HOLLY WAINWRIGHT: 'Things I would buy my best friend for Christmas.'

I'm not Oprah, but here are a few of my favourite things that I genuinely like so much I would buy for my best friends for Christmas/Birthdays/Just Because. That is, if my best friends liked exactly what I like. Which they don't. But someone out there must. So, good luck.

Watch: The Mamamia team shares when they put their christmas trees up. Post continues after video.

A very MID gift-guide.

Oily skin care.

I've been using Sunday Riley for ages. Not everyone can hack Vitamin C, but my face seems to like it, so last year I recommended their CEO moisturiser, which is exactly the right level of rich and fabulous and active. But this year I have been reminded how much I love face oils. Again, not every face does, but mine just guzzles that stuff up like hummus on a cracker.

So. Here are a few I love so much (and are special enough) to gift to someone you love.

Sunday Riley CEO Glow Vitamin C + Turmeric Oil, from $66.

Look, I'm not going to pretend I know WHY Vit C and golden tumeric and the various berries that make this sound more like a smoothie than a face oil work so well, but they do. It does. I LOVE the way this makes my skin feel. I use it in the morning, sometimes after some vitamin B serum if I remember, and it glooooooows. I leave it for a bit and put my make-up over the top.

Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil and CEO Glow Vitamin C + Turmeric Oil. Image: Supplied.

Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil, from $91.

It's not ideal for my bank balance that I am now in love with TWO Sunday Riley face oils, but this one has been a new discovery and I have re-bought it twice this year. It's a retanoid, which means (again, no scientist here) it's doing its resurfacing work while you sleep. That also means I don't wear it every night, but alternate it with a rich moisturiser throughout the week. But the oils, including the blue tansy (it looks dark navy when you drop it into your hand, but massages on clear) means it's kinder to my skin than some other retanoids, and feels really nourishing AND smells fricking delicious. A little obsessed.

Ipsum Best Skin Face Oil Intense Treatment, $85.

I'm certain I have recommended this a few times because I literally have been using it for years, but with a very different vibe from the Mecca-favourites Sunday Riley, Ipsum's Best Skin Face Oil Intense Treatment is made by a small business in northern NSW with 23 different essential oils and is rich, smells delicious and just wakes my skin up like nobody's business. One of my all-time super-stars and therefore a gift I'll always love giving.

Ipsum Best Skin Face Oil Intense Treatment. Image: Supplied.

The Ugly-est best-est shoes ever.

Twoobs The Sneaky Jane, $189.

Want to troll your bestie? I have a great idea. I love Twoobs sandals. A small Australian business, environmentally friendly, comfy as hell, I have three pairs, actually, in brown, red and blue. And they are comfy and handsome as hell. But the fourth pair, these ones, the Sneaky Janes, are not like the others. Because they are ugly AF.

But what I didn't expect, until I put them on and figured it out, is that they are the comfiest shoes I've ever worn. And although I'm not quite brave enough yet to rock them to work, but in the garden? I rarely wear anything else and, gosh, do the kids love to take the p***. I feel like you know who to buy them for.

Twoobs Sneaky Janes. Image: Supplied.

A little something for the secret gardeners.

Kikki K Secret Gardeners' Club T-shirt, $69.99.

Bless Kikki K, who NAILED this green, this font, this T, this message. It's for any slightly embarrassed gardener in your life and there's also a cap (which, yes, of course I also have, I am now a public gardener).

Kikki K Secret Gardeners' Club T-shirt. Image: Supplied.

You know I had to pick a candle.

DS & Durga BE STILL candle, from $70.

I know this candle is expensive. It's silly to spend so much money on a candle. Smelly candles are boring presents, etc etc. NO, friends, they're not. A good candle, one that makes you say "aaaahhh" when you walk into your space, is not a silly gift or a waste of money.

The thing about Be Still, though, is that it's not for everyone. Because it's STRONG. And it's woo-woo. Designed for (presumably rich) people to light when they're meditating, its description suggests "Soft clouds of ancient holy incense expand slowly", which sounds… pretentious, but for whatever reason, it is exactly the smell I love in my "office" shed. So this candle is what my writing room has smelled like this year, and every time I walk in there after a very hectic week, I literally inhale and say 'ahhhhhhh' (this smell hangs around, friend, long after the flame goes out).

DS & Durga BE STILL candle. Image: Supplied.

The perfect "Keep Cup".

The Fressko Camino Coffee Cup in Denim, from $39.95.

I drive a lot. I walk a lot. I like to do both those things with a coffee or tea close by. I have been gifted 'Keep Cups' before and I think they're great presents. But only if they work.

What do I mean by work? Well, they don't leak down your front when you take a sip. They keep your coffee hot. They don't make your tea taste funny. They're light enough to throw in your bag but sturdy enough not to be easily knocked over.

These come in stainless steel or ceramic (mine's stainless). It was recommended to me. I bought it months ago, and it goes EVERYWHERE with me. A very sensible present for a sensible person. Or someone trying to be sensible…

It comes in other colours, obviously.

The Fressko Camino Coffee Cup in Denim. Image: Supplied.

SEEDS — I'm not even joking.

Worm Ticklers Nursery, Seed Starter Pack, $49.

Okay, so this is only a present for a very specific (in my case fictional) best friend, but if anyone gifted me seeds — particularly GOOD seeds, ones that they knew worked, that they had maybe harvested or had been given by someone who had… Well, I would kiss them.

This year I am killing it in the zucchini department because of some seeds I bought from a village market on the far South Coast of NSW. I swear I might spend the rest of my days trying to track down the woman who sold them to me. So, get your seeds as locally as you can, ideally.

But these organic seeds from Worm Ticklers are something I buy whenever I see them, and I've had good success with them too, particularly their tommy toe tomatoes. You can buy a starter pack, and get it delivered to that lucky friend.

I know, I'm sorry.

Worm Ticklers Nursery, Seed Starter Pack. Image: Supplied.

Tequila! Because, Margs.

Neurita Citrus With Tequila, $65.

I know this is sensitive. I know we're all trying to drink less, or are drinking less, and I am certainly not endorsing booze as a gift if that's you, or your mate. But… This year, I have enjoyed a marg or two. I like them clean and tangy and not frozen and only one because, well, you know why.

Neurita Tequila is new, and it comes in a nice box for presents. But the thing about it is, it's made with really subtle fresh fruit flavours, and it's made especially for margaritas. You don't have to add sugary syrups and stuff. And yes, the fact that this bottle I'm posting is half-empty suggests that Brent and I have enjoyed marg night with the Citrus version once or twice. It also comes in a rose flavour. Drink responsibly, friends.

Neurita Citrus With Tequila. Image: Supplied.

A very MID book (or five).

All Fours by Miranda July.

I often resist reading "cool" books. There's a deep-seated rebel gremlin in me that sulks when everyone tells me that "I just have to read" the latest literary masterpiece. Yeah, yeah, I'll get to you, I think, in my own good time. So it was with Miranda July's All Fours.

Miranda July is one of the coolest people on the planet. She makes cool films, she writes cool scripts, she's a cool performance artist, for God's sake. I find all that intimidating, but for me — and so many others it's become a cliché — she has written the Big Book Of Year.

All Fours is a story about a woman (who has a lot in common with July, being a sort-of famous artist of a certain age), who doesn't realise she's in Perimenopause when she becomes even more chaotic (sexually, emotionally, professionally) than usual. She decides to take a break from her husband and child to drive from LA to New York to attend an arts thing, but never actually gets any further than an uninspiring motel room in a Los Angeles suburb. And the rest, I can't tell you about because it's bonkers and brilliant and sexy and disturbing and deeply, deeply original. Everyone I know who's read this book is left dwelling on something different. For me, I can't stop thinking about what it says about long-term relationships and how they morph and change and settle and fracture. I loved it.

All Fours by Miranda July. Image: Supplied.

This was the year I did a lot of reading for MID, the podcast we launched in May for Gen X women. And man, has that been a treat. Here's a selection of books by women I went on to talk to that studded my year with absolute joy.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty.

I'm sure there are people who don't believe that Miranda July readers and Liane Moriarty readers are the same people and to them I say — nonsense. I entirely reject the snobbery of categorisation that would seat July in Literary and Moriarty in Commercial. A good book is a good book and Moriarty is rightly recognised as a genius writer of stories about women's lives that people love to read. I think Here One Moment is one of the best of her brilliant bunch.

It's about an older woman who stands up on an irritatingly-delayed flight between Hobart and Sydney one day and moves through the cabin telling everyone onboard — children, newlyweds, the flight attendants — how and when they are going to die. And the book, of course, is What Happens Next. It's so clever, and so emotionally astute, and so tense at times, it's the very definition of a page-turner.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty. Image: Supplied.

Listen to my conversation with Liane Moriarty, here.

We Are The Stars by Gina Chick.

In this part-memoir, part-manifesto, Gina Chick never even gets to the part where she leaves her life to appear on a reality TV show about surviving in the Tasmania wilderness. There's much too much to tell you about without that, as it turns out.

Like how she grew up, a wild thing in a time and place where fitting in was a much safer option. Like how she raved her way through the 90s in a chemically-enchanced whirl of tribal belonging to a new, queer crew. Like how several big messes led her to meet her husband, Lee, to fall pregnant at the exact same time she was diagnosed with breast cancer and about how she survived that but went on to lose her extraordinary daughter, Blaise.

"Force of nature" is an overused label but an entirely accurate description of Chick, both in person and through the pages of this incredible book. Searing and pacey and beautifully written, it's nothing like a celebrity biography. It truly is a gift.

Listen to my interview with Gina, here.

We Are The Stars by Gina Chick. Image: Supplied.

A Bit On The Side by Virginia Trioli.

For the foodie in your life. That person who remembers a place and time by what they ate and drank. Trioli needs no introduction as one of Australia's most esteemed journalists. But she might need introduction as someone obsessed with cooking and serving and seeking out the most delicious "sides" — the little things that make life delicious, from the perfect green salad to the perfect Friday night cocktail.

The book is a bit like Norah Ephron's much-loved Heartburn, in that it tells stories from Trioli's life — growing up the precociously smart daughter in a big chaotic family, falling in love with a man with children, fighting to have her own baby, learning how to handle work-f**k-ups on a massive stage — with recipes scattered throughout. I have been making several of her dishes — her grandmother's green beans and, yes, her Friday Night Fog cocktail and loving myself sick. Great pressie for others to have that taste of wonder, too.

You can listen to my interview with Virginia, here.

A Bit On The Side by Virginia Trioli. Image: Supplied.

Tilda Is Visible by Jane Tara.

A novel you haven't read before, literally and figuratively, really is a gift. Tilda is one of those.

Jane Tara has been writing children's and young adult books for years. She's a publishing expert, an enthusiastic meditator, and she wrote Tilda after a period in her life reflected in this novel.

What actually happened though, was not what happens in the book, which is that Tilda, divorced, struggling, Mid, wakes up one day and discovers the tip of her little finger is missing. Rather, it's still there, but it's invisible. Then it's a bit of her ear… Tilda googles what's happened to her and even goes to the doctor, and she hears the same thing. It's Invisible Woman Syndrome, and it happens to women of a "certain age". How wonderful is that premise? Anyway, the book then follows Tilda as she tries to see herself again. It's a wonderful, entertaining, profound novel, and it's been snapped up by Hollywood for adaptation.

Tilda is Visible by Jane Tara. Image: Supplied.

Listen to me talking to Jane, here.

Your Time Starts Now by Julie Goodwin.

My first MID conversation was with Julie Goodwin, and it will always be very special to me because the vulnerability that famous and successful and much-loved woman showed in the studio was beyond generous.

And that same vulnerability is reflected in her memoir. It paints the picture of a remarkable woman from an ordinary background, whose work ethic and passion for food made her famous on Masterchef, but whose very relatable struggle with mental health — anxiety, depression and addiction — almost ended her life when she seemed to "have it all".

The number of women who saw themselves in this conversation was the bedrock for MID — we might be older and wiser but trying to keep everything and everyone together is a huge struggle — and this book is for any woman who resonates with that. It's also funny, self-deprecating and a little bit sweary. Just like Julie.

Listen to my conversation with Julie, here.

Your Time Starts Now by Julie Goodwin (You can almost see the book. You can certainly see my post-its). Image: Supplied.

I could go on, but I have a feeling I've worn out my welcome.

Happy holidays, my MID friends. Please do tell me if your friends are still talking to you after you give them one of these excellent presents xxx

Follow Holly on Instagram, here.

Listen to her on Mamamia Out Loud, here.

Listen to her on MID, here.

Feature image: Supplied.