Wish List: Romantic must-haves to pluck at our heartstrings for the week ahead

Esther N McCarthy plucks at our heartstrings with a romantic theme for this week’s picks

Of course we have chocolate in our On the Kitchen Shelf slot this week. The iconic Lily O’Brien’s Honeycomb Crispy Hearts for €5. Nomnom. www.lilyobriens.ie/

Be on time for your date (even if it’s just sitting at the kitchen table) with this elegant heart-shaped clock, available at The Pavilion Ballygarvan for €109. www.thepavilion.ie/

If your heart is set sustaining local natural production and finding an organic and ecofriendly gift, check out the multi-award-winning Irish beauty and lifestyle brand, Green Angel. They have some luxury offerings, hand-made from locally-sourced natural ingredients... What’s not to love? This Herbal Eye Cushion is a hand-made silky satin filled with flax seed and lavender. €20 from www.greenangel.com/ and various stockists including Kilkenny Shop and Blarney Woolen Mills.

On the Bathroom Shelf is the new fragrance from Calvin Klein - CK EVERYONE. Master perfumer and creator of the iconic CK ONE fragrance, Alberto Morillas has crafted a gender-neutral fragrance using 79% of naturally derived ingredients ignoring the traditional signifiers of gender as reflected in the non-conformity of both the scent and campaign. So basically, buy it for your partner, get the brownie points, then wear it yourself. Win, win. The Eau de toilette 100ml spray is €51, available from Brown Thomas

Cork creator, Ester Murray, has just the thing for Valentine’s Day, a gorgeous array of homemade goodies- with a very cute tagline: made from love, not a lab. The large candles are €17.99, to set that romantic scene and with 50/60 hours burn time, there’s plenty of time to get in the groove. The body mists are €12.50 for 30 ml spray bottle, the organic lip balm is €3, the organic calming oil is €8.85, the organic body wash is €9. Ester also does giftsets, see www.estersaromas.com/

We adore the handmade card range from AmMia. This one is called Some Bunny Loves You and it’s yours for €4.70. AmMia also creates beautiful hand-made crochet gifts for every occasion. The card range includes appliqués made from 100% cotton on a recycled card with hand-stamped Valentine’s messages. AmMia was created for and named after Michelle Cummins’ daughter Amelie Mia (the Am stands for And Mummy) who has Down Syndrome. Based Co Down, they donate 20% of all profits to North Down and Ards Down Syndrome Support Group. To find out more go to www.ammiahandmade. co.uk or drop by the Facebook page www.facebook.com/amMia

This striking print by artist and designer Monika Crowley is available in The Shop That Nearly Wasn’t, which is the world’s first shop stocked entirely with products made by Irish cancer survivors. It opened in Dublin on World Cancer Day, February 4 and features books, art, photography, crafts and more. The initiative by leading cancer research charity, Breakthrough Cancer Research, aims to celebrate the contribution cancer survivors make to society and highlight the urgent need for increased investment and support for cancer research: to make more survivors sooner. The charity aims to raise €2 million this year for groundbreaking new research to develop treatments to tackle drug-resistant cancers. https://www.breakthroughcancerresearch.ie/news/the-shopthat-nearly-wasn-t-/

Roses are red, these headphones are too, grab your Walkman and a present for boo. Ahem. If you’re looking for the perfect present for a partner with bold taste, you’re in luck with the bright new colour options for the h.ear WH-H910N over band headphones (below) and NW-A105 Walkman®. Go retro, but still keep the cool tech, with a boosted battery life and high-quality sound technology with multi-source music options to stream and download directly to theWalkman ®. Supported by Android ™ with Wi-Fi, the NWA105 Walkman® grants you access to millions of songs at your fingertips. Headphones, €289, Walkman, €320. www.sony.ie