Contains press samples
How many weeks has it been now? It must be 7 or 8 weeks since we last met up with friends or family … maybe longer? It feels a long time, that’s for sure. Luckily, we have phones and technology to keep in touch, but even so there are times when we’ve felt lonely and anxious. Early on in the lockdown I received a small box through the letterbox. A friend had sent a few treats, and it truly lifted my spirits. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by the news and the worry that goes with it. This gift gave me something else to think about, and it made my day – week even.
We still cannot see friends and family, so maybe it’s the perfect time to send someone you care about a small gift to let them know you’re thinking of them? Here’s a few I’d like to suggest to you; many are small and will fit through the letterbox, others just a little bit bigger.
Princess Prosecco Gift Box from uOpen
This is a fabulous gift to send to a friend – with enough content to share (if you want to!) It was purchased from the subscription box marketplace uOpen, from the company Princess Prosecco. It’s a ‘Girl’s Night In’ box that includes a full-sized bottle of premium prosecco imported from Italy! But there’s also over £20 of treats to go with it.
My box contained the following:
- Absolut Raspberry Vodka 5cl
- Cocktail recipe card (two prosecco-based recipes)
- Freeze-dried strawberries
- Mini whisk
- Ring-shaped ice tray
- 4 x straws
- Sml jar of strawberries and cream hard-boiled sweets
- Penn State sour cream and chive pretzels
- Worry stone
- 7th Heaven Pulped Papaya hair pre-treatment
- 2 x bunny shaped soy wax melts, hand poured by Emjens Candles
Single purchase box RRP £37.69 / Monthly box RRP £35.99
Cornerstone Luxury Shaving Gift Set
Lockdown has certainly encouraged our hair to get feral! I took the clippers to Huw’s hair yesterday – first time ever. He likes it; I’m just grateful he’s working from home and no one else can see my handywork! Huw doesn’t like beards, so shaves daily. A great ‘pick me up’ gift for him will always be a premium shaving set. This one from Cornerstone ticked all the boxes, containing over £40 of product for a cost of £35 with free P&P.
The quality sturdy box contains the following:
- A personalised chrome razor handle
- 6 German-engineered razor blades
- Red blade protector
- Sensitive Shave Gel (150ml)
- Sensitive Cooling Post-Shave Balm (75ml)
- £!– /wp:list-item –>
This really is a great gift. Perfect for when our male friends ‘rejoin the outside world’!
Novello Tea Rainbow Gift in Letterbox Friendly Packaging
You can’t currently spend time with family and friends because of the virus crisis. However, there are ways to say you care. This Tea Rainbow Letterbox Gift from Novello is a small gift you can send with a personalised message. With an RRP of just £3.75, the recipient will receive a rainbow selection of 16 Clipper Organic tea bags. Our selection contained 4 each of Chamomile, Wild Berry, Redbush and Peppermint (all with health giving and refreshing properties). Perfect hot drinks while putting your feet up.
Lady Bakewell-Park Biscuits
Following on from the tea, why not send a biscuit or two as well? In a time of crisis, we always call for tea and biscuits; we might not be able to pop round for a natter, but for now a Zoom chat will have to do. Lady Bakewell-Park is a great place to go for handmade quirky, hand-stamped biscuits. There are a range of biscuit boxes, brownies and petits fours you can send, along with a personal message. Prices range from £3 – £6 for a special box of two biscuits. Brownies and petits four gift boxes are £20. I love my two ‘lockdown’ biscuits, stamped with ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me’ and ‘You Can’t Touch This’. Well I have to say I did touch it, and ate it, and it was delicious!
Personalised Mini Bamboo Chopping Board from Hugo’s Workshop
A gift guaranteed to make someone smile is a mini chopping board that you can personalise from Hugo’s Workshop. I love this ‘When life gives you lemons, add ice, tonic and gin’ quote, and I had the option to choose the font, the wording, and whether I wanted anything added to the back. The final item fits through your letterbox, and with an RRP starting at £12 (£5 extra for engraving on the back), it’s great value too.
Shortly after submitted your order Hugo’s Workshop send a proof to approve, and the item arrives a few days later – or have it sent direct to a friend.
Graze Subscription Box
I love a graze box. Yes, it’s a subscription product – but you get to choose how often you receive them, and also what goes in them. By that I mean that when you join you get to select what kind of items you like and dislike, so they can tailor your graze box to your specific taste. With all these hours sitting at home, the temptation to snack on unhealthy items gets overwhelming at times. A graze box, however, reins in those cravings with a selection of tasty (and much healthier) treats. A box containing 4 snacks costs £4.49 (your 1st, 5th and 10th boxes are free*).
Our variety graze box consisted of:
- Jaffa Cake – Belgian dark chocolate, orange infused raisins, and roasted hazelnuts (40g)
- White Chocolate and Coconut Macaron – Belgian white chocolate buttons, Italian amaretti drops, almond slivers, and coconut flakes (29g)
- Lively Lemon Fibre Flapjack – Wholegrain oat flapjack with zesty lemon curd and yogurt drizzle (53g)
- Thai Style Sweet Chilli – Honey chilli peanuts, lemon and black pepper broad beans, garlic and sesame sticks, edamame beans (32g)
Inside the box is a sheet explaining the ingredients and nutritional info for each of the snack items. We all tried them, and luckily our favourites were all different, so it was win-win!
- Promotion valid on day of writing (17/5/2020)
Emergency Pink Gin Letterbox Gift from Hearth and Heritage
Now this is a fine, fine gift from Hearth and Heritage. This Emergency Pink Gin letterbox gift really makes you smile when you open the box. Inside is a 5cl bottle of Gordon’s Pink Distilled Gin, a 90g bar of Choc Affair’s Rhubarb Gin milk chocolate, and a pot of Pink Gin lip balm. With an RRP of £19, and postbox friendly, this is a great ‘pick me up’ for a friend.
Selection of Letterbox-friendly items from Bee Good
Bee Good is an independent British Skincare company, run by husband and wife team, Simon and Caroline. Simon has been an experienced bee keeper for over 12 years, and honey from his (and other UK) hives is blended with naturally active botanicals to create the skincare range – for men and women of all ages. A fantastic gift to send to a friend is a selection of the Bee Good lip balms. I received Lime Blossom and Honey, Raspberry and White Chocolate, and Vanilla and Honey lip balms (£4.75 each). They sound good enough to eat, don’t they … they are lovely actually! In with the small package was a honey-flavoured chocolate button (handmade in the New Forest), and a sample of their Youth Enhancing eye cream (I need it!)
A fantastic final touch is a small envelope containing a bee-attracting seed ball to scatter in your garden. It contains birdfoot trefoil, foxglove, red clover, wild marjoram and viper bugloss – favourites with the bees!
Bare & Bond Perfume
Life is far from normal and you can’t just go to the shops for a browse. In effect if you want to shop for presents it is really difficult. If you want to buy perfume, what good is it unless you know which one the recipient likes? The Bare & Bond monthly perfume subscription is the ideal way to try different perfumes. Bare & Bond select micro-perfumes from artisan perfumiers, allowing you to try scents you may never have been aware of. You can order a range of perfume subscriptions from the monthly subscription (RRP £14.95) right up to a yearly subscription (RRP £149.50).
You can choose between the male or female perfumes. For a letterbox subscription gift, this is probably the closest you will get to bespoke perfumery.
The Spicery Recipe Kit Subscription
This is a fantastic gift option for the spice-loving food fan. If you know someone whose taste buds need a bit of a boost at the moment, then this subscription gift from The Spicery is perfect. Every month there is a choice of 15 delicious spice mixes to make a well-known curry dish. There are also a huge range of cookbooks, spice mix blends and other curry spice products. If you want to buy a curry-based gastronomic gift then this is definitely the place to go. The current RRP is £26 (prepayment) for a 3-month subscription.
The sample we received came through our letterbox and contained all the dry spice blend ingredients to make Masala Dosa with Sambar and Coconut Curry. The recipe card provided a list of all the bulk ingredients you need and comprehensive instructions on how to cook the dishes. It was a lot of fun – though a challenge – to follow the instructions, and the meal was delicious.
Cooking-related gifts are always a good thing, I think!
