Beauty-Full Holiday Gift Ideas

A beauty gift is not a hint that you're ugly. Quite the contrary! It says, "What more beautiful gift is there than the gift of a beautiful you?" A beauty, bath and body gift has the power to primp, pamper and even transform the recipient. With the power to relax, convenience, excite and inspire, what better way to show you care? This kind of feel good gift is especially effective when it accounts for the tastes, lifestyle and personality of the individual. It demonstrates that even if you forget to say so, you've been being paying attention to how they look all year long.

 Gimme Some Lip

Small gift sets are hearty stocking stuffers. The best sets offer variety and generous portions of quality products. If you like the product you have a good reason to give it. With lipgloss reaching staggering popularity, arrays of miniature sizes are popular small gift sets. Devotees of popular brands like Lancome Juicy Tubes, Stila Lip Glaze and Fusion Beauty LipFusion Color Shine can delight in trying out new shades. Benefit Peace Love and Glossiness, Smashbox Lip Gloss Collection and Lorac Croc Mocktail Collection are other enviable sets.

LANCOME: Rose Fishnets Exclusive Juicy Tubes Set

TOO FACED: Starry Eyed Mini Liquid EyeLiner Set

 Limited edition holiday sets are also a chance to sample an array daring but inviting products in smaller sizes. Ready to party, Too Faced Starry Eyed Glitter Mini Eye Liner and MAC Little Darlings sets of vial sized Pigment and Glitter powders in Warm and Cool are a luxe and glamourous gift to add to existing makeup collections and establish relationships to new products. Makeup For Ever Aqua Eyes Collection Eyeliners are both adventurous and provide superior durability.

The key to the best beauty gift is establish-ing what you know about the recipient. Less may be more for someone looking to simplify. Compact palettes downsize makeup bags filled with clumsy shadow pots and multiple lipsticks. Too Faced Glamour To Go Pocket Palette meets every beauty need: complete with eight shadows, four lip colors and cheek brightener encased in a durable mirrored compact, it's a perfect fit for a gym bag, glove compartment or brief case.

Glamour To Go 2 Pocket Palette

TARTE: Eye Couture Day-To-Night Eye Palette

For the girl that heads out for the night directly from work Tarte Eye Couture Day-To-Night Eye Palette and Lorac Multi-Platinum Palette contain generous portions of stunning, smoky and glittering shades perfect to transform a look from pretty professional to bewitching beauty. Fond followers of the natural look appreciate quality makeup too but in more neutral tones available in the Laura Mercier Eye Book or Benefit Cosmetics Big Beautiful Eyes which complement Clinique Black Honey Glow Set of bronzer, mascara and the cult classic Black Honey Almost Lipstick.

Too Faced packs all their best-selling eye makeup into a limited edition makeup purse in their Glamour Eyes Kipling Makeup Bag Collection. Wrapping your beauty gift in an eco friendly, functional and fashion-able makeup bag like the glamorous "Luxe Noir"BLING Clutches fashioned by Sephora, which can double as an accessories for holiday functions.

SEPHORA: "Luxe Noir" Bling Clutch Collection

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TOO FACED: Glamour Eyes Kipling Makeup Bag Collection

SEPHORA: The Lash Stash

Create and customize your own kits, especially when considering multiple individuals, by dividing up larger gift sets to mix and match items like the individual eye shadow duos in Smashbox Eyeshadow and Brush Collection, as well as Sephora's Super Shimmer Lip Gloss Set, The Lash Stash and Birthday Body Wash Gift Set in sets of ten, which are of exceptional value.

Full-scale makeup sets are the perfect gift for the glamour girl - whatever her age. Opening up the perfect set makes everyday feel like Christmas. Quantity is not key. Instead assess the quality of products, ampleness of portions, functionality of packaging and usefulness of the products inside. For this reason Tarte's Vanity Limited Edition Palette and Lorac's Croc Case - Full Face Collection are this season's exceptional buys.

TARTE: The Vanity Limited Edition Palette

 Beauty To Go

GHD: Travel Hair Dryer With Introductory Set

Whether they're a frequent traveler or just heading on a holiday vacation travel sized toiletries that meet airline regulations or fit nicely in luggage like Bliss Sink-Side Six Pack and Best of Bliss, or Korres Best of Korres are perfect for those who don't want to sacrifice beauty on the go. The friend who has more heated styling tools plugged in than your hair salon probably travels with that arsenal rather miss out on a perfect hair day.

What about the fashionista who would appreciate a beauty gift but who you assume already owns everything? No one is above a little instruction and inspiration, which makes books like The Ultimate Guide To Makeup, Skin and Hair From The Beauty Authority by Sephora a wise gift. For the makeup professional there are jaw dropping luxe items like the Dany Sanz Limited Edition Palette by Make Up For Ever.

The Ultimate Guide To Makeup, Skin, and Hair From The Beauty Authority

DIOR: Black Lash Kit

Smaller luxe accoutrements are perfect to fill out existing make up kits. The gold standard in lash curlers made by Shu Uemura is availablein a superior 24K Gold Limited Edition. If you know someone who wears them, a quality set of false lashes by makers like Dior, whose Black Lash Kit includes their stellar Diorshow mascara, or the fantasy inspired lash strips by Make Up Forever are inexpensive but exciting gifts.

A splurge on a friend might not be well appreciated if it involves them having to make the same costly commitment in the future. People budget differently for beauty products and in cases where maintenance is involved you may want to steer clear. While starter kits by expensive brands featuring full facial systems might be a good deal for you, purchasing full sizes in the future might be out of the question for the recipient.

Stick to skincare, bath and body products where there’s no urgency to repurchase. Spa-worthy goodies in gift sets like Bliss You Look ‘Spa’-velous and Caudalie Spa In A Box can create a pampering spa day in the comfort of their own homes. It’s a gift that’s opulent without being intimidating.

The beauty gift has evolved from the mundane scented candle, potpourri, bath salts and body lotion gift sets of the past. (How many are hiding in your closet?) Personalization and the accounting for lifestyle and taste is what guarantees your gift doesn’t get re-gifted to someone else or God forbid back to you! The gift of beauty is exciting to give and receive . . . and since you’re likely to fancy something for yourself make sure to “gift-to-self” after having been so thoughtful of everybody else.

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About the Author: With a degree in Psychology from Brown University, Miko Laube creates intuitive fashion articles drawn from her experiences as a stylist, makeup artist and dancer in San Francisco. She credits her upbringing in cosmopolitan Hong Kong and her mother, Yuka, for her fashion sensibility. You can submit a question to Miko through the "Ask The Expert" section or contact her directly at miko@herstoknow.com.