’S YARD REMEDIES Limited Edition STAR Wild Rose Beauty Balm, their award-winning super-healing beauty balm is a star – £12.50 (travel size)
One of our favourite “everything” balms for Christmas: overnight mask, deep clean cleanser, chilly day moisturiser, cuticle softener, dry hands reviver, winter lip gloss and more…now in a limited edition handbag size, grab this little star while it’s still around.
SEASCAPE ISLAND APOTHECARY SOOTHE ROLLER OIL. Another Beauty Shortlist winner, this divinely soothing aromatherapy blend lends a mandarin twist to a lavender base. A moment of calm in the office, a good night’s sleep on your memory foam mattress £10
Calm(er) day. Sweet(er) dreams
Seascape’s £10 comforter
GREEN PEOPLE have chosen the delicate butterfly as their signature nature reminder this winter, and they have a beautiful range of bath and body gifts this Christmas including a bath/body set and a skincare set for the man/men in your life – from £5.50 upwards.
Too pretty to even open (almost!) Green People have launched two Christmas sets for men, too – Energise (bath/body) and a Hydrate skincare gift
VOYA. As in Voya(ge). VOYA products just seem to transport to you the green, seaweed-strewn shores of the west coast of Ireland: the wild fresh air, the healing of nature…
Treat yours-elf?
Just over the £30 mark, VOYA’s Christmas Mitts Hand Set is too good not to include
Our pick? Every mermaid’s dream collection, their Mindful Moments Lavender and Rosemary Body Oil has been one of our favourites this month while the elves went for VOYA’s Christmas Mitts Hand Set for £33 is an absolute treat. (Just over the elves’ £30 limit but too good not to include). Contains a hand wash, 75ml hand cream which is a nice generous size and a sea mineral rich seaweed soap. One for all fingerless gloves fans among us.
This is the fab lavender and rosemary body oil we’ve been raving about this week (absorbs beautifully, works really well as a massage oil, too – or an intensive hand oil – and we’ve put a bit in the bath although it’s not technically a bath oil…obsessed!)
BAMFORD GREEN WEEKENDER SET £25 Need to get away? Instead of jetting away, why not cosy up in a log fire-warmed country cottage closer to home? Bamford have bottled their geranium and mint blend into unbreakable travel size bottles to see you through the longest of weekends, even if you happen to get snowed in. The white muslin bag is lovely, too – perfect for keeping your Bamford skincare essentials (their balm cleanser’s one of our faves)…in.
• Geranium shampoo, 50ml
• Geranium conditioner, 50ml
• Geranium body wash, 50ml
• Geranium body lotion, 50ml
• 2 × Geranium bath salt 30g
WELEDA POMEGRANATE HAND AND NAIL SET £14.95
Weleda have popped a Pomegranate Oil nail pen in with their iconic Hand Cream. (Have you been to their site lately? It’s had a gorgeous revamp!) This is a great hand cream whether you’re out in the garden, in the kitchen a lot or just tend to get dry hands as soon as central heating season sets in. It’s packed with organic pomegranate seed oil, shea butter, sesame oil and golden millet extract. (Their Almond Sensitive Hand Cream is fantastic and very calming if you like very subtly scented hand creams while Weleda’s Sea Buckthorn version, with light sesame oil, grapefruit and mandarin and a touch of sandalwood is a “must try”, too).
TROPIC SKINCARE LIP GLAZE TRIO £28
One of Tropic’s fab (yes we know them!) Lip Glazes is £14 but you get 3 for £28 in their special gift pack. Tropic’s makeup range has been an interesting find for us this year – their mascara duo (mascara and lash extending wands) is excellent and their natural lip glazes are comfortable on, wonderfully shimmery and these shades should suit pretty much everyone.
DR HAUSCHKA LAVENDER TRANQUIL GIFT SET £13.50
If Christmas tends towards “chaotic” when all you crave is calm, this Dr Haushka set is an absolute beauty steal for under £14 – the Calming Body Wash is 200ml so you’re getting a really generous size with this one. We know and love this collection so grab one while you can, there are still a few left at Love Lula. Worth £26.64, now virtually half price. We recommend the Moor Lavender Calming Bath Essence – perfect for when granny’s hit the sherry, the kids are on a sugar high, the dog’s knocked the decorations off the tree and it’s time escape to the bathroom later for some sanity-restoring you time.
- Lavender Sandalwood Calming Body Wash, 200ml
- Moor Lavender Calming Bath Essence, 30ml
- Moor Lavender Calming Body Oil, 30ml
AROMATHERAPY ASSOCIATES HOLIDAY ESSENTIALS SET £8 (was £10)
Too good to be true? The elves (you’re hired!) have excelled themselves….four Aromatherapy Associates treats for £8? Yes, possibly the best Christmas beauty steal – ever. (Online, at Aromatherapy Associates’ own website).
So that’s our Snow Season green gift edit wrapped up! One more to go (surprise) this week then we’ll be wrapping things up for the holidays soon.