Forget flowers, all mums want is The Perfect Bath
WITh Mothering Sunday looming, my allies and I have been debating what the midlife mother — or harassed non-mother of a certain age — actually wants.
The general consensus was for her entire family / job / endless earthly responsibilities to disappear for a week and to spend seven days slipping between bath and bed.
let’s just take a moment to consider this fantasy for a while. No demands, no messages, no noise whatsoever — just pure, unalloyed calm. As I type this, I’m almost weeping with joy and I don’t even have offspring.
Short of this idyll, what tonics can the world of glamour come up with? More than one of my informants told me she craved better, bushier eyebrows. Skinnies may be back for the young and ultra-fashionable. however, the combination of having plucked the blighters off last time crescents were in vogue, combined with middle-aged sparseness, means that several reported themselves to be medievally ‘brow bald’.
I’ve dealt with this via Augustinus Bader’s The Eyebrow and lash Enhancing Serum (£115, augustinus bader.com). At more than £100 for 8ml, it costs a not-so-small fortune. Nevertheless, its online spiel promises ‘full, face- defining brows’ and this is what it bestows.
It can be wielded on brows and lashes, and the joy of its use means I make it a nightly ritual. What can I say? I just really like it. It works a treat, and — if I did have sprogs — I’d force the little blighters to save up their pocket money for it.
Shouldyou desire a less luxe bushiness booster, however, try RapidBrow Eyebrow Enhancing Serum (now £29.60, lookfantastic.com).
If I were tempted by a gift box, it would be Marks & Spencer’s Mother’s day Beauty Box (£ 25, marksandspencer.com), complete with cult wares to the tune of £85.
Behold, a full-sized pot of depuffing Clinique eye salve, 15ml tube of Eve lom Rescue Mask, bijou lumene night cream, a whopping Ren Rosa Centifolia Cleansing Gel, and Nails Inc greige varnish. Plus a Neom Perfect Night’s Sleep Candle, a soothing concoction of lavender, sweet basil and jasmine, providing a 20-hour burn time. Supplement it with a bunch of tulips and I’ll let you be my child.
Another means of winning my heart would be to assist me in my ongoing quest to find The Perfect Bath.
Ilapothecary Magnesium & Amethyst deep Relax Bath Soak (£59 for 400g, ilapothecary.com) is stupendously relaxing. I adore Aromatherapy Associates Forest Therapy Bath & Shower oil (from £12, aromatherapy associates. While Aromatherapy Associates discovery Wellbeing Miniature Collection (now £36, aromatherapyassociates.com) could never disappoint. If you can’t run to these, I’ll take Jason Pampering himalayan Pink Salt 2-in-1 Foaming Bath Soak & Body Wash (£9.74, 887ml, big greensmile.com) — planet-friendly and relaxing.
An exquisite body cream that your matriarch would be too abstemious to grant herself will also prove a winner. unearth her perfume passion and invest accordingly. or seek out a tub of Neal’s Yard Create Your own ointment (£7.50, nealsyardremedies.com), a beautiful, vitamin-rich, organic cure-all that provides a base for whatever oil you throw at it.
My fifth dream gift? The world’s greatest sleep mask plus a onestep means of contriving plump skin by morning. It is no exaggeration to say that the drowsy Silk Sleep Mask (£69, drowsy sleepco.com) changed my life.
An adjustable, wrap-aroundthe-head affair, this cult creation blocks out light while muffling noise and cushioning eyes, and won’t leave dermatographic skin like mine (which takes and holds on to marks all too easily) savaged with angry lines. I live for the Midnight Blue, but there’s also rose, red and deep green. once tried, it is impossible to hit the pillow without it.
As for the accompanying complexion bolsterer, I’ve been seriously impressed by First Aid Beauty Bounce-Boosting Serum (£ 40, lookfantastic. com) for instant, does-what-it- says- onthe-tin oomph. A testament to the power of peptides, 100 per cent of its testers reported that it softened the appearance of expression lines. Rest assured, it will make every cream-crackered woman sit up and take notice.
And, if the cost of living is biting, then simply indulge in the ancient magic that is a bonding beauty ritual. When my mother was dying, I would massage cream into her hands, as she would give my grandmother a manicure years before. or do each other’s makeup over home-made buns. Time — like love — cannot be bought. Follow: @HannahJBetts