I think I've found the ultimate Christmas gift – a bespoke lipstick experience

By all means, complain that your partner/mother/sister/best friend has everything she could ever dream of, but there comes a point where surely they haven’t got everything.

Should you find yourself taking a wintry stroll through either Covent Garden or Canary Wharf, you’ll stumble across a Code8 boutique. There, a truly tailor-made experience is up for grabs. But let’s go back to the start; what is Code8?

Code8 is the beauty brand that promotes the ‘less is more’ ideology; something which I can certainly get behind. As someone who has quite a “finger painting” approach to doing my makeup, I’m all for having fewer products for a higher impact.

Fortunately for me, Code8 products mean I can abandon any need for MUA-like skills and just embrace creativity – that’s the part I’m good at.

Code8

Code8 stores offer an experience unlike anything else on the market. Here, guests work one-to-one with a ‘Code8 Colour Maestro’ to create a totally custom lipstick shade developed specifically for them.

Whether you’re a makeup or cosmetic professional with something specific in mind that you can’t find on the shelves, or someone who wants one perfect shade that does it all, this experience delivers something totally individual – and totally open to your interpretation.

That said, the customisation experience doesn’t stop with shade and colour tone – certainly not. Every element of the end-product is individually considered, from finish to depth to undertone to lip feel. Every part of the lipstick is changeable, from texture to finish – ideal for your fussiest friends and trickiest giftee.

So, for the loved one whose needs you simply cannot anticipate, let Code8 do all the hard graft at one of its beautiful boutiques. Because yet another scented candle or striped scarf-and-beanie set just doesn’t hit quite the same note.