With only one week left until Christmas, it’s getting to crunch time for those tricky people left on your list. Stumped on what to gift your wellness-oriented beauty friends and relatives? Keep reading. We’ve rounded up the best natural skin-care sets, makeup palettes, and body items — all of them clean enough to satisfy the most health-conscious beauty junkies on your list and luxurious enough to convert non-believers too.
The Most Wanted
Drunk Elephant is the “natural” beauty brand with clinicals to back up its claims. Formulated without a single essential oil, fragrance, paraben, or phthalate, the products are heavy on acids and antioxidants to boost collagen production and combat signs of aging. The Littles Kit unites seven best-sellers in travel-size form, including a cleansing bar, exfoliating bar, day serum, night serum, moisturizer, face oil, and sunscreen.
The Up-and-Comer
The brainchild of two Seattleites, Herbivore has become a favorite of beauty fans for its non-toxic, visually appealing, botanically-infused formulas. This skin-care trio includes the Jasmine Green Tea Balancing Toner, Lapis Facial Oil, and Bamboo Charcoal Deep Cleanse Detoxifying Soap Bar, which are all created with potent complexion boosters.
The Sampler
Vintner’s Daughter is the buzzed-about face oil that everyone loves. Created with over 22 botanical oils, it has been hailed a beauty cure-oil for everything from cystic acne to dehydrated, dull skin. If the regular price tag of $185 per bottle feels steep, consider the brand’s limited-edition holiday sampling program. The simply packaged gift set includes three one milliliter samples for $35 — just enough to convert oil haters.
The Classics
For natural products with high-tech innovation, try Sunday Riley’s Power Couple Duo. The set includes legendary exfoliating The Good Genes Treatment and Luna Sleeping Night Oil, both designed to tackle hyperpigmentation, large pores, and fine lines with speedy results that exceed non-natural alternatives. The star ingredients include lactic acid for exfoliation and a retinol (trans-retinol ester) for fading sun damage. Basically, everyone can benefit.
The Divine Bath Oil
Made from a blend of ylang-ylang, patchouli, and lavender, Susanne Kaufman’s bath oil not only smells divine, but relaxes muscles and calms the mind. The glass jar looks fancy alongside the tub, too.
The Natural Lip Kit
Think of Ilia as the NARS of the natural cosmetics world, with vibrant shades and innovative multitasking products. Their limited-edition set contains their best-selling Tinted Lip Conditioner in Arabian Nights (made popular by Dakota Johnson in Fifty Shades Darker) and the Multi-Stick for eyes, lips, and cheeks (a natural dupe for NARS’s The Multiple) in a new dusty rose hue named Ladybird (no relation to the movie, but fits right in).
The Mask Set
This is a mask kit for your whole face. The Fresh Start Mask is for weekly brightening, while the Firming Face Gels and Eye Gels are for when your face and under-eyes need to be de-puffed and smoothed.
The Intro Kit
Made with 100 percent natural ingredients, Tata Harper’s namesake skin-care line brings luxury to “natural” beauty. The Daily Essentials Set is a collection of seven must-haves, including a moisturizer, serum, essence, mask, and eye cream, all to combat fine lines, wrinkles, and dull, dark shadows.
The Better Lotion
Ellis Brooklyn’s body and fragrance line proves that “natural” and perfume can go together. Crafted in small sustainable batches, the rose-scented body milk feels lighter than a lotion, but more moisturizing. And the bottle with the apothecary pump? It’s free of lead and made from recycled glass.
The “Holidays Are Stressful” Bath
Slip one of these black pouches to your friend who tends to get frazzled by all the festivities. CAP Beauty’s Love Bath is a blend of detoxifying minerals and healing Epsom salts that stimulate lymphatic drainage. Sandalwood, neroli, and clary sage meld with gardenia, rose, and lotus flowers, making this $12 stocking-stuffer feel more exotic.
The Exotic Toothpastes
The last time toothpaste counted as a gift, you were probably trick-or-treating at your neighborhood dentist’s house. Marvis’s seven-piece set, however, is a much more sophisticated option. The tubes come in retro packaging that’s cool enough to leave out on the sink, and exotic flavors like Jasmin, Ginger, and Amarelli Licorice will impress house guests.
The Clean Makeup Swap
Organic beauty devotees favor Kjaer Weis’s makeup because the high-quality formulas deliver results like non-natural counterpoints. The textures are creamy and the colors are pretty and wearable. This customizable five-piece palette is empty at purchase, allowing the recipient to pick their favorite foundation, two cheek products, lip tint, and two eye shadows. The pretty silver compact is forever refillable, too.
The French Girl Mask
Haute holistic is the best way to describe the skin-care collaboration between facialist Kristina Holey (a protégée of Joelle Ciocco, the éminence grise of French facialists) and beauty chemist Marie Veronique. The Micronutrient Hydro Mask is like superfood for dull, tired skin, warding off free-radical damage and restoring moisture levels using only clean ingredients. Results are dramatic when used once a week.
The Pretty Powerful Set
Don’t overlook Éminence’s simple, homey packaging. Inside are products with very potent formulations. This is the brand’s anti-aging set which includes the Wild Plum Eye Cream, Stone Crop Cleansing Oil, Stone Crop Hydrating Mist, and Strawberry Rhubarb Dermafoliant. They’re are all souped-up with antioxidants and botanicals to combat dry skin on the face, neck, and chest.
If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission.