Holiday Gift Guide Round-Up *Part 1*

​Hey guys! It's time for the main Gift Guides for the gift giving season. This first one is going to be skincare and makeup, since that's what this blog is mainly for. The next part (or parts, who knows) is going to focus on other categories. These are the big ones because it's not about one store, one brand specifically, specific price points, or the normal categories that I talk about.

​This year is, obviously, diiferent. We're in a pandemic. People are shopping online more than usual. Some are also more financially strained than others. Businesses are struggling or on the verge of going under whether they are big or small. A lot of people won't be able to celebrate together this year at all. It's going to be a different Christmas. 

When making this, I was trying to figure out how to be helpful and give new ideas. I was also trying to be mindful of the many issues people are facing daily. So what I thought was the best approach was to shop online and try to do a majority of shopping with your friends or family's businesses whether that's on Etsy or their own website, fb page, etc. Or to shop with those who are consultants for companies and may work off commission. I also think finding things are Poshmark, Mercari, even Ebay sometimes is a great way to find discontinued items (not skincare and makeup buy those from a retailer) sometimes that are brand new like purses or shoes, anything really is a greay option to get cool gifts and help someone else out by buying their stuff. That way you can do your Christmas shopping as well as help your friends, neighbors, family, etc out through these different methods and outlets. It's just a few thoughts I had.

I will also add in which companies are now doing payment plans/installments. For instance: Afterpay, Klarna, Paypal payments, etc. 

​Starting with skincare:
Wie Magie products. 
​

• They are all completely natural and handmade products by Liz, my Botanical Guru. In particular, ANY face serum because they are the most wonderful facial oils that are packaged in blue Miron Glass pump bottles. Most of the products are very simply formulas usually having about 4 ingredients in them. Which is another thing I love about Liz. She doesn't do 40 ingredients to dress up a product she does formulas that she KNOWS will work perfectly together and be just as potent and effective as any product out there that has an ingredient deck a mile long. She just goes straight to the good stuff. You can also buy mini face serums for $5 that have about 10 uses in each (if you use them as instructed which is 3-5 drops) to see if you like the product. All together there are 4 face serums she offers. 
• My personal favorite is Luminous Face Serum. It houses watermelon seed oil which is a great antioxidant and is high in linoleic acid. It does have a blend of essential oils but why I love it most is because it has Carrot Seed Oil. She used to do a face serum called 24 Carrot that I was in love with. This is new and improved. The same love. The luminosity comes from the antioxidants but also Co2 extracted from Calendula which is a strong anti-inflammatory that promotes healing as well as giving you that glow. 
• I also love Mystify. It's a blue face serum due to the Blue Tansy that is has in it. If you've ever smelled Blue Tansy in products then you know how wonderful it smells as well as how calming the smell of it actually is. It's one of those essential oils that helps with anxiety and stress once inhaled. It's a soothing and calming affect on the skin as well when irritated. It also has a base of watermelon seed oil (which theirs is wild harvested). Lastly it also has lavender and geranium essential oils. A simple serum with only 4 ingredient but very powerful. 
• Along with oils, I also love balms which I feel are more of a soild oil concentrate. The balms match the face serums that are offered except there are only 3 balms. Spellbound, Bewitched, and Mystify. Mystify being the blue tansy one and it's such a gorgeous blue balm. In the balms they use wildharvested nilotica shea butter as their base. That's an outstanding base that is extra moisturizing. You won't find any balm with this shea butter be at a better price point because this specific shea butter is the rare east African shea. 
• My other absolute favorite product is the Sleep Magnesium Lotion. Liz first sent this to me before naming it "Sleep" because I was having a hard time sleeping, I was having intense headaches and muscle triggers, and in general just didn't feel good. I asked her for some help if there was an essential oils that may help. She literally made me a jar of this because she didn't offer it at the time I don't think. I've never put it down since I got it. She brought it back before she renamed it and made it bigger jars and I bought back ups because I loved it but my friends loved it too and would come over because I'd use this with Gua Sha on their necks and pressure points. Anyway, Magnesium helps in relaxation because it helps our nervous system. It's very common to have a magnesium deficiancy because I did at one point. I wasn't absorbing the mineral through my digestive system. Technically magnesium ions are small enough to be absorbed through the skin and penetrate the blood stream. So it can help along with supplements and other things to get your magnesium in line. This is safe to use on children as well. It's helpful for those with restless leg syndrome and chronic migraines. Which I can say is true in my case. I used it at the nape of my neck, made sure to inhale it. The base of this is also nilotica shea butter and the last ingredient in this is lavender essential oil. Definitely try it. It's like a very creamy balm that's easy to apply and absorb into the skin. It's also a 4 oz jar. Contains "250 mg elemental magnesium per teaspoon". Use 1/2 teaspoon to 1 tsp massage it into the skin before bed.

​The next products are from Rodan and Fields.

• You know how much I love their Brow Defining Boost. I've talked about extensively and use it every day. They have a gift set with it and their cult favorite Lash Enhancing Serum that every uses and loves for their lashes. They have other holiday sets though. Like their Microdermabrasion Paste, Active Hydrating Serum, and Lash Enhancing Serum or their Active Hydration Body Replenish + Hydrating Serum.
• I also really recommend looking into the other "kits" they offer all the time. Especially the new ReDefine Regimen that I talked about in a previous post that you can customize for yourself. I recommend checking out their Soothe line though. Especially for those in the medical field who's skin is taking an absolute beating right now or anyone who's skin has taken a beating with the pandemic, lockdowns, masks, etc. I know my skin has had a rough year. Currently it looks horrible. 

You have to order by 12/7 from Rodan and Fields to guarantee getting gifts before Christmas.

​I've been loving Bliss products, they're such an overlooked brand. 

They have some incredible treatments like their Vitamin C "Bright Idea" which also has Tri-Peptides and Collagen. It's incredible.  They have great AHA products, in particular I enjoy their peel pads. They are stout! I've been trying their  "Clear Genius" lately because I'm breaking out. It's a 10% AHA + BHA + PHA Blend meant to be a clarifying liquid peel. It's more of a light gel consistency I think. 

They also have some beautiful soothing products in the Rose Gold Rescue line. Their mist in the Rose Gold line is amazing and I always keep it on me. Not kidding, it's in my bag and everything. I love the moisturizers in that line.

I've been using YENSA products lately. 

I've tried their masks but they send me some products from their CBD skincare a few months ago. I'd been avoiding talking about CBD products just because there are so many companies putting them out that it's overwhelming. So these are only the 2nd products I've tried that are CBD infused. I absolutely love the CBD Superfood Face Oil. It's by far one of the best oils I've tried all year. I also love the Dual Cleansing Oil. They have makeup products as well like foundation, concealer, primer, cream bronzer, etc and those are nice as well. They are totally worth checking out.

I still enjoy my normal brands: Glow Recipe, Kate Somerville, Sunday Riley, Algenist, OSEA Malibu, Farmacy, Maya Chia, and so many more. However, we don't have all day.

​Makeup

This probably won't be that long of a list because I've not changed my mind on many things. I do have a few brands/products to talk about though.

Maven Beauty: This is the brand new makeup line from Fashion Nova. There is the "Basic Beat" line and then the "Cosmic Drip" line that just dropped this week. I just got finished doing all the swatches for a total brand overview post that's coming up. I can tell you that I'm really impressed by everything. The shadows perform so well and are very pigmented. It's all very affordable. It's worth checking out 1000%. 

Rare Beauty: I've talked about this a lot lately. I keep getting more products from the line and it's just different. I've not tried the shadows so I won't recommend that right now. However, the other products are lovely. I know I bring this up all the time but it's the reason I like the brand so much: this was created so that those who had arthritis and other conditions could have an easier time applying their makeup because the applicators are easier to hold and use. There's no brand I've ever heard of that has been that thoughtful. 

I still love Natasha Denona palettes. I've been really into the smaller Pat McGrath palettes, I just got the Rose Decadence that was on sale for $39 which it was around $60 I believe. It's beautiful. I seen that the Tarte Park Ave. Princess Chisel Palette was on sale for $29. I have it and I really like it. It's a great gift in my opinion because it's a face contour and highlight palette essentially. There's 4 contour/bronzing shades and two highlight shades one being more of a pale yellow shade and the other a pale pink shade. Plus the packaging is epic.

I'm gonna stop here. It's already so much going on.

Sephora and Etsy now has "Klarna" as an option in the checkout. Where you pay 4 payments instead of your entire total upfront. It's automatically taken off your card. I use it alot. They send you a reminder before your next payment is going to be taken off your card.

Beautylish has their installment payments they've always had which is either 3 payments or 2 payments depending on the total of your purchase.

PayPal is offering installment payments in 4 automatic payments in some cases as well. I don't know if it's for everything but I just used it on a bath product purchase, so I hope they're offering it for purchases coming through PayPal since so many people check out with PayPal.

A ton of stores especially popular indie brands are offering After Pay now. Which again is 4 installments that come out automatically.

Some of these come out weekly, every two weeks, or once a month. It will show you the timeline and dates of your payments though. They are all automatic so you don't have to worry about going in and manually paying it yourself and trying to keep up with it. They take care of all the fuss. There is no interest or extra charges for using them as of right now or none that I've seen so far. 

I hope this is helpful. Happy shopping! Stay safe, stay healthy. Thank you for reading and don't forget that I love you. (I had a Sunday School teacher that used to say "I love you, and God loves you" that's what I think of every time I sign off and tell you I love you guys. So in case you don't know: I love you, and God loves you.)