16 Covetable Beauty Gifts To Buy This Holiday Season

Never underestimate the power of gifting a beauty product. Although it may be a lipstick, face mask, or body lotion, it’s giving your loved one more than that — like the joy of swiping on a gorgeous pigment, the tools for a delightful self-care moment, or the confidence that comes from well-hydrated skin. So, basically, beauty equals happiness.

There are endless ways to approach this class of gift-giving, too. You can go the makeup route with a shimmery eye shadow palette, which is ideal for your bestie who’s always watching tutorials on BeautyTok. Luxury fragrance is always a nice choice, especially if you know someone’s preferred scent family — and, BTW, the gift of fragrance can also mean candles, room spray, and laundry detergent (yes, really). Then there’s skin care, which encompasses body care products, serums, and peels for your loved one’s everything shower or facial routine.

Whether you snag a celebrity-beloved LED light mask, a glittery makeup-filled advent calendar, or a K-beauty skin care set, your giftee will undoubtedly be thrilled to receive one of the items below — though I won’t blame you if you keep some of these for yourself.

1. A Festive Advent Calendar

For the cutest advent calendar ever, you’ll want to snag this one. It’s shaped like an old-school memory box and brings you a cult fave beauty product each day — including the brand’s viral liquid blush, an eye shadow palette, highlighter, and hydrating primer. You’ll also score a new shade of SHEGLAM’s sparkly lip gloss and glittery eye shadow. In other words, all your holiday makeup essentials are covered.

2. Decadence In Body Oil Form

The fanciest way you can moisturize your bod? With a shimmering scented body oil. Specifically, this one. Give the gift of luxury by way of Victoria Beckham’s golden elixir, which nourishes your limbs with botanical oils as it delivers a sun-kissed glow. Oh, and it smells like a heavenly Italian coast-inspired citrus fragrance. Divine.

3. Level Up Your Self-Care Game

Every beauty girlie knows an LED light mask is a staple in a good self-care routine. So why not buy your loved one the best on the shelves? CurrentBody just released an updated version of its OG, so it’s got more powerful skin-boosting lights. It’s the ultimate collagen-stimulating treatment you can do while watching Netflix.

4. An At-Home Head Spa Kit

A good hair day is on everyone’s wish list, and that’s exactly what this four-piece collection delivers. Think of it as a hair spa day in product form. It comes with all the essentials — volumizing shampoo, gloss-boosting hair oil, fortifying serum, and a regenerative hair mask — so that your bestie can indulge in self-care and come out on the other side with healthier, shinier strands.

5. A Dreamy Eye Shadow Palette

Gifting a Pat McGrath eye shadow palette is always a good idea. Her latest creation (limited edition, BTW) is just as gorgeous as you’d think, and includes gemstone-inspired hues like amethyst purple, rich cerulean, iridescent coral, and pearlescent burgundy, all with a dazzling finish.

6. A Lippie For The Fashion Girls

Everyone needs a good red lipstick, and you can’t get much chicer than this one. The luxury fashion house recently entered the makeup game with a thoughtfully crafted lippie and stunning gold casing. The vibrant red has a satin finish and goes on creamy (thanks to the formula containing squalane and plant-derived oils) and will stay put throughout all your holiday parties. As a bonus, it’s refillable — sustainable and stunning.

7. Smell Good Day And Night

For the ultimate sweet-scented indulgence, you’ll want to snag this gift set from Kylie Cosmetics. Besides including the reality star-slash-beauty entrepreneur’s uniquely sweet, elevated floral perfume, you’ll also receive a moisturizing body lotion with the same yummy scent — so you (or your loved one) can smell amazing all day long.

8. A Holiday-Ready Mascara

Black mascara is cool and all, but the holidays call for bolder, more experimental glam — so why not gift this glittery wand as a stocking stuffer? It lengthens the lashes while adding pearlescent, sparkly pigments, working as a head-turning top coat for any frosted makeup look. As a bonus, you can swipe it onto your brows for glimmering arches, too.

9. Hydrating Skin Heroes

The ultimate skin goal is to have a well-hydrated, dewy complexion, so anyone would be pleased to receive this Dewy Skin Serum Discovery Trio. It comes with three of Innisfree’s hydrating elixirs — one with added brightening benefits, one with antioxidant-rich green tea extract, and one with soothing cica — for a happy, moisturized face.

10. For Fragrance Aficionados

Got a friend with a full-on fragrance wardrobe? This set’s for them. It’s basically an advent calendar for the olfactory system, as it offers the gift of scent in multiple forms — from actual perfumes to candles and body care products. Your giftee will get to experience a range of Maison Margiela’s signature scents (including Beach Walk and Jazz Club) that’ll truly delight the senses.

11. The Gift Of A Healthy Glow

It can be tricky gifting skin care, but luckily, Korean beauty products are famously gentle. And that’s why this Sulwhasoo set, featuring the iconic K-beauty brand’s bestsellers — the First Care Activating Serum and Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream — is an A-plus gift. Both formulas star ginseng root native to the country, a botanical that delivers firming, hydrating, and brightening benefits to the skin. Yes, please.

12. For Head-Turning Manicures

Your maximalist mani friend will absolutely adore this gift set from innovative nail care brand Mooncat. If you’re not familiar, the line consists of the most stunning chromatic iridescent polishes. The Pandora Unboxed Set comes with a range of hues, from a shimmery vanilla cream to a cat-eye-style red and a chrome green that reflects different colors in the light. In other words, it’s the gift of countless cool manicures to come.

13. For A Yummy-Smelling Life

The world of fragrance extends beyond perfume and body care products, and this DedCool set is here with those miscellaneous extras that *also* make your life smell great. There’s a laundry detergent, dryer sheets, and a room-slash-linen spray — each in a DedCool scent of your choice — that’ll bring your fave aromas to your bed, home, and wardrobe.

14. An At-Home Facial

An at-home facial is always a sweet treat, which makes U Beauty’s Flash Bundle a dream present. The star of the package is the skin care brand’s newest drop: the Resurfacing Flash Peel, a chemical exfoliant-based treatment that reveals a fresher glow in just five minutes. To balance it out, it also includes the Super Hydrator and the Super Intensive Face Oil. Talk about a complexion-boosting trifecta.

15. A Joy-Inducing Zit Treatment

A wise and very cute acne treatment is, of course, the famous (and runway-worthy) Starface pimple patch. Shop the blue edition, which comes with 32 Hydro-Stars spiked with acne-busting salicylic acid plus a matching case. It costs $16.99, but giving your friend a reason to see the upside in having a breakout is priceless.

16. Candles They’ll Appreciate

Candles may have gotten a rap as a thoughtless gift, but that’s not the case if you get the right one. An easy win is this seasonal trio from Bath & Body Works. Though you get three different scents — Cocoa & Cream, Vanilla Snowflake, and Frozen Lake — their olfactory theme is all about embracing the cozy stay-at-home vibes. What’s not to love?