Gilbert’s Gift Guide
Beauty is a universal gift. It helps us to feel like the best versions of ourselves and can lift anyone’s spirits. Finding the perfect something for that special someone can prove to be a challenge during the holidays. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be when you think about their lifestyle and anticipate things they might want to try, you can surprise them with a gift that will truly brighten their holiday this year. Here, you’ll find a gift guide – handpicked by yours truly – of gift ideas for all those most important to you.
DDG DRX Spectralite Faceware Pro
Some holiday lights are not for the tree. Dermatologist Dr. Dennis Gross’s DRX Spectralite Faceware has 162 red/blue LED lights designed to address skin concerns like fine lines, wrinkles, and mild to moderate acne. Give the gift of an in-office light therapy treatment to the skincare enthusiast in your life. This is gentle enough to use every day, and effective enough to see real results. The device’s red light mode helps to supports the body’s natural collagen production, and the blue light is known to diminish P. acnes levels in the skin, keeping breakouts at bay. Your tech savvy someone will surely love it!
This is the gift for the one who is starting to build out their skincare closet, because it’s packed full of best-sellers and cult favorites. Known for well-balanced active formulas, this box comes with everything you need to complete morning and evening rituals that deliver both instant and long-term results. Good Genes Serum has been a daily treatment in my own personal routine for years, and has helped to keep my skin smooth, bright, and even. So, if you are looking to give someone the best of the best, then this vault is the one.
Some holiday traditions will never end, and one that I’ve always been fond of is the advent calendar: 25 days of gifting to celebrate one of the happiest times of the year. Each drawer of the YSL Beauty Advent Calendar contains an iconic product that will surely surprise and delight. Filled with both mini AND full-sized must-haves from makeup, to skincare, to fragrance, you can fully immerse in the YSL lifestyle. This provides an answer to that age-old question: it is what you get for the one who has everything and deserves so much more.
Eve Lom Rescue Ritual 3-piece Set
For the friend who might need an at-home trip to the spa, this gift box contains Eve Lom’s beloved cleansing balm and a rescue mask to help restore and rejuvenate. The luxurious cleanser melts onto the skin and melts away makeup while softening the skin. Using the accompanying muslin face cloth helps to fully remove excess debris and dead skin cells. Once the skin is nice and clean, the honey and kaolin clay mask remove impurities and refines texture of the skin without stripping or dehydrating the skin. After using this duo, the recipient of this gift will surely be left glowing.
Generally speaking, gifting someone a gym membership could surely send the wrong message; a membership to Face Gym is a bit different. Their Hydration HIIT Kit is one of the best ways to get skin into tip-top shape. It comes complete with a hyaluronic, micro-needling roller that helps to stimulate and deeply hydrate. Using this product once a week will ultimately help to improve the appearance of texture and fine lines by plumping the skin. The kit also contains the perfect products to follow up and lock in all the goodness: a stand for your roller and three replacement heads. This set is perfect for the fitness buff and well worth the workout.
Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Men’s Discovery Kit
Have a bourgeois beau? Elevate his game even more with this set of little skincare luxuries. Packed with everything he needs to clean, polish, calm, and hydrate is Dr. Barbara Sturm’s kit. The best part is the routine is simple and straight-forward, but still designed to effectively reduce the visual signs of inflammation and aging. Be careful though, you don’t want him complaining that you are stealing his product.
Victoria Beckham Iconic Eye Bundle
Fashion meets function with this bundle from Victoria Beckham, making it the perfect gift because it’s completely customizable. Through the online point of sale, you can pick shades specifically for the recipient, which provides your gift with a truly individualized touch. Between the choice of eyeliner and eyeshadow, plus an accompanying mascara, they’ll have everything they need to create a quick and easy editorial eye that will make the recipient feel as much like an icon as they look like one. As they say, “Only the chic need apply.”
lilah b. Golden Hour Heroes Set
lilah b. represents clean luxury at its finest and has always been a go-to gifting brand because of its unique and universally appealing products. The California-inspired Golden Hour Heroes set contains everything one needs to cast a warm, radiant effect on the skin and create a lit-from-within glow. Think of the Aglow Golden Priming Oil as a diffusing filter that enhances any complexion. The kit also contains a coordinated blush and lip that balance and brighten. The Divine Duo lip and cheek is a convertible cream small enough to fit in a clutch, and pigmented enough to touch up with, while Lovingly Lip tinted lip oil slicks on a smooth dose of hydration that is never sticky or tacky. This set of natural wonders is just right for the California dreamer.
Westman Atelier The Gift Edition “Le Box”
Celebrity Makeup Artist, Gucci Westman, has put together a duo of holiday glam essentials that is everything someone needs to build the perfect look for the season’s festivities. Inside the gift box is the new Lip Suede palette in Bordeaux, which contains four statement matte lip colors that can be worn individually or blended together. The set also comes with a new Lit Up highlighting stick in glistening “Pärla,” which can be used to turn up the skin’s glow factor. I love this for pretty much anyone who lives for effortless American glamour.
What was it they said about small packages? Unwrap these little bonbons to find out. My pick for the office party gift exchange has to be these darling mini eyeshadow palettes from NARS. Each bar features an assortment of six rich colors in delicious textures that color coordinate with the brand’s most iconic shade franchises – Orgasm, Laguna and Dolce Vita – so their use can easily build out the rest of one’s NARSissist collection. Like candy confections, these gorgeous petites will put a twinkle in anyone’s eye.
Hopefully, this gift guide took out a little guess work from your holiday shopping list. Beauty is for all, and as you can see, the products that enhance, encourage, and underscore it make for amazing presents. But the most import thing to remember is the real gift of life is spending time with each other during precious moments like the ones that occur during the holiday season.
Gilbert Soliz is a Los Angeles-based celebrity and fashion makeup artist, as well as the contributing beauty editor at In Step Beauty. Gilbert’s highly innovative and conceptual looks can be seen on celebrity clients including Kim Petras, Kali Uchis, Mariah Carey, and Paris Hilton, and in publications such as Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Marie Claire. Oft praised for his innovative use of color and his modern take on beauty, Gilbert’s skills, which include the creation of natural, current, fresh-faced looks, are underscored by his being a licensed esthetician. In 2016, Soliz was appointed Global Makeup Artist for Marc Jacobs Beauty. While there, he was responsible for product development and played a role in global training and education, receiving great acclaim for both. Soliz represents the next generation of makeup artists, known as much for their influence across culture as they are for their signature looks. Soliz is currently represented at The Only Agency.