There are only a few days left until Christmas! Yikes! This is the time that I'm wrapping gifts for under the tree, and making sure I don't need any more gifts. If you've found that you need a few more gifts for someone, and want to buy something beauty related without fighting the crowds at the mall, I have some great ideas for you! While I've said drugstore in the name of this post, I kind of use that as a catch-all term referring to the price point. Really I've included gift ideas from drugstores, mass market/big box stores (Target and Walmart) and even grocery stores (a few of these options are easy to find at Whole Foods). Happy Shopping!
1. Makeup Brushes: Every beauty junkie loves more brushes, and it is actually pretty easy to find good brushes at this price point. You could buy a few for a stocking stuff or a full set for a much larger gift. My favorite brands for brushes are Sonia Kashuk (Target), Flower (Walmart), ELF (Target, Walmart, some drugstores), Eco Tools (pretty much every where) and Real Techniques (Target, ULTA). Not all of these brands have big brush sets available in stores, especially ELF.
A few of my absolute favorite brushes from those lines are the $1 Essential Eye Brush from ELF (I own about 10 of them!) and Sonia Kashuk's smudge brush (the ELF smudge is pretty good too).
2. Eye Makeup Must Haves: A lot of my favorite eye makeup products are found at this price point, and it would be a lot of fun to open a gift and find fun new mascaras to try out, great shadow palettes and different colors of liners.
My favorite lines are listed in the graphic, but here are a few of my favorites from these brands:
CoverGirl: All of their mascaras are great, the Vivid Impact and Liquiline liners have some great colors
L'Oreal: Any Carbon Black mascara is a great buy! I especially like the Butterfly Mascara because of the unique wand. The Color Riche shadow quads are great, and I love the Infallible loose shadows. The gold and silver Infallible Silkissime liners are really pretty!
NYX: Their shadow palettes are the winners here, they have a huge number of options with quads all the way up to large palettes. They're all a good pick!
Maybelline: All of the mascaras are good (except the Manga, I hate that one!) and the Nude Palette pictured above is a great shadow palette!
3. Great Bags: I'm always on the lookout for a good makeup bag, they seem to only last a few years since they get dirty. For travel I really love to have a plastic lining, so if things spill they won't get all over my clothes. As well, I'm a strange one that needs all of my bags to match. So, I buy an entire set at once! That gets pricy, so I buy mine usually at Target. The Sonia Kashuk bags at Target are my favorites (look next to the SK makeup for them), though they have some other brands usually in an entire bag area with other brands that also has great options. If you're at Walmart look next to the Flower Beauty makeup. I just got a bag from Flower and it's great! I'll be looking at Flower the next time I need to replace all of my bags.
4. Fragrance: Kind of obvious, but there are always great fragrance deals during the holidays. I don't have any particular recs, just run around smelling everything in the store!
5. Bath and Body: Who doesn't love pampering bath and body products? I'd grab a basket and fill it with fun bath products. Be sure to include a cute poof, a back brush and even exfoliating gloves are perfect for including. I like to have a body wash, a scrub and a great moisturizer. Olay and Dove have great body washes that are super moisturizing. Burt's Bees (everywhere), Jason (Whole Foods) and Alba Botanica (Target, Walmart, Whole Foods) all have more specialized products like body butters, oils and scrubs.
6. Mask It Up: Not everyone is as big of a fan of masking as I am, but if you know the giftee likes masks then it is fun to fill a basket with great ones! I always include the Queen Helene Mint Julep Mud Mask, and if you're at Target then definitely grab the hydrating one pictured above from Boots. Otherwise, I just wander the skincare area and grab ones that look interesting. The Freeman single use ones (they come in a packet you tear open and cost about $2?) are perfect for this gift!
7. Mani/Pedi Faves: Most of my go-to products are found at this price point, though they can be hard to track down. I love Orly Bonder basecoat (look for alternatives from Sally Hansen), Seche Vite top coat (Sally Hansen and Essie have good alternatives), and Sally Hansen cuticle remover. Sally Hansen also has great manicure tools. My favorite polishes for great colors that last are Essie, Sally Hansen, L'Oreal and CoverGirl.
Most of these ideas come prepackaged or if you're grabbing products you could easily put them into a gift bag or fun basket! Let me know if I missed anything in the comments. Do you have a great drugstore beauty gift idea you could share?
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