A Christmas Gift Guide for Every Price
Christmas is coming, so buckle up for the best beauty Christmas Gift Guide, courtesy of SSEDITORIAL!
I’m probably (definitely) biased, but I think beauty products make the best Christmas gifts. Gifts that hit home are items that a person uses every day but would never have bought themselves – and if that doesn’t describe beauty products, I don’t know what does. Another reason buying beauty for Christmas is an excellent choice? There are options to suit any budget. Here’s our Christmas Gift Guide at every price.
A Christmas Gift for under £5
Just because you don’t have much to spend does not mean you can’t get a quality beauty-related gift. For example, the Maybelline Baby Lips Lip Balm is a great place to start. These are extremely cute, with retro, 80s packaging. Products come in a range of scents and shades, offering something for everyone. Cherry Me is a suits-all, juicy red that is one of my favourites.
Another excellent and super affordable option is the Essence Shine Shine Shine Lipgloss – particularly its clear shine. I consider myself a clear lip gloss connoisseur, and honestly? This one is the best, even over options that are ten times the price. It looks great alone or over any lipstick and will be a real workhorse in any makeup bag.
If lip products aren’t your gift of choice, I point you in the direction of the MUA Facial Sticks. I don’t think I’ll offend anyone by pointing out that these are unabashed Milk Makeup rip-offs. Still, the product quality is fantastic, plus they’re surprisingly innovative for a bargain brand. The Softening Facial Oil Stick, in particular, is a superb hydrating and glow-giving option for both under and over makeup.
Christmas on a £10 Budget
With a slightly higher budget, highlighters are the way to go. Everyone looks good in them. As a bonus, the average, non-beauty-hoarding gift recipient doesn’t have too many of them. Plus, you can find genuinely fantastic products at a low cost.
Colourpop Super Shock Cheeks are amazingly good for their price. They seem to come in approximately one billion shades, but a great all-rounder is “Flexitarian”. It’s light enough for fair skin but warm enough that it doesn’t look ashy on deeper skin tones – a balance often hard to achieve. It also gives a flatteringly glossy, rather than powdery, finish.
I’d recommend the Sleek Solstice Palette for even more value for money. With four shades, there’s something for everyone. “Pale lilac” is the most intense, while the shimmering “champagne cream” gives a subtle and lit-from-within glow.
Another fun option aside from highlighters is the Bleach London Super Cool Colour Collection. While the pastel shades are best suited to a blonde friend, they have deeper jewel tones that also work well on brunettes. In addition, they’re commitment free, offer a deep conditioning treatment to the hair, cone in all the colours of the rainbow, and wash out in under a month.
Cashing out under £20
When expanding your budget a little, skincare is the way to go. While luxe skincare used to be exclusively pricey, the past few years have brought to my attention some excellent brands which won’t break the bank.
The Ordinary is a classic, and their Buffet Serum (now called “Multi-Peptide + HA Serum) is a fabulous choice for anyone. As the name suggests, it provides many great skincare benefits. Vitally, its flexibility makes it ideal when shopping for someone whose skin type may be a mystery. Whether skin is drier, oilier, or even if the first stages of ageing, adding this serum underneath moisturizer offers hydration, protection, clarity, and glow.
Garden of Wisdom is a new (to me) skincare brand with which I am in the throes of a passionate love story. Their products are similarly bargainous to “the Ordinary”, plus offer a more natural slant in terms of ingredients. A great gift across the board is their Vitamin C Serum 23%. Vitamin C is a skincare ingredient that benefits all skin types and concerns. It’s a simple step that helps protect skin from pollution and increases collagen production!
Christmas Gifts for the £50 budget
Let’s be honest – is there a better gift than a scented candle? If you have a little more to spend, go for a Byredo. Bibliotheque, Burning Rose, or Treehouse are all great options to make your home smell delicious and look super chic.
However, I have other options if you don’t want to go the home scent route. Spoiler alert: they’re both glitter. Because if you can’t wear glitter during the holidays, when can you?
Products I love with my whole heart are the Stila Glitter & Glow Liquid Eye Shadows. They’re the easiest way to look like you’ve made an effort with your makeup – swipe, pat the edges with a finger, et voila. The whole shade range is fantastic, but Diamond Dust – a holographic silver – stands out.
If you want a gift with the wow factor, go for a Lemonhead Spacejam. These super-concentrated blends of many different types and sizes of glitters make it incredibly easy to achieve an editorial makeup look. My favourite is Crystal Tokyo, packed with champagnes, pastel pinks and genuine sequins.
High-End Christmas Gift Buying for a £100 budget
If you’re lucky enough to have £100 to spend on a beauty gift, perfume is the way to go. Two brands I adore are Clean and Commodity – and both have gorgeous scents for under £100.
From Clean, I highly recommend Sel Santal. It’s a fresh, slightly sour fragrance that reminds me of a less abrasive Le Lebo Santal 33. I find it wonderfully versatile, seeming equally appropriate for daytime, nighttime, summer, or winter. It’s a great gift option, too, because it’s impossible to imagine anyone disliking it.
From Commodity, I think Wool is a great way to go. It has the slightly sour, refreshing vibe of Sel Santal but a smokier, woodier depth. Again, it’s a great all-rounder, as it isn’t too sweet or sickly but is still delightfully feminine and sexy.
