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'HEAD space analysis' sounds like the kind of activity indulged in by people who spend their weekends bobbing around in flotation tanks. But no, its blooming technology and soap stars Crabtree & Evelyn say it's how they've produced a new authentic rose scent. A glass bubble fitted with a cartridge is suspended over a living rose head for 24 hours. The cartridge absorbs the notes being given out by the flower, is whizzed off to the laboratory to be plugged into a computer which produces a printout analysis. The perfumier can than re-create the chemical fingerprint of the rose and a scent claimed to be close to the real thing. (Cheaper too: concentrated rose attar can cost a heady pounds 2,000 an ounce.) The end result is Evelyn, a very English smelling eau de parfum, pounds 24.50 a bottle from all C & E shops.

HOPELESS at wrapping presents? Or just too mean to buy gold string? Selfridges offer a seasona1 service to the fumble-fingered this Christmas. The store has chosen 100 of what it claims are its most popular gift items and is selling them gift- wrapped in red and green tartan paper at no extra cost. You may not consider a Black & Decker twin smoke alarm pack ( pounds 13.99) the most thrilling present since soap-on-a- rope, but there are plenty of others. These include an electric train set ( pounds 55), any of the top 10 books and a Yuppy Puppy, which coughs up dog biscuits when the bone-shaped handle is pushed down ( pounds 29.99).

SAVE tonic water, share a gin with a friend. A two-person drinks holder is a novel addition to the bathtime soap rack . . . and you don't even have to drink gin. Your taste in bubbly may be more Bollinger than Baddedas. The bathing a deux accessory is being sold mail order by the General Trading Company (wedding presents to the royal and famous) which, along with Peter Jones and Harvey Nicks, is the Sloanes' BF. The forged-metal finish rack is also fitted with a couple of candlestick holders with sun and moon sconces, but you have to supply your own candles (and, sadly, your own partner). The rack is pounds 79.95, plus pounds 3.95 for p & p, the starry candles in red, ivory or blue are pounds 2.15 each. For more details phone 0793 513945.

AFTER the swimsuit which never gets wet, the umbrella to match. Jeweller's Mappin & Webb is selling a parasol which you definitely would not want to leave on the Tube. The handle and prongs are 18ct gold and the covering platinum mesh. It costs pounds 42,500. There is only one, but don't worry, they can be ordered. Just a tad too expensive? How about a sterling silver baby's bath with gilt dolphin feet at a piffling pounds 29,500? Ring 071-584 9361 for details.

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