Hi guys!!! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving! I did brunch in San Diego with my boyfriend and his family before we all headed off to Vegas for 2 days of shopping (I have some new Chanel to share with you), eating, and watching basketball! It was such a perfect holiday weekend hanging out and spending quality time together doing fun things! We were home Saturday and left Sunday for the Bahamas where we are now soaking up the amazing island weather, and are about to take out the wave runners for some cruising!
On the flight over, I was scouring the internet to write down all the gifts I want to get everyone this holiday season. I am traveling so much that I need to order or pick up everything sooner than later or else I will be stress mode at the last minute. I have a lot of favorites I plan to purchase for my loved ones, so I’m sharing them all with you in a series of gift guides. The first one up is all about my girlfriends because we are a beauty lovin’ crew and one of our favorite things to do is get brunch or lunch together and go get lost in Sephora for a couple hours. I am super into makeup and they are always asking me what products/techniques I use, so I’ve picked out some essentials for each of them. All of the gift below are palettes, and I love palettes for gifts because they are so many products in one place that really make the gift substantial. I would rather give someone an amazing $80 palette that they can open and be excited by versus 3-4 smaller single eye shadows or compacts that seem dinky and would cost the same amount. Also, palettes lately have really been stepped up and are so incredibly useful. I remember cleaning out my makeup drawer a few years ago and giving away so many old palettes because I had only used 1-2 shades up and the rest were weird color duds. I use every single shade in the below palettes because they are designed so well and I am pumped to gift them this holiday season.
URBAN DECAY GWEN STEFANI PALETTE This is my most recent palette purchase and it is such a home run! Gwen Stefani created this with Urban Decay and I love it so much because it’s great for travel. Sometimes when I take a neutral palette on a trip, I miss having a few fun/bright colors to dress things up for a night out. This is incredible because it has the widest most perfect range of neutrals AND a few jewel tones to mix things up and give you the option to go bold or just subtly more dramatic. This is a great gift because the colors are so friendly for everyone and can be used everyday.
NARS x STEVEN KLEIN ONE SHOCKING MOMENT CHEEK PALETTE Don’t judge me, but I bought 3, yes 3, of these when I was in NYC at Sephora. Before you think I’m crazy, let me explain. It contains the Paloma contour blush that I already use a ton, the Laguna bronzer that I also use everyday, and 4 of the most all purpose basic blushes including a cool toned pink, lightly warm rose, vibrant coral, and deep crimson so you have every possible blush tone you need in one place. I got so many of these because I travel excessively and it is so much more space friendly to have one small palette with my contour, bronzer, and blush together without carrying 5-6 separate compacts in individual packaging. I think this is a wonderful gift because it’s so neutral and works with such a range of skintones.
ANASTASIA CONTOUR KIT I can’t say enough about this gorgeous palette! This has become so much more than a contour kit in my makeup wardrobe. I have the Light/Medium version and it contains 3 lighter highlight shades and 3 darker contour shades. I’m currently completely ignoring my usual face powder and setting all of my makeup with this palette. I use the Banana yellow shade to set my undereye concealer because on the skin it just creates this brightening effect without looking yellow at all. I use the Vanilla shade to set my foundation in my T-Zone area and I use the Fawn shade to highlight the tops of my cheeks, bridge of my nose, and forehead. The darker shades are amazing because I can use more or less depending how tan my skin is and how deep I want my contour and bronze to be. I love mixing all of these shades together and really feel it’s the ultimate powder palette to match any skintone (making it the perfect gift) and do so many things from sculpting, defining, bronzing, setting, and highlighting. Every girl needs this palette.
HOURLGASS AMBIENT LIGHTING EDIT Another huge palette win! This essential contains powders, blushes, bronzer, and strobing powder to create the perfect luminosity and light. I use this palette to set, brighten, contour, and highlight my skin. I like these powders more than any other illuminators because they are so so finely milled and there is no obvious chunky glitter-ness to them. They are blended by hand using a mix of pigments to help create the perfect blend of colors and light.
URBAN DECAY NAKED SMOKY EYE PALETTE My favorite eye palette of all time. Honestly, this is everything. It contains 12 smoky neutral shades that work for everyone and create such a multitude of looks! I am all about a soft smoky eye for day and a deeper smoke for night so this is my go-to eye tool. I also love how portable and sleek the case is because I can fit it into most of my purses and its so great for travel. You can use this for a neutral non-smoky look using the lighter shades or go as dark as you want. I also love that it’s not too cool or too warm so it matches any other makeup you choose to use and works for every skin tone!
BOBBI BROWN UNIVERSITY EYES PALETTE This is another hugely awesome eye palette!! It’s a 12 shade multi-textured palette with mattes, shimmers, sparkles, and metallic. I absolutely love the versatility of this color range. A lot of neutral palettes have browns or greys only, but this has navy, ivy, plum, silver, cream, rose, heather, and stone shades that make it so useful for so many different looks. I also love that dark liner shades are included so you can have those in the same place as your shadows. This is an absolute necessity and I think it’s such a beautiful gift!
Hope these help give you some ideas! Stay tuned for more of my gift picks this season…
X
