SHOPPING BLOG

Good old Peter Jones. Safe and shiny and slightly sensible, it’s the sort of place you’d expect to find in leafy Surrey rather than swanky Sloane Square. It’s not too big for its boots to dispense plasters, light bulbs and buttons (although shame on it for rebranding Haberdashery as ‘Haby Heaven’) but it can also knock out plasma screens, fitted kitchens and posh frocks with the best of them.

So it’s no wonder that the clever people at Peter Jones know exactly what’s called for at Christmas. Like its blessed mothership John Lewis, Peter Jones is already never knowingly undersold, so instead of (shudder) offering knock-down prices to its customers, it’s incentivising those beleaguered ladies who lunch and shop with ‘pick me ups’, from 7-20 December.

There’s a choice of five rather gorgeous (and entirely free) Christmas Shopping Beauty Boosters in the beauty hall on the second floor, which include shoulder rubs and facials and hand massages.

Slightly less enticing is The Brasserie’s specially created Christmas Shopping Booster Menu, which is not free. The breakfast (£6.96) includes a lemon and wheatgrass smoothie and the Afternoon Tea Booster (£9.95) includes an apple mojito. Both come with a simply appalling sounding blueberry and yoghurt muffin. Oh, Peter Jones. Whatever happened to a nice cup of tea and a chocolate digestive?

Peter Jones’ free Christmas Boosters include: Christmas Shoulder Rubs: 5-minute back and shoulder massage in the Clarins Skin Spa; Sparkle Eyes: Eye booster treatment, 30-minute eye energising treatment by Decleor; Winter Blues Massage: 15-minute luxurious hand and forearm massage by La Prairie; Quick Bliss Facial: 15-minute Elemis facial in the Elemis treatment room; SOS Winter Skin: 5-minute Origins hand and arm massage. See peterjones.co.uk for more information.