A bathrobe-free Mother's Day gift guide.

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With all due respect to bathrobes—I love bathrobes! I have three! It's 5AM so I'm wearing one right now!—I am frankly disturbed by how many Mother's Day gift guides seem inordinately centered on them. I mean, we all understand the impulse, right? The impulse is to offer comfort. Moms do a lot of stuff for a lot of people, prioritizing the wellbeing of others above their own, and a bathrobe as a concept gestures at leisure. A cozy day spent tending to oneself and nobody else. Relaxation. Except, of course, the sudden presence of a bathrobe in your general vicinity does not actually facilitate any of these things. For that reason and many others, I will say: if you are trying to give someone the gift of externally-imposed leisure, send them to a spa.

But if you are looking for a physical object to gift this Mother's Day, I think we can think beyond the bathrobe.

The gifts that follow (and, really, probably all my gift recommendations) fall into two camps: rare and special things she will use only occasionally, adding to their aura of rare-and-special-ness; and upgrades to things she uses frequently, where the improvement will be instantly (and repeatedly) noticeable. It's a low-touch versus high-touch spectrum, and I stand behind the value and delight of both: upgrades to things you interact with frequently improve your quality of life in a way that feels significant; "special occasion" items come imbued with an almost magical sense of ceremony, which enhances the pleasure of the gift, even if it's only encountered intermittently. (It's the same reason that Christmas decorations still feel exciting and new when you pull them out of storage every year.)

But that's enough Gifting Theory. Onto the picks.

1) Space of Time Anywhere Calming Balm, $48

Space of Time's multitasking balm is designed to soothe in ways both physical and emotional, with its endlessly pleasing river-rock-esque silver compact. The brand says the appealing weight and form of the case makes it useful as a sort of "worry stone," echoing the restorative properties of the balm inside—which, by the way, is infused with calming calendula, violet, rose, and comfrey. (Witchy.) Just carrying this around in your pocket seems reassuring, but Space of Time also offers a keychain attachment if that's more your style.

If it happens to be sold out when you click (they're going fast), I would recommend BYREDO's similarly stunning compact of eye shadows. Normally I'd shy away from giving makeup as a gift unprompted, because it's so difficult to account for personal preferences, but BYREDO's color palettes span a clever breadth of accessible-to-avant-garde, so there's likely to be something your giftee will gravitate toward within the spread of five shadow pans. And again, this is one of those "special occasion" gifts. The rich colors and the beautiful organic-shaped gold case should feel luxurious and fun to interact with, even if she only reaches for it a few times a year for party-prep.

2) Palm Sunday 14k Gold Star Studs, $250

Discovering indie jewelry brand Palm Sunday felt like, as the brand themselves might put it, a moment of divine intervention. I encountered them on Instagram where they were showing off some WIP new designs: teenytiny replicas of Roman drinking fountains (like the one in this header image) to be worn as pendant necklaces. A bit of perfume or essential oil can be dripped onto a cotton ball and tucked into the basin as a sort of a pomander. Between the exquisite beauty and altogether coolness of this idea, and then the pearl vessel necklaces (sadly sold out at the moment) I encountered on their site, I was totally smitten. Go ahead—scroll through their site. Honestly, I could weep. It's all so beautiful, and these wonderfully delicate little 14k gold star studs are no exception. I am not a mom myself, but I cannot imagine a world in which a mom would not want to feel like a glittering Botticelli goddess every day. And that's what these studs are giving.

3) Booboo Clay Ravioli Spoon Rest, $22

If your mom is a carb girlie, these ceramic ravioli spoon rests are a must. They're available for preorder now in yellow (standard ravioli colorway) and glossy green (which gives off a lovely martini olive connotation). If you asked me six weeks ago to picture an oversized ceramic ravioli, I would be hard-pressed to imagine something as sophisticated as this, but there you have it. The world is peopled with wonders, and my recommendation that you buy your loved ones a big ceramic ravioli is one such wonder. I love these, in spite of myself.

Their next official "drop" of new ravioli styles is on May 4th, so you should probably sign up for their newsletter so you don't miss it.

4) Overnight Blowout Velvet Rod Set, from $39

Purely because I am a woman on the internet, I am inundated daily with all manner of targeted ads for products that promise to give me bouncy bombshell curls, despite the fact that (up until a few weeks ago) I have religiously heat-straightened my hair every day of my life since I was thirteen. But clearly at some point this barrage of algorithmic suggestion got through to me, because I eventually caved and purchased Overnight Blowout's "littles" set—4 soft rods covered in a sort of "grippy" velvet-esque material, which are both opposable (like wired ribbon) and equipped with a sturdy hook-and-eye clasp to help keep their shape. (Patent pending.) I won't get into all the mechanics of using these things—the brand's TikTok account does an admirable job of that—but rather I'll just say that I bought these things half-thinking they'd be a scam, or at least a racket, or at least another beauty tool that requires a learning curve and level of commitment I do not possess. But I was wrong. Gosh darnit, these stupid things work. They're well-designed. They truly are comfortable enough to sleep in, even for someone who has been known to get a migraine if I so much as wear a ponytail. There's only a smidge of user error on my end, which is really the biggest endorsement of all (if I, someone whose personal identity is basically synonymous with straight hair, can do a 180 and have success with these, you can too). Honestly, this is the best $40 I've spent in recent memory. So if your mom is a glamorous (or glamorous-aspiring) person who wants to spend less time on her hair but look like she spent MORE time on her hair, this might be the gift for her.

One note: The brand's "bundles" (pictured above) come with a hair scarf that you're supposed to use for additional security while sleeping. I recommend you do that—you will also, as the website shows, look unbelievably cool while doing so, in a sort of "Bad Sandy" kind of way—but I don't think you need to invest in Overnight Blowout's scarves to achieve this. The scarves in their "bundles" aren't real silk, and while they do have real silk options as add-ons on their site, I'm a firm believer in the Do One Thing Well philosophy. The thing OB does well is the soft rollers; go find somebody else who specializes in silk scarves. Not only will this probably yield a better quality scarf, but if you're gifting, you'll be able to select a silk scarf that speaks more to your giftee's taste. Then it's kind of like a two-in-one gift. Vintage is also nice!

5) Sharland England The Chic Hamper, $135 (formerly $180)

As a rule, I don't really believe in prepackaged "gift baskets"—the contents are usually very generic and wildly overpriced, since you're paying for the labor and awkwardness of bundling a bunch of dissimilar things together and figuring out how one would ship it. But Sharland England's gift hampers are making me reconsider my stance. They offer a few different varieties, each enclosed in an impossibly chic wicker hamper (think: picnic basket), which even on its own would make a pretty nice gift. The brand's "Chic Hamper" contains notecards; a screenprinted notebook; a very on-trend shell-shaped dish; a bar of soap, some hand-poured candles, and a pretty glass tumbler. I am not precisely sure what type of evening you are supposed to have with this assortment of items collectively (a candle-lit bath spent drinking a tumbler of wine while you keep up your correspondence?), but I think each one individually is thoughtful and well-considered, and probably an upgrade from whatever your giftee is currently using to illuminate their bathroom/drink wine from/write thank-you notes on. This hamper achieves something I really thought was impossible: a one-size-fits-many gift set that feels like each item was selected carefully with a specific person in mind. So you can feel good giving it to your mom, or your mom-friends, or your friend's mom, or any other vaguely matriarchal figure in your life. And really, that's what we all want!

That's it! If you enjoyed this—or, maybe especially, if you purchased anything from this list—hit reply or comment below to let me know. And be sure to subscribe to This Heaven in its new home on Ghost if you haven't already!