Bustle's Most Wanted Awards
16 Makeup, Hair, & Skin Care Gifts That Will Thrill Your Favorite Beauty Lover
From the most luxurious palette to a high-end hair tool.
It’s officially gifting season — and whether you like to plan your lists well in advance or wait until the very last minute, everyone could use a bit of guidance when it comes to sifting through the options and finding the best buys.
Especially when it comes to the beauty market, the shelves are stocked with an endless amount of makeup sets, fragrance kits, limited-edition holiday gifts, and more. The list below — carefully curated by Bustle’s beauty editors — includes some major crowd-pleasers that aren’t likely to get returned.
The most coveted beauty offerings for the 2023 holiday season include a ton of drool-worthy goodies, from designer makeup, to a seductive scent, to an exclusive Dyson hair tool. And if you’re on a budget? The recommendations below start at just $15.
Ready to start shopping? Check out the 16 best beauty buys to gift in 2023.
1. The Dreamiest Makeup Trio
What could possibly be better than scoring three of Dior’s cult favorites — a universally flattering lip oil, the prettiest pink blush, and its classic, apricot oil-spiked nail balm — in one set? The fact that they’re all housed in a chic, travel-friendly makeup pouch that gives major “quiet luxury” vibes.
2. A Party-Ready Palette
ICYMI: Angelic eye makeup is in this holiday season, and you’ll easily be able to create the metallic makeup look of your dreams with this sparkly palette from Danessa Myricks Beauty. It comes with 18 super pigmented shades that can be mixed and matched on your eyes and cheeks in an endless amount of ways.
3. A Luxurious Holiday Scent
In a bottle that pays homage to the iconic Rabanne dress, Fame is a fragrance that captures the essence of Parisian femininity with an irresistible blend of playful mango, sensual incense, and empowered jasmine. Don’t be surprised if you get just as addicted to how it feels on your skin as you do to taking glam pics of it on your vanity.
4. A High-Power Hair Tool
Just when you thought Dyson’s hair tools couldn’t get more covetable, the brand released a new edition of its TikTok-famous Airwrap in a limited-edition colorway for the holiday season. The vibrant set comes with six styling attachments, all housed in a pretty, protective case.
5. A Curated Makeup Set
Treat the makeup lover in your life to this bold, Grace Jones-inspired trio. It includes the brand’s silky highlighting balm, its liquid eyeshadow, and a luxurious liquid lipstick. For the latter two, you get to choose which colors you’d like, allowing you to customize the kit for yourself or a lucky recipient.
6. A Mini-Sized Marvel
Nothing sparks more joy than mini-sized products, and this set from cult fragrance brand D.S. & Durga is no exception. Each one is small enough to take one with you wherever you’re traveling over the holidays, and instead of a traditional fragrance spray, they come housed in actual mini replicas of their full-sized fragrances. So. Cute.
7. A Skin-Toning LED Mask
This is the perfect gift for your skin-obsessed friend — the one who keeps asking you if an LED mask is “really worth it.” Currentbody’s version certainly is, especially since it’s 31% more powerful than traditional LED masks and is proven to improve skin texture and firmness. Trust us — watching the joy unfold on their face as they unwrap this will be well worth the price tag.
8. A Grounding Moment
For your friend who has everything, The Maker offers a gasp-worthy gift set that includes one of its best-selling fragrances (we’re partial to Naked and Fire), a candle (try the warm, grounding Spiritus), and a deck of hand-drawn tarot cards. All three items are special enough on their own, but when presented together in a red leather-bound trunk, the effect is incredibly special — plus, you can emblazon the trunk with that special someone’s custom initials.
9. A Classic, Can’t-Go-Wrong Set
Classic and timeless, Chanel No. 5 will forever make the perfect gift for anyone in your life — and even more so when it’s presented so beautifully (the black-and-white box is a keepsake in and of itself). This set pairs the Eau de Parfum with a luxurious body oil and chances are high you’ll see them on the giftee’s IG shelfies immediately after.
10. A Skin Care Set For Jet-Setters
A complete skin care routine that’s made for long flights, the Biologique Recherche Travel Set houses four skin-loving essentials and an empty travel-sized jar for your favorite cream in a luxe travel bag. This is the kind of gift that you’ll be tempted to buy for a loved one and yourself.
11. An On-Trend Mani In Minutes
In the world of buzzy manicures, press-on nails have quickly become a major category to watch. As for the Paintbucket Glam Getter Press-On Nail Kit? The coffin-shaped French design is made all the more trendy with a Barbiecore pink tip and some dainty 3D pearls.
12. A Monochromatic Glam Kit
Monochromatic makeup is always a vibe, and the Ami Colé Warm Glow Trio in Beach Walk will make creating the celeb-loved look as effortless as ever. With two versatile shades of its Desert Date Cream Multistick, along with a yummy Lip Treatment Oil, the chic trio is perfect for nailing the season’s trendy “latte makeup” in a pinch.
13. “Quiet Luxury” In A Bottle
When it comes to the “quiet luxury” aesthetic, nothing screams elegance quite like a luxurious bottle of hand soap on a chic marbled countertop. The Le Labo Hinoki Hand Soap formula not only includes nourishing ingredients that soothe dry winter hands, but it also has a woody aroma that will fill your space with the calming essence of a Japanese forest.
14. Glowy Makeup Essentials
Beauty aficionados are always on a never-ending quest for the most glow-inducing products they can get their hands on. Look no further: This set from e.l.f. features the brand’s iconic staples — like the TikTok-viral Halo Glow Liquid Filter and Power Grip Primer — for delivering glass skin with a holiday-ready flush (courtesy of the blush and shimmery eyeshadow palette).
15. An At-Home Facial
Facialist Shani Darden counts celebs like Kelly Rowland and Jessica Alba as clients, but you don’t have to hit up her Beverly Hills, Los Angeles studio for a red carpet-ready facial. Simply snag her Triple Acid Signature Peel kit — complete with glycolic, lactic, and mandelic acids as well as a neutralizing mask — for a professional-grade treatment you can do at home.
16. A Set For The Softest Pout
You’d be hard-pressed to find a beauty editor who doesn’t have Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask in their bags — for good reason. Gift your loved ones the most hydrated, plump pout of their lives with this duo of cult-favorite lip-moisturizing staples, and prepare to be greatly appreciated.
