I have just received one too many emails encouraging our menfolk to indulge in ridiculous designer trinkets and frivolities - a four figure rose handbag in the name of what? A bejeweled pink teddy bear key ring that a teenager wouldn't be seen dead with and more heart festooned ipad and iphone cases than you can imagine. Enough!

Surely Valentine's Day is all about the romance, the heart-warming feeling of loving and being loved, pampering and being pampered. Why wait for the 14th to enjoy a gorgeous bouquet of fresh blooms, get them on the Saturday prior, pay a fraction of the price and admire them all weekend too. Prepare a favourite candlelit meal at home to enjoy a deux with Chet Baker playing softly in the background. Scent the air with your favourite home fragrance that announces the evening as truly special.

Leave work on time, put your exercise class on the back burner and make time for an indulgently aromatic, skin-softening bath soak that washes away the cares of the day. Listen to Lana del Rey's new album that exudes Hollywood Glamour, LA Confidential-style. Deeply moisturize your skin before spritzing your favourite perfume on pulse points and on the nape of your neck where it can add that tantalizing allure just under your hair.

Keep make up light but polished with drama on the eyes or lips but never both. If you don't have time to wash and blow dry your hair, freshen it up with a divinely scented volumizing and texturizing spray.

Dress in what makes you feel special, not a slave to the catwalk or uptight and awkward.

Throw caution and diets to the wind for one night. Put that Laurent Perrier Curvee Brut Rose champagne on ice, order-in the Maison du Chocolate truffles. Relax, enjoy each other's company and just be you. No tableside voyeurs to impress, no awkward couples sitting in silence and not a sparkling teddy bear in sight. This, for me, is Valentine's bliss...

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