Holiday Gift Guide: The Best of Holiday Color

As promised, here is the next installment of our most comprehensive gift guide to-date! This post features my top picks from various holiday color collections that have launched this year.  There are a few more holiday shades I haven’t reviewed or swatched, so there might be a few more of my favorites to come.

Eyes

• Bobbi Brown Dual-Ended Eyeliners ($24) — annoyingly limited edition and really should contain more product, but the color payoff and formula is excellent.
• Chanel Beige Lame ($28.50) has been a go-to shade for a quickie wash of color when I want to brighten up eyes.
• Dior Couture Gold ($59) is one of my favorite eye palettes for the holidays; it’s very on-theme with golds and peaches and metallic finishes.
• shu uemura Dance in Glitter False Eyelashes ($75) is one luxurious gift for the eyes–gorgeous, well-constructed, and comes in a decorative box.
• shu uemura Eye & Cheek Palettes from WKW for shu uemura ($85 CDN) are fantastic and sadly, not available in the U.S., but our international friends–this is a rec for you–because they’re fantastic (and still to be reviewed!).

Cheeks/Face

• NARS Miss Liberty ($27) gives cheeks a really glistening glow, very apropos for the holidays.
• Guerlain Parure de Nuit ($67) is the one product I’d recommend above all others for the holidays, and I say that because it’s a product I keep reaching for (to the point that I had to forcibly remove it from my reach).

Lips

• MAC What Joy! ($15.50) is a berry-red with subtle micro-shimmer and healthy shine with good color coverage.
• Illamasqua Belladonna ($20) is a fierce magenta pink with opaque color and lots of shine.
• Bobbi Brown Party Alice ($24) — super pretty pink-coral, perhaps not seasonally appropriate but divine anyway.
• NARS Joyous Red ($24) is a muted orange-red that’s workable on cool and warm-toned skin.
• Chanel Triomphal ($32) is a pinky-red with great vibrancy and glossy shine; and Chanel Empire is perfect for those who love a brighter pink with yellow undertones.
• Dior’s holiday lip colors ($32 each) were my surprise hit for lips this season–they’re so pretty on and wear well.

Nails

• China Glaze Let It Snow ($3-4 each) is a perfectly festive set of twelve polishes, and all of them are available individually, so you can pick your particular poison.
• Zoya Gems & Jewels ($8 each) is short and sweet with beautiful shimmers and extra-fun glitters (because they’re horizontal!).
• Dior Merveille is a festive orange-red with golden shimmer that will work well on warmer skin tones.