If you're looking for a gift for a friend who's into natural beauty, this makes a wonderful read. And it's a great addition to the bookshelf of anyone who (like us) occasionally likes to whip up their own products at home. (It's sooooo easy, honestly!)

Victoire de Taillac, co-author of this book with husband Ramdane Touhami, is a Paris-based entrepreneur, shopkeeper and all-round cool-girl-about-town. Together, the couple set up L'Officine Buly 1803 – which is a little like stepping through the back of the wardrobe into the Narnia-like environment of an ancient apothecary store, and now has outposts in places like Tokyo and Seoul (as well as two stores in Paris), with a new boutique to open on the ground floor of Selfridges later this week.

With its marbled cover, An Atlas of Natural Beauty: Botanical Ingredients for Retaining and Enhancing Beauty (Ebury Press) looks like an old apothecary book but is brought bang up to date with easy-to-follow recipes using ingredients like marigold, chamomile, cocoa butter,  rosemary, tea tree, as well as further-flung ingredients like marula, perilla and Inca inchi oils, among other fascinating botanicals. (The book also tells you where things come from, and their history.)

As authors of a natural beauty how-to book ourselves, we give this great read five gold stars.

£20 buy here      

Prize Draws