Beauty Gift Guide | Christmas 2018

Happy Christmas shopping season my loves ! Today I’m sharing with you my big beauty gift guide for 2018. I have so many amazing skincare and makeup products to share with you. I have spent so much time collating the best of the best when it comes to Holiday beauty gifts to share with you. This is going to be a very long post so let’s get into it!

Bobbi Brown have absolutely SLAYED the makeup game this year! The products that they have released are absolutely phenomenal quality. Their sets are released in beautiful blue velvet packaging (similar feeling to the Anastasia Beverly Hills palettes) and their miniatures are in beautiful gradiant white and gold packaging. My picks – Ready, Set, Party | Deluxe Eye & Cheek Palette* ($200), Luxe on Luxe Mini Lip Color Collection* ($250) (full reviews on these two coming soon), Mini Shimmer Brick in Bronze*($45), Mini Highlighting Powder in Pink Glow*($45) and Life of the Party Mini Lip & Eye Palette  ($80) (not pictured). Available from Bobbi Brown online or Mecca Maxima.

Jumping from makeup to some skincare! One of my favourite products from Tatcha and personal recommendations is the Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Mask. Available individually ($17) or in a pack of 4 ($66) these masks are the ultimate in hydrated and glowing skin. Perfect for after travel/before an event – simply cleanse the skin as normal and apply this mask. After the allocated time smooth the rest of the serum over the face, top with an eye cream and head to bed. The next morning your skin will be absolutely glowing and looking better than you’ve seen it for years – that’s a promise!
The Drunk Elephant Rescue Party Kit* ($110) is my pick of the holiday offerings from Drunk Elephant this year. With a full size of their Lala Retro Cream and Lippe Balm and miniatures of their Beste No9 Jelly Cleanser, B-Hydra Intensive Hydration Serum and C-Tango Multi-Vitamin Eye Cream this not only gives amazing value for money (it’s cheaper than buying both Lala and Lippe together) but allows for the giftee to trial some of DE’s most popular products.
The Frank Bod Green Tease Scrub* ($19.95) is a variation of Frank’s most popular scrubs – instead of their signature coffee they’re going for a green tea based scrub. Still beautiful and the perfect scrub this makes the perfect little gift for any beauty lover.

The BeautyBlender Sweet Surprise Mystery Blind Bag ($30) is my pick of BeautyBlender’s gifts this year. It gives the recipient the element of surprise with a bag inside containing a surprise shade of their BeautyBlender, as well as a miniature of their Solid Cleanser.
The evo Tropic Thunder Repair Travel Set ($20) is the perfect gift for that friend/family member with blonde or damaged hair that always complains about their hair… you know the one! (I’m that one) This kit from evo contains a travel sized shampoo and conditioner from their Ritual Salvation range as well as a travel protein treatment making this a good gift for the traveller or just someone who really wants to try out something new.
Benefit Cosmetics is another brand that has killed their Christmas offerings once again – my pick from the range is their Roller Lash Mini Stocking Stuffer ($23) which simply has a miniature size of their Roller Lash Mascara (one of my personal favourites) inside a cute little box that is perfect to adorn the tree Christmas morning!
The Stila Shimmering Heights Shimmer & Glow Liquid Eyeshadow Set* ($36) is a beautiful limited edition trio of three of Stila’s best selling Shimmer & Glow Liquid Eyeshadows. These are a pigmented and buildable formula that doesn’t crease and lasts all day. With three versatile shades this is a beautiful gift perfectly sized for a stocking or under the tree.
While MAC have some amazing holiday limited edition products this year, my gift pick is the Hyper Real Glow Highlighting Palette ($79). In two shades Flash & Awe (fair-light skintones) and Get it Glowin (medium-deep skintones) this palette allows variety for everyone and is a beautiful gift option.

I have become a huge fan of the Opallac Gel Starter Kit* ($99) over the last couple of months and I truly believe it would be such an amazing gift for any beauty lover. I received mine as a gift from the brand and it has already saved me so much money – I was getting regular Shellac manicures at a salon but at anywhere from $30-$60 a session it was quite a pricey habit. The Opallac Starter Kit allows you to complete your own salon quality gel manicures from the comfort of your own home. I find that the manicure doesn’t quite last on me as long as salon shellac but it still looks good two weeks later and that is more  than enough for me. Perfect for the nail obsessive!

Bare Minerals have some exciting new additions to their holiday gifting range this year – from palettes to lipglosses and everything in between there is a gift that will suit every single person’s beauty loving needs. The Dream Lights Trio* ($55) contains three beautiful cream eyeshadow sticks with a pigmented formula that lasts on the eyes all day. They do take a little bit of work to build up the pigment but the colours are absolutely worth it. The Midnight Moonbeam Lash Duo ($27) contains two of their Lashtopia Mascara’s for the price of one… This one is a no- brainer and I couldn’t pass up such a steal for myself.

Inika Organic have some beautiful cruelty-free, vegan and organic beauty offerings at the best of times and this Christmas are offering their Ultimate Glow* ($129) Limited Edition sets including three full-sized products, one miniature and an exclusive limited edition foundation brush. This set comes in five shades and I have a full review of this coming soon.

Hourglass are a brand going from strength to strength this year especially with their recent announcement of being completely cruelty-free and vegan. Their Confession Lipstick Duo* ($49) contains an exclusive metallic pink applicator (the shade is heavenly!) and two shades of their Confession Refillable Lipsticks. Hourglass is a very luxe (and very expensive) brand and this is something sure to win over any beauty lover.
Smashbox  have some incredible value for money sets available this year. My picks are the Holidaze Always On Eyeliner Set* ($57) and the Holidaze Photo Finish Primer Set ($32, not pictured). (Side note – I received the Smashbox kit as PR from Mecca – there is a discrepancy from the price pictured on the box here and the price on the website – I believe I was sent the US packaging and that would explain it! Apologies for any confusion)
Absolute pick from Urban Decay is the All Nighter Spray Duo* ($78). Featuring two of their All Nighter Setting Sprays at a discounted price this is perfect for any beauty lover who’s always on the go to keep their makeup lasting from day to night. I tend to go through two bottles in a year so this is absolutely perfect for a daily makeup wearer.

One of my favourite and top picks from the 2018 Holiday Releases for me and for gifting is the Too Faced The Sweet Smell of Christmas Christmas Treats Liquified Lipstick Set* ($36). While the name is long and complicated the product is not – four miniature limited edition shades of their Melted Matte Liquid Lipsticks with special limited edition ‘holiday’ scents of Sugar Cookie, Cinnamon Bear, Hot Buttered Rum and Pumpkin Spice. The formula of these lipsticks are the most comfortable liquid matte that I have ever tried and the quality is incredible – such an amazing gift!

The Mecca Max 5 Minute Pocket Palettes* ($28) come in three different versions – Beach Please, Glow Off and Power Suit. The premise behind these palettes are something that will take you from day to night in five minutes. Each palette contains lip, face and eye shadows to create a variety of looks. Whether you have one or all three they are a unique and beautiful product that makes a beautiful gift – full reviews coming soon!

Mecca Max also have their Holiday limited edition releases and they have some amazing collections and products – everything from lips to eyes and cheeks they will cover the full face and a full range of presents with their cute and colourful packaging. The Girl on Fire Bronzer Duo* ($52) contains a jumbo-sized Beyond Bronze Mega Bronzer and a Bronze Covershot Liquid Highlighter which makes the perfect gift for the gal who loves a bronzed glow. The Lip Locker* ($50) would have to be my pick of the range with this value for money set. It contains 16 lip products (working out at $3.13 a product helllooo!!) with a variation from liquid matte to high shine gloss and basically everything you can think of. This is the present that is perfect for the lip lover, someone new to beauty or someone building up a killer makeup collection.

One of my favourite childhood memories are opening Christmas crackers around the tables with my family and wearing funny hats and telling stupid jokes. Christmas crackers have upgraded since those days with beauty brands bringing out their own versions. The Dr Dennis Gross Hydration Celebration Cracker* ($35) contains three deluxe sized hydrating products from Dr Dennis Gross’ skincare line. They have a reputation for good products with a high price tag so this is the pefect gifting opportunity. The Lanolips Coconutter Cracker ($19.95) contains a Lanolips Lip Balm and Hand Cream and has the perfect price for a stocking stuffer or a Secret Santa gift for your beauty-loving coworker.

The Tatcha Skincare for Makeup Lovers Obento Box* ($93) contains a full sized Luminous Dewy Skin Mist and deluxe sizes of their Water Cream, Silk Canvas Primer and Violet-C Radiance Mask. I am the biggest fan of the Luminous Dewy Skin Mist and the Water Cream and truly love the Violet-C Radiance Mask and the Silk Canvas Primer. More details on this coming soon – but don’t sleep on it!

Sol de Janeiro are quickly becoming one of my favourite brands with their beautifully scented products and have some wonderful value for money kits out this Christmas. My picks are the Bum Bum Carnaval Magic* ($55) and the Bum Bum Carnaval Extravaganza ($86, not pictured). I will have full details of the Carnaval Magic kit coming very soon!

Nars are a favourite beauty brand of mine with their boundary-pushing names and forward thinking packaging. This year they have some more amazing products and I have my three top picks to share with you. My first is the Little Fetishes Dolce Vita/Capri Duo* ($35) containing two deluxe sized blushes and highlighters in a cute punk themed container. Next we have the Chaos Velvet Matte Lip Pencil Duo* ($42) with two of their Velvet Matte Lip Pencils in the shades Zipped and Decibel. My last pick from Nars this year is the High Voltage Highlighter Palette ($61, not pictured) with three highlighters in the shades Fort de France, 1977 and Queen).

This is just a small (ha!) snippet of some of the amazing beauty products available for the holiday season this year! At the time of writing these are all available online however as is the trend with limited edition products these sell out FAST and I can’t guarantee that they’ll be around forever! I placed a focus this year on limited edition holiday collections but there are SO many amazing products available in the beauty industry that there are gifts out there sure to please even the fussiest person!