Beauty Closet, Ortigia bath oil, candle

At a big lunch in a fountained courtyard at Mar-a-Lago, I was once seated next to the actress Dina Merrill, who grew up there. Many things made an impression that day (Donald Trump, then married to Marla, was leading us on a tour), but her tale of being presented with a tiger for her birthday as a child stuck in my mind. Perhaps I'm making this up, but I think I even saw a photograph: adorable girl holding a tiger (leopard?) on a leash on some vast, grand Oriental rug. I'm a sucker for such the rich are different from you and me fantasies. Edith Wharton on holiday, all the way.

The minute I saw this new Italian line of soaps, candles, washes, and lotions, I was in love. The Pompeian-looking drawings all over the packaging made me even crazier, mixed in as they are with the glamour of the leopards, tigers, and palm trees. The seven scents are clean and classic—very Capri citrus grove. All the ingredients are natural, most from Sicily. Did I mention royal-looking crests stamped here and there? The ultimate item is this huge, chunky the-world-is-my-oyster bath oil, which is fragranced with orange blossoms.

If you're giving a gift, however, you need the set of palm-tree-emblazoned votives. Or the boxed soaps: The Sicilian Lime comes in a spring green toile box trimmed in silver. *

* I am teased relentlessly over my love of candles/soaps-as-gifts. It is because I can't give them; people would think I got them for free. But I'd never give Ortigia; I'm too greedy. You look and you must have. To hell with your friends!