Buying perfume online can be a curious experience. You cannot smell the bottle through the screen. You cannot spray it onto your wrist. And no matter how advanced your laptop becomes, it still refuses to produce a convincing cloud of bergamot, jasmine and sandalwood. What online fragrance shopping can give you, however, is choice, easy…

Babies have an extraordinary talent for falling asleep at inconvenient times. Five minutes before you need to leave the house? Perfect. During a noisy café lunch? Absolutely not. The moment you return home after pushing the pram around for 45 minutes? Wide awake. This familiar parental challenge is exactly where SnoozeShade comes in. SnoozeShade is…

There are certain household purchases nobody gets particularly excited about. Light bulbs. Drain cleaner. Replacement door keys. And yet, the moment you actually need one, it becomes the most important item on your shopping list. That is where Lock & Key comes in. Lock & Key is a British locksmith and security specialist selling door…

Some fashion brands want you to look polished. Others want you to look elegant. Kseniaschnaider occasionally appears to ask a much more interesting question: “What if we cut those jeans apart and turned them into something nobody has seen before?” This Ukrainian fashion label has built an international reputation around experimental denim, upcycling, deconstruction and…

There is something reassuringly old-fashioned about a good board game. No software update. No battery at 3%. No forgotten password. Just a table, a group of people and the increasingly serious question of whether somebody is secretly stealing money from the Monopoly bank. If that sounds like your kind of entertainment, Winning Moves UK is…

There are two types of notebooks. The first is the cheap one you buy because you desperately need somewhere to write down a phone number. The second is so nice that you spend the first three weeks refusing to write in it because your handwriting doesn’t seem worthy. The Pink Pig is very much in…

Buying a present should be easy. You know the person. You know the occasion. You even know roughly how much you want to spend. And yet, somehow, you find yourself staring at the internet thinking: “What on earth do I buy someone who apparently already owns everything?” This is where PomChick becomes interesting. PomChick is…

Buying a rug sounds wonderfully simple. Find one you like. Check the size. Put it on the floor. Done. Then you actually start shopping and discover: modern rugs, traditional rugs, shaggy rugs, wool rugs, washable rugs, runners, round rugs, indoor/outdoor rugs, and approximately 73 shades of beige. Suddenly the floor has become a project. Fortunately,…

Some shops specialise in one very specific thing. Others sell such a wonderfully practical mixture of products that you start browsing for a belt and somehow end up seriously considering a cooler bag, hip flask and weekend holdall. Sophos Lifestyle sits comfortably in that second category. This British lifestyle brand offers a curated collection of…

Some online fashion stores are excellent when you need a plain T-shirt. Love My Apparel is more interesting when the invitation says: “Wedding.” “Birthday.” “Holiday.” or, slightly more alarmingly: “Black tie.” This independent British fashion retailer specialises in women’s dresses, occasionwear and contemporary clothing, combining its own LMA label with a broad mix of outside…

There are two ways to store a guitar. The first is to lean it against the nearest convenient object and spend the rest of the day quietly hoping gravity remains cooperative. The second is to use something that has actually been designed for the job. Openhagen belongs firmly in the second camp. This Danish design…

There are two ways to decorate a home. The first is to buy whatever happens to be available in the nearest enormous furniture warehouse. The second is to spend three evenings looking at sculptural lamps, hand-painted porcelain, contemporary art and decorative objects while muttering: “That would look incredible on the sideboard.” Micucci Store — also…