It’s easy to feel hopeful in spring, with blossom all around and sunny days bringing the promise of summer ahead. It feels like a fresh start, and it’s clear from your favourite things in April that you’re looking for rejuvenation.
Maybe that’s a new scent, or a cabin bag for a holiday. Perhaps it’s a health reset, with a pair of running shoes to kickstart better habits, or a celebrity-endorsed supplement. You’ve also loved sub-£20 skincare basics and high-street looks inspired by Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel. Here are your favourite things from April.
The bean-to-cup coffee machine
De’Longhi Magnifica Start
Our coffee expert, Sasha Muller, once again tested the limits of his caffeine consumption by trialling 12 of the best bean-to-cup machines. The De’Longhi Magnifica Start was his favourite, and was also, by far, your favourite item this month – perhaps you agree that “if the best things in life are free, then the second-best things are cheap”.
A designer scent without the price tag
Essential Parfums discovery set, 10 x 2ml
In a recent column, Sali Hughes was excited to see John Lewis selling Essential Parfums, a perfume brand that is “doing things honestly, authentically and with great care”. She recommended an 11-piece discovery set of 2ml samples if “100ml seems like a gamble”, which is now sold out at John Lewis, but this set of 10 is still available. They’re perfect for weekends away, too.
The best budget cabin bag
Tripp Holiday 8 suitcase
Pete Wise proved his dedication to thorough testing by manoeuvring the best carry-on luggage around a muddy assault course in Leeds – all while dressed in a holiday-appropriate Hawaiian shirt and shorts. Our bargain-loving readers loved the Tripp Holiday 8, his top budget pick, which “proved a nimble option over the assault course: lightweight, balanced and capable of surviving a tumultuous journey”.
The Chanel-style straight-leg jeans
Women’s baggy jeans
Matthieu Blazy’s first video campaign for Chanel features Margot Robbie in a bouclé jacket and straight-leg jeans – an “outfit formula that is proving to be consumer catnip”, wrote Chloe Mac Donnell in a recent piece. These JW Anderson for Uniqlo jeans “are a close match” (as is Mango’s tweed jacket), and proved to be catnip for our readers too.
The bargain vitamin C serum
Elf Skin Brighten + Glow vitamin C + E + ferulic serum, 30ml
On hearing that this sub-£20 vitamin C serum contains the “exact same percentages of vitamin C, E and ferulic acid as SkinCeuticals’ gold standard vitamin C product”, I rushed to buy it – as did many of you. It was Danielle Wilkins’ top budget pick after four months of testing 15 of the best vitamin C serums, finding it “extremely hydrating” and leaving her skin “feeling softer with continued use”.
The idiot-proof recipe box
SimplyCook, two-person meal
As with mattresses, Jane Hoskyn’s family played an important role in testing the best meal delivery kits, with a range of dietary requirements and cooking skills providing a well-rounded test panel. SimplyCook was by far the cheapest, as it doesn’t include any fresh ingredients and fits through the letterbox. “SimplyCook’s chef-prepared pots are what my dad, Don, calls ‘the interesting bit of cooking’,” wrote Jane, with “idiot-proof” recipes that are “easy to customise”. This simple approach was the one that appealed to you the most.
The bargain leather bag
Cross-body bag
“Leather bags for under £100 are hard to come by on the high street,” wrote Melanie Wilkinson in our guide to 50 affordable spring fashion updates for women. “But John Lewis has come up trumps with this chic shoulder bag, complete with expensive-looking gold hardware.” It’s dropped even further in price since, securing its place as one of your favourites this month.
The versatile running shoes
Asics Megablast unisex running shoes
For our guide to the best running shoes, Kieran Alger ran at least 50km in each pair (small fry for a man who’s completed almost 70 marathons and many ultras). But it was his pick for the most versatile that were your favourites in the piece – not surprising since they’re “some of the best do-it-all shoes you can buy”, “a great pick for speed sessions, long tempo efforts, cruising long Sunday runs and easy recovery efforts”.
Anya Hindmarch’s favourite supplement
Ainslie + Ainslie day powder, 28 serves
After the popularity of Ben Fogle’s favourite toothpaste a few months back, you’ve once again taken inspiration from a celebrity’s daily routine. When we asked designer Anya Hindmarch which purchase she regretted the most, she said: “I regret not buying Ainslie + Ainslie sleep and day powder earlier. Gamechanging.”
The first-step cleanser
Haruharu Wonder black rice cleansing oil, 150ml
Modern skincare is a confusing business. So we loved Anita Bhagwandas’s back-to-basics guide on how to build a skincare routine. Double cleansing is “the best way to cleanse your skin thoroughly in the evening,” she wrote, and this “brilliant” oil-based cleanser from Korean brand Haruharu Wonder is the ideal first step.