Whether you go for affordable luxury buys or true indulgence, you can’t go wrong with these presents for pampering, as chosen by our beauty expert

By the time Christmas rolls around, most of us are ready to drop. There’s the parties, the runaround to get everything ready for the big day, and the toll that the cold weather takes on our health and wellness.

So, if you’re looking to treat your loved ones, a gift that will help them feel pampered is always a win, especially if you have a beauty junkie on your gift list. From affordable luxuries to truly indulgent gifts, these are my favourite self-care buys.

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• England looking to bounce back from World Cup low
• Coach wants to develop ‘next group of leaders’

The England coach, Jon Lewis, said his players experienced a “sharp learning curve” about perception management in the fallout from their disastrous group stage exit in last month’s T20 World Cup. The team’s fitness, professionalism and leadership were all called into question.

Criticism was directed at the players when they fell apart against West Indies after their captain Heather Knight’s injury-enforced absence from the field, dropping six straightforward catches, as the team seemed to panic when Nat Sciver-Brunt took the reins. Further pointed remarks were then made about the conditioning of some players .

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Ukraine-born Nadezhda Buyanova was accused of referring to young patient’s late soldier father as ‘legitimate target’

A Russian court has sentenced an elderly Moscow paediatrician to five and a half years in prison after the mother of one of her patients publicly denounced her for comments she allegedly made about Russian soldiers in Ukraine during a private consultation.

Nadezhda Buyanova, 68, was accused in January by the ex-wife of a soldier killed in Ukraine of referring to her child’s father as a “legitimate target of Ukraine” and saying Russia was “guilty” in the ongoing war.

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Associated Newspapers argued it was ‘excessive’ for such fees to be added to the costs of people who had sued it

The publisher of the Daily Mail has won a legal battle at the European court of human rights over the payment of “success fees” to lawyers representing people who have sued it.

In 2021 Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) lodged a case with the Strasbourg court over costs it had to pay after two cases, one of which was settled before it went to trial.

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Social media site accused of violating law that requires platforms to pay media when republishing articles

Several leading French newspapers have said they are suing the social media platform X, accusing it of running their content without payment.

The joint action against the company run by the US billionaire Elon Musk is being led by several daily newspapers – Le Figaro, Les Echos, Le Parisien and Le Monde – and includes other titles such as the culture magazine Telerama, Courrier International, HuffPost, Malesherbes Publications and the Nouvel Obs news weekly.

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All bird species have declined in number, after suffering habitat loss, pesticide use, climate breakdown and bird flu

Wild bird numbers in the UK are continuing to fall despite government promises to halt nature decline by 2030.

Data released by the government on Tuesday shows that over the past five years, all bird species have faced population decline after suffering from habitat loss, pesticide use, climate breakdown and bird flu. Overall, bird species have declined in number UK-wide by 2% and in England by 7% in the five years since 2018.

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Kaja Kallas says Ukraine’s victory in war is ‘a priority for us all’, adding that it is also in US’s interest

China should face “a higher cost” for supporting Russia in the war against Ukraine, the EU’s incoming foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said.

The former Estonian prime minister was speaking to MEPs during a three-hour hearing before she takes office, when she listed Ukraine’s victory as a priority – stronger words than vaguer formulas of support voiced by some EU politicians.

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Some liberals have a weird urge, based on the flimsiest evidence, to see conservative women as misled victims of Maga men

Her father may have been voted into the highest office in the land, but have the results of the US election left Ivanka Trump feeling low? Deep down, did the former first daughter hope Kamala Harris might prevail?

The idea that Ivanka, who appears to have made enormous amounts of money during her dad’s first term, might have secretly been rooting for Harris seems preposterous. But consider, for a moment, the evidence, which is this: a blue pantsuit. Ivanka, who was absent for much of her dad’s campaign, rocked up to Trump’s victory party – creepy “ slumlord ” husband in tow – wearing a bright blue ensemble. Since blue is associated with Democrats, tongues started wagging . Was this a fashion statement or a political statement? Was Ivanka trying to send a message that she was Team Kamala?

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Welby had faced mounting pressure to quit over his handling of John Smyth abuse scandal

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has announced that he will step down after facing mounting pressure to quit over his handling of an abuse scandal.

Pressure on Welby has been intensifying since the publication last week of a damning report on the church’s cover-up of John Smyth’s abuse in the UK in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and later in Zimbabwe and South Africa. About 130 boys are believed to have been victims.

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