Make-up artist Lisa Eldridge on how to gift beauty products
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My husband always gets the most crazy massive Christmas tree, which has to be taken out through a window of our home in an old Victorian factory. And we are really big on decorations. Wherever we go on holiday we buy a Christmas decoration for this enormous tree. We’ve got a beautiful handblown Murano glass decoration from our first trip to Venice, hand-painted Italian carnival masks, some incredible stuff from Liberty, a hand-sewn version of one of my lipsticks that somebody has made me . . . there are cats, peacocks and foxes. We even put beautiful chocolates or little bags of biscotti on the tree.
I’ve got some decorations from when I was a child; from my husband’s childhood; from our honeymoon and when the kids were young. It’s really a lovely moment when we decorate the tree because every little thing tells a story.
My lovely husband is just so obsessed with it that I let him go and go. My heart does sink a bit when he comes back from the high street and brings out 18ft of red tinsel — I’m like, “Wow, that bit I could do without” — but it’s actually crossed over the bad taste barrier into something kind of amazing.
Our Christmas Day is usually quite small. Last year it was my husband and I, a 95-year-old neighbour who came round in full military uniform, my mum and our sons, who are 24 and 28. I like being in London at Christmas because the build-up is really nice. Once the kids are all off school, it feels lovely in the city. The traffic’s not as bad, there are fun shows on, everything smells and looks nice. The days in between Christmas and New Year are the most relaxing time ever because there’s not that much Fomo: everyone’s just chilling and going for walks.
I’m horrendously last minute with Christmas shopping. I start thinking about it early, then I just get sidetracked. I love receiving vintage make-up as a gift. I’ve got one of the world’s biggest collections of vintage make-up, which gets lent to museums, and includes Salvador Dalí compacts, Audrey Hepburn’s Cartier lipstick holder, and Marilyn Monroe’s lipstick.
When it comes to choosing beauty products as gifts, if you are buying for someone that knows everything then you’ve got to up your game. So places like the Korean beauty shop Pureseoul in Soho are great, or Liberty, because it has some of the newer, more niche brands. I’ve also launched a refillable lipstick case which you can have monogrammed, and the refill is made from fully recyclable aluminium. Tools are also good; anything you can put in the fridge, like a roller or a Gua Sha [massage tool] will reduce puffiness in the morning. The Celluma Pro light therapy devices [which use LED to improve skin texture] are expensive, but they come at different price points and honestly pay for themselves if you like to have regular facials. I bought myself one last Christmas and I know that when I’ve got time off I’ll use it every day and listen to a podcast.
For someone you don’t know that well, you’re better off with body lotions or bath salts. The salts from Mirror Water look presentable but you also cannot beat the BetterYou ones. Use loads and soak for 20 minutes and it’s better than a spa. The magnetic travel containers for toiletries from Cadence are phenomenal — I just gave a set to Kate Winslet. They’re expensive, but they’re really good for people who travel because they look very chic and they don’t leak.
I’m quite a homebody and I also like cosy gifts such as a cashmere blanket, or experiences like a facial or a massage, especially when the therapist can come to the house. Sophie Dahl bought me a great treatment from facialist Teresa Tarmey. A friend of mine has a company called Alöe London, which makes great silk pyjamas and pillowcases, and I buy presents for people from there, as well as from the label Sleeping with Jacques, which has these lovely sloppy silk pyjama shorts and tops.
What I do with all the boys is treatments at Geo F Trumper, the barber in Mayfair. Haircut, beard trim, facial massage, scalp massage . . . anything like that. Last time, they just felt so spoiled and so brilliant and they couldn’t stop telling me how much they liked it.
Teens often want skincare, but I also like buying them nice little bits of jewellery. Last time I was buying for a teen, I took her to Alfies Antique Market near Marylebone and bought her a little Chanel-ish jersey handbag. I’ve heard from her that all her friends think it’s the coolest thing ever. Alfies is something different in that it’s a feast for the eyes but also feeds into sustainability. You can find things that are very much trending now, but just made better and probably cheaper.
Lisa Eldridge is a make-up artist who has worked with celebrities from Dua Lipa to Helena Bonham Carter. She launched her popular YouTube channel featuring make-up tutorials in 2010, and her own make-up brand in 2019.
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