A Bathmas Gift Guide

I can't believe that tomorrow is the first of December. Where has this year disappeared to?! I have just started doing my Christmas shopping in dribs and drabs, and I've really had to rethink my game plan this year. I have a lot of family and friends to buy for, and I absolutely love buying people presents. I just don't know where to stop, and when you end up spending £30+ for over 20 people... It all starts to add up. We've got a house, a puppy and a holiday to save for next year, so I've tried to be a lot more savvy with my present buying this Christmas. I'm trying to gift everyone with just one really special pressie, rather than 3 or 4 (often daft) things each. Does anyone feel like just one present feels really lonely? For example if I bought a friend a new diary from Paperchase, I'd need to get the matching pen, desk planner and other little bits for them... This is how it gets silly and out of hand!

 I actually feel a bit awful writing the above when there are so many people on this planet who don't even have a roof over their heads or a warm place to sleep at night. So I'd like to even up the materialistic side of this post and say if you're in Glasgow, Edinburgh or Aberdeen doing your Christmas shopping, please pop into Social Bite for a sandwich or coffee. 100% of their profits are given to good causes, and 1 in 4 of their team are formerly homeless people. They also feel the local homeless community through their 'Suspended Coffee and Food' initiative. This means that customers can pay in advance for a coffee or any item of food from the menu, and a local homeless person can come into the shop to claim it. Social Bite are based in Scotland, but I can imagine there are other similar ran Social Businesses across the UK. Please take 5 minutes to look one up, and give a little kindness to those who really need it most at this time of year.

 

 There are a million and one gift guides out there at the moment, some with unique hand made gifts and awesome Etsy finds - but I wanted to keep mines old school and share some bath time favourites. I know bath smellies can be seen as a rather traditional present (or a total cop out as Pete said to me! In the gift aisle at Tesco next to the Lynx box sets...) Unwanted little plastic wrapped wicker baskets and boxes of old lady perfume smelling soap sitting at the back of your bathroom cabinet until the following Christmas. I personally LOVE bath related goodies! No bubble bath goes unused or any piece of soap unwrapped in my house. So I thought I'd share my favourite products which no one would want to re-gift or shove to the back of a drawer after Christmas.

1. Nut Cracker Travel Bag - Feel Good // Arran Aromatics // £15
First up is this lovely lil' Nutcracker travel bag from Arran Aromatics. I am a total sucker for cute bags that come with sets like this, they're perfect for trips away and make great makeup bags too. This one contains a Lip Balm, Bath Salts, Hand and Nail Cream, Grapefruit and Shea Butter Soap, a Mini Travel Candle and a Body Polisher. I love the branding across all of their Nutcracker Gift Sets, super cute and super festive!

 

2. Orange Flower Body Gift // Liz Earle // £27
Liz Earle is known for her fantastic skincare range (big up Cleanse and Polish you absolute savior) and I love the fact that she's got some bath/shower goodies too. This set contains an Orange Flower Botanical Body Wash and the matching Botanical Body Cream. I love fresh citrus scents so this would be a perfect 'wake me up' smell in your morning shower.

3. Astronomical // Lush // £22.95
I couldn't speak about bath gifts without talking about Lush! I've been working there over the festive period doing stock and visual merchandising, so it's been fantastic to get to know all the products a little bit better (and also seriously dangerous for my bank balance) This Astronomical gift set initially caught my eye with the packaging, and contains an Intergalactic Bath Bomb, Monsters and Alien Fun, The Comforter Shower Cream, and the Experimenter Bath Bomb. Stardust and Snow Fairy's Castle were a close second to this set. I just want all the things.

4. Poptastic // Soap & Glory // £18
Soap & Glory are a classic Christmas favourite of mines. It wouldn't be the festive period without people losing their sh*t over the famous Hat Boxes! They have a bunch of new gift sets out this year, but my faves are the limited edition online exclusives which were made in collaboration with Philip Colbert. Poptastic contains mini's of Clean On Me Shower Gel, Hand Food Hand Cream, The Scrub Of Your Life Body Scrub, Heel Genius Foot Cream The Righteous Butter Body Butter, and a full size Original Pink Body Spray.

5. Dolce Dreams Blissful Bath Trio // Fake Bake Beauty // £35
At the recent Fake Bake event I was pleased to find out they have a delicious smelling bath and body range out called Dolce Dreams. Everything in the collection smells like cupcakes, ice cream and sugary sweet treats. I have the Lemon Meringue Body Whip and it smells good enough to eat. This bath trio set contains Coconut Macaroon Body Scrub, the Lemon Meringue Body Whip, and a Honey Brulee Bath Drizzle. Be careful not to eat your bath bubbles, no matter how good they smell!

6. Ginger Pleasures // Origins // £45
The Ginger Souffle body cream from Origins has to be one of the best things I have ever smelled, and each year they bring out a set containing a bunch of their Ginger goodies. The one I have chosen for my gift guide is called Origins Ginger Greats, and although it's the priciest of the bunch, if you have tried anything from this range you'll know it's totally worth it. This set contains the Ginger Souffle Whipped Body Cream, Ginger Burst Savory Body Wash, Ginger Essence Intensified Fragrance, Incredible Spreadable Smoothing Ginger Body Scrub, Ginger Gloss Smoothing Body Oil, and a  Body Puff.

So, there you have my favourite selection of smellies which no sane bath lover would turn their nose up at this Christmas. Writing this post has really got me in the mood for running one myself. Merry Bathmas to all, and to all a good night!