Happy Thanksgiving! The Christmas Guides are rolling out at breakneck speed right now and I understand it can be a tad overwhelming, so instead of introducing you to all the brilliant gift sets that are on the market right now (of which there are many and I am sure you’ve all seen most) I thought I would do a Slightly Different Christmas Guide. I chose my six favourite makeup brands and picked four of the best products from each that anyone would love to open under their tree. They might not be the biggest, most extravagant or expensive but they are all genuinely beautiful products I personally love. I hope you find some inspiration or at least a nice gift for yourself.
MAKEUP FOREVER
MUFE is such a beautiful brand. Their base products are truly stunning, high end, great quality and long-lasting. The first, and this is such a surprise to me, being the Step 1 Equaliser Radiant Primer Peach (£24) this is the best primer I have ever tried. It makes your skin look instantly more even, pretty and fresh. I could totally skip foundation with this. My next picks are the Water Blend Foundation (£27), finding a transfer-proof foundation is such a struggle and this one is a buildable formula with great lasting power even for the oiliest skin. I love applying it with the Makeup Forever 156 Flat Round Brush (£26), it is a fluffy blush brush and creates a stunning, streak-free application. Lastly, the Pro Light Fusion Highlighter (£26.50) is the most gorgeous glowy powder highlight you can find, very natural looking and radiant. I like the shade Golden best for my skintone.
TOO FACED
I might be the only one that doesn’t care for TF limited edition releases, as pretty as their Christmas collections look they have some gorgeous products in their permanent line that consistently get overlooked. If you have combination skin, the Born This Way foundation (£29) will knock your socks off. They have a great shade range as well as stunning packaging. The Mr Right Perfect Powder brush (£30) is the prettiest brush on the planet, I would buy 700 of them in a heartbeat. Last but not least, these are two of my favourite Too Faced eyeshadow palettes, they are small but mighty, if I had to choose I would grab the Natural Matte Palette (£32) over the Natural Eyes (£32).
ZOEVA COSMETICS
A Christmas Gift Guide without some Zoeva is simply unheard of. These are what I would buy for myself, starting with the Cocoa Blend Palette (£18) and the Rose Golden Volume 3 Brush Set (£75), both items I have been lusting after since the dawn of time. They are so exquisite. For anyone with a hefty makeup collection the Zoeva Makeup Tote Bag (£42) would make a fantastic gift, it just keeps everything nice and tidy and ready to be whisked off to Paris at the drop of a hat. Last but not least, the Cream Concealer Spectrum Palette (£18) with 9 shades is such a versatile gift, it can be used for concealing, colour correcting, contouring and even foundation.
URBAN DECAY
One of my all time favourite brands, their eyeshadow palette releases are something I look forward to every year, but this year they branched out a little and impressed more than just as eyeshadow addicts with their brand new super full coverage All Nighter Foundation (£27). Just look at that bottle. Their Beached Bronzer (£20) with the palm tree packaging makes me think of the film The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, plus the actual product is divine: matte, blendable, soft and beautiful. As for the 2 eyeshadow palettes, Naked Smoky Palette (£38.50) looks the most seasonally appropriate. There is something for everyone in that palette and although I am not personally tempted by the Ultimate Naked Basics (£38.50), everyone who has it seems to really love it.
ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS
How I love ABH Cosmetics, yet another brand who have really stepped it up this year. Forget about their world famous brow range for a second and focus on possibly the biggest palette of the year: Modern Renaissance (£41) it’s just every warm-toned lover’s dream. The perfect palette. Thank God it is permanent. On a similar note, Anastasia dipped her toes into the world of stick foundations creating the only matte Stick Foundation ($25) I am aware of. Moreover, just like they monopolised the brow market, the amount of glow kits that were released this year was simply mind-boggling. Out of all of them, the Sweets Glow Kit ($40) is the one that caught my eye. It looks so gorgeous in photos and on all skin tones, it is unlike any other highlight kit I have seen and yet still manages to be wearable. Of course, if you love highlight and it seems many of us do then investing in the #23 Illuminator Brush (£24) is a worthy spend.
TAM BEAUTY
Makeup Revolution and I Heart Makeup are both fantastic brands, they make great affordable products and I think we all secretly, or not so secretly in my case, appreciate the dupes they create. They are always doing the most and these fairly new products are all gorgeous gift ideas. The Precision Oval Brush Complete Section (£45) comes in a gorgeous gold shade and looks ridiculously good, this is their take on the popular Artis brushes and when you consider one brush is about £45 and you can get 8 for £45 that really puts things into perspective. Another incredible dupe is the Ultra Eye Contour Palette (£8) which obviously takes inspiration from the Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye Palette, which is the only product I really want from the Kat Von D line. Sticking to the eyes, the Chocolate and Peaches Palette (£8) from I Heart Makeup is a dead ringer for the limited edition Too Faced Sweet Peach palette. I am a big fan of all the IHM Chocolate Palettes, so this one is a welcome addition to the popular range. Last but not least their HD Cream Contour Palette (£10) which is often compared to the Anastasia Beverly Hills Cream Contour Kit is so creamy and pigmented. I first saw it on Kaushal Beauty’s channel and was instantly impressed by the colours.
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this post and found it helpful in some way. This post is not sponsored in any way, these are just the brands I tend to gravitate towards when buying for myself and others. I feel like this time of year is so focused on Christmas gift sets and limited edition products that we forget about the products we have had our eye on the rest of the year. I much prefer buying things that are permanent because then if you fall in love with it at least you can re-purchase it. If you would like any other Gift Guide, maybe one for a lower budget (apologies for how high end this turned out to be, it wasn’t intentional) or even one for skincare then let me know in the comments. Please follow me on Bloglovin’ and Twitter, my links are all below. It means such a lot. Take care.
What do you like most out of all the products in this post?