I cannot tell you how much of a relief it is to film a video about my empties instead of photographing them!
2015 Gift Guide: Gift Sets
Alright guys, this is it! This is the last post in my 2015 Gift Guide series. Curious about the others? You can check them out here:
This time I’m talking about Gift Sets. Gift sets are a great way to either indulge the person you’re gifting, or give them something that gives them a lot of options to try out. Let’s dive right in.
Nothing screams luxury like giving someone a full set of makeup brushes! The Sephora Collection Stand Up and Shine retails for $163 CAD and it comes with four face brushes and eight eye brushes. The texture of the brushes is quite soft, although I did find a few of them were a bit too longhaired (particularly the eyeshadow blending brush). The general overall quality is excellent however. They come encased in a beautiful box that also contains a brush holder with protective flaps and a zip close.
Even better? The brush holder can be used to actually STAND your brushes up and keep them at the ready. Super convenient for travel and it doesn’t run the risk of falling over (while I love Real Techniques brushes, their stand up kits were always terribly made).
This set is fantastic for someone who needs a lot of brushes all at once. So while the set is pricey, you save the cost of having to buy each one individually.
My favourite perfume discovery this year has been the Elizabeth & James collection. Sephora has $75 CAD sets of both Nirvana White and Nirvana Black (my personal preference) which includes the perfume oil, the mid-sized perfume bottle and a small roller ball. The box and presentation are luxurious – it looks absolutely stunning when you lift the lid off the box to display the three perfume bottles. If you know someone that likes either of these scents, this is a sure-fire win!
You really can’t go wrong with a bath set either! The Soap & Glory Bright and Bubbly gift set (approximately $20 CAD) contains sample sizes of The Righteous Butter, Scrub of Your Life, Clean On Me, Hand Food and a full sized shower poof. The whole set comes in a beautiful pink and white box with a sparkly silver lid. The box is sturdy too, which is always a nice surprise in a gift set. You could reuse the box to store personal items or for decoration. As for the products themselves, each one smells glorious and feels wonderful on the skin. Plus… who doesn’t love small sized products?? Soap & Glory sets and products can be purchased at Shopper’s Drug Mart.
The contouring fad only seems to get stronger and stronger every year (strobing was but a brief interlude), and Quo is helping to fill in that gap from the drugstore side. Their Contouring Craze kit contains 3 powders (a dark powder, a medium powder and a light powder) and two brushes for $30 CAD. I’ve been using the dark powder to contour and the medium one to bronze up my face, and these powders make it so easy for me to do so! While the brushes are soft and great for on the go, I’ve been sticking to my longer handled brushes just because I’ve been doing my makeup at home. This set is perfect for anyone who wants to get into sculpting their face, but doesn’t quite know where to start. All of the powders are finely milled and are wonderfully matte. Quo can be purchased at Shoppers Drug Mart.
The Sephora Sleeping Mask Discovery set is an adorable gift set that can be given as a single item, or split up into multiple stockings. Retailing for $25 CAD, you get six overnight masks that are intended to target individual skin problems (mattifying, anti-blemish, soothing, brightening, etc.) Perfect for the individual who likes a little extra pampering!
Forgive my promo shot, I lost the picture of the original packaging, but I *had* to show you what it looks like because it’s such a gorgeous presentation! Josie Maran‘s Whimsical Wonder gift set contains five products that are a fantastic introduction to the brand. The Coconut Watercolor items (blush and shadow) are some of the most luxurious products I’ve ever tried (the blush blends seamlessly with my skin and the eyeshadow is a solid opaque colour that didn’t crease on me!). You also get some well know items by the brand: their Pure Argan Oil Light and Argan Enlightenment Illuminizer . Available at Sephora for $41 CAD, this is a *phenomenal* deal for trying out so many products by Josie Maran. Well worth the money.
Thanks for reading through all my gift guides this holiday season! I hope you found something you were interested in giving (or that you even want for yourself!) Happy holidays everyone. 🙂
This post features sets that were sent for consideration.
2015 Gift Guide: Skincare
Skincare is one of those things that everyone uses, but most people don’t like to have to spend the money on it since it’s never especially cheap. Here are my picks for skincare items that I’ve especially enjoyed over the last year or so and some that I’ve even been given as gifts too.
Jealous Body makes gorgeous coffee scrubs in a variety of scents/flavours that are intended to target particular body needs (oily, dry, etc.). My favourite is the original Coconut* (review here), but I’ve also tried out the Grapeseed + Macadamia* (pictured above) and Cocoa + Almond* ones as well (second review here!). Each scrub is $18.95 CAD and will last you about 4-5 scrubs. Bonus? They’re a Canadian brand!
One of my most used products is the Bioderma micellar water (Crealine/Sensibio). I keep this in my bathroom and on my makeup table in our bedroom because it gets so much use! It’s great for removing makeup at the end of the day (not waterproof stuff though!) and for cleaning up makeup mistakes. Or even just for refreshing your skin at the end of the day if you’re feeling kind of greasy after the gym. I use this stuff CONSTANTLY! It’s average retail price is around $20 USD for the large 500 ml bottle.
My mom always used to put a bottle of Aveeno moisturizer in my stocking and I was always grateful for it. Since the daily moisturizer is about $25 CAD, it’s not an especially cheap product! While Aveeno is my favourite facial moisturizer, you can always pick up something that the person you’re gifting that you know they already love. That way they’ll have a backup when they run out.
This one is a relatively new discovery for me and it’s been a skin saviour as the temperatures drop in Toronto. (That being said, it’s mild as all hell today and it’s the middle of December. WHERE IS MY SNOW??) skyn ICELAND‘s Arctic Face Oil* is a deeply concentrated oil that will resuscitate your dehydrated skin and keep it healthy and plump throughout the dry months. (Full review here.) It retails for $40 CAD.
Bite Beauty‘s Agave Lip Mask (pictured above in Maple) is a gloriously thick lip balm that will heal your chapped lips while also tasting delectable. While the $30 CAD price tag is no joke, this item is definitely a splurge for a lucky someone. Good things DO come in small packages!
And how could I have an entire gift guide focused on skincare without pointing out the wonderful options from The Body Shop? Their body butters are a favourite of mine and I’ve been through many a scent (Shea Butter, Pink Grapefruit, Satsuma, Virgin Mojito, their older holiday vanilla and cranberry scents, etc.) in my time. My ultimate favourite is the Shea Butter one (pictured above) and I just recently picked up a fresh tub for myself! They retail for $20 CAD each.
I also recently picked up an ENORMOUS bottle of Pink Grapefruit shower gel from The Body Shop. Like the body butters, I have been through countless bottles of their shower gel and never once have they disappointed me. While the Pink Grapefruit scent is my personal favourite, they also have Fijian Water Lotus which is another one currently sitting in my shower as well. The grapefruit is nice and zesty, whereas water lotus is more aquatic and calming.
I hope that gave you some ideas! Let me know what kind of skincare YOU like to receive. 🙂
Items marked with an asterisk were sent to me for consideration.
Swatch Sunday: Urban Decay Naked 2
Urban Decay‘s Naked 2 palette was a highly anticipated sequel to their original Naked palette.
Released in 2011, the Naked 2 focused a bit more on cool-toned shades compared to the warmer tones of the original.
Urban Decay Naked 2 Swatches
Let’s give this YouTube thing a shot…
Talking to a camera is harder than it looks! After having watched years and years of makeup tutorials on YouTube, I kind of expected it to come naturally to me. It didn’t, but that’s okay! It’s character building to try new things right? *grimaces* So here we go…