The best stocking fillers are small things chosen for one person: a lip balm in the shade she wears, a hand cream for her coat pocket, a nail polish in her colour, a little bottle of scent, a charm that means something between you. A stocking is for family and close friends, so it can be playful and personal. Choose a few things she will use every day through the winter, and one she will keep.
What Makes a Good Stocking Filler?
Size comes first: it has to fit, and it should come out of the stocking ready to use. Then usefulness: the small gifts that earn their place live in a handbag and are reached for daily. Then the personal touch. You know her shade, her scent and the motif she would choose for herself, and the stocking is the place to show it.
Lip Balm and Lip Oil
Winter air is drying, and a balm is reached for many times a day. Choose a tinted one if she likes a little colour, a sheer one if she wears it under lipstick.
Chanel's Rouge Coco Lip Balm is a twist-up balm in a cylindrical case with a gold band, in tinted shades from Blushing Pink to Cherry Burst; its colour starts sheer and builds as you layer it. Guerlain's KissKiss Bee Glow Oil is a tinted lip oil with honey, in a 9.5 ml glass bottle, to wear on bare lips or over lipstick. Estée Lauder's Pure Color Lip Balm is a soft pink balm in a gold metallic tube that slips easily into a make-up pouch. Collistar's Rossetto Puro Lip Balm is a sheer, transparent balm in a glossy black twist-up stick with gold lettering, 3 g and easy to carry.
- Rouge Coco Lip Balm
- KissKiss Bee Glow Oil — Tinted Lip Oil
- Pure Color Lip Balm
- Rossetto Puro Lip Balm
Hand Cream in a Small Tube
A 30 ml tube of hand cream fits a coat pocket or a desk drawer, and in the cold months it is used every day. A scent she loves is what makes it hers.
Roger & Gallet offers two in 30 ml tubes: Fleur de Figuier Hand Cream, with fig extract, shea butter and sweet almond oil, and Gingembre Rouge Hand Cream, with ginger root extract, shea butter and sweet almond oil, in a decorative pink tube with a screw cap. Melvita's Nourishing Hand Cream is made with prickly pear and shea butter to comfort dry or overworked hands, in a light green tube. The Body Shop's Mango Hand Balm, made for dry skin, pairs mango seed oil with shea butter and a delicate mango fragrance.
Nail Colour
Nail colour is a small, cheerful gift and easy to make personal: choose the shade she always wears, or one a little bolder for the party season.
Essie's Nail Lacquer Set holds two bottles of nail polish in heart-themed packaging with a red bow, ready for the stocking as it is. Dior's Vernis Nail Polish gives a glossy, gel-like finish and is applied with a flat, curved brush, in a 10 ml bottle. Sally Hansen's Cashew Butter Demi Matte Nail Colour, from the good. kind. pure. range, is a soft, wearable neutral with a modern demi-matte finish. To care for the nails between colours, Essie's Apricot Nail & Cuticle Oil combines apricot kernel and jojoba oils, brushed on around the nail.
A Small Bottle of Scent
Fragrance is the most personal thing in the stocking, so choose it for someone whose taste you know well, or give a scent she already loves. Each of these comes in a 30 ml bottle.
Moschino's Bear-Shaped Eau de Toilette arrives in a glossy pink glass bottle shaped like a bear, the most playful bottle you could tuck into a stocking. Guerlain's Mon Eau de Parfum sits in a transparent bottle with a textured gold neck, with lavender at the top, sambac jasmine at the heart and vanilla and sandalwood at the base. Twilly d'Hermès Eau de Parfum comes in a square glass bottle with a rounded black cap and a pink scarf tied at the neck.
If you are unsure where to begin, How to Choose a Fragrance or Beauty Gift for Someone Else explains how to choose a scent for another person.
Something Small to Keep
One piece of jewellery turns a stocking from useful to memorable. Keep it small and personal: a motif she loves, or something that adds to what she already wears.
Butterflies are a favourite motif, in two finishes. Pandora's Silver Butterfly Stud Earrings are made in sterling silver and set with three clear cubic zirconia; the Guess Silver Butterfly Studs, about 1 cm wide, are silver-tone metal with pavé clear crystals and a round crystal at the centre. Dodo's Rose Gold Speech Bubble Charm is made in 18k rose gold, with a red enamel heart and two round diamonds, for a chain or a charm bracelet. Stroili's Red Enamel Ladybird Charm measures 1 cm, in red enamel with black detailing and a gold-toned outline.
For more on the house behind the speech bubble, read Dodo: The Milanese House of Charms That Mean Something.
- Silver Butterfly Stud Earrings
- Silver Butterfly Studs
- Rose Gold Speech Bubble Charm
- Red Enamel Ladybird Charm
Filling the Stocking
Balance is what makes a stocking feel considered: one thing for every day, such as a lip balm or a hand cream; one small indulgence, such as a polish or a scent; and one thing to keep, placed at the toe so it is found last. Let the pieces speak to each other where you can, with a nail colour that echoes her lip balm or a charm that matches her bracelet.
If you choose one thing first, choose the piece to keep, then build the smaller gifts around her colours and her scent.
