gift guide | *Maddy Loves

It’s not easy to shop for the beauty fanatics in your life. I know from personal experience that I don’t like it when people buy me beauty products because I’m very particular about what I want. However, there are some great alternative beauty products out there but I never thought to buy for myself. This is where the gift givers come in!

1. MICRO Pedi at-home pedicure

For the DIY lovers in your life (that’s me!), the Micro Pedi is the perfect gadget. Pedicures are expensive and impractical sometimes, so this is the perfect compromise. Battery-operated, the rolling spinner works to remove the dry skin to give you soft and smooth feet, perfect for holiday season cuddles. Priced at $49.99, the Micro Pedi is available at Shoppers Drug Mart and at http://www.micropedi.ca.

2. MIYU Beauty facial essence and tea sets

MIYU Beauty has combined beauty and health with their beauty essence and tea sets. Available in two varieties – a hydrate set and a de-stress set – this is perfect for your office-worker lady friend. The spray is perfect to keep at the office and the tea is great to enjoy while working late nights. Priced at $42 for each of the sets (pictured above), you get a 80mL of the beauty essence and 16 tea bags. There is a great sampler set available for $24 (pictured below) that includes 15mL each of the hydrate and de-stress beauty essence, and two each of the hydrate and de-stress tea bags. Available online at http://www.miyubeauty.com.

3. Way Spa gift cards

Way Spa is a spa network that spans across Canada and their gift cards are redeemable at over 2,000 spa locations across Canada. Available in denominations of $25-500, these are great if you want to surprise your lady (or male) friend with a relaxing day at the spa. I wrote about my experience at one of Way Spa’s partners, the Sabai Thai Spa here. A general gift card like this is great for when you want to be a bit more flexible as to where your gift card can be used. Available online at http://www.wayspa.com.

I also wrote about holiday offerings from L’Occitane en Provence and LUSH Cosmetics, if you need some more inspiration!

The holidays are my favourite time of the year, and LUSH Cosmetics‘ holiday offerings help to make this time of year even more cheerful than ever before! I received a couple of holiday products to try, you can see the rest of the holiday collection on the LUSH website.

First up is Rosy Christmas, a pre-wrapped gift that includes a 100mL bottle of Rose Jam Shower Gel and a 45g jar of Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner, priced at $15.95. I previously reviewed Rose Jam Shower Gel but I was really excited to try its sister product, Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner. You apply the Body Conditioner like your hair conditioner – after your body wash, leave on for a few minutes then wash off.

It smelled a bit funny as I was applying this, and also while it was in the jar. It didn’t smell anything like roses; it was rather a bit artificial. However after I rinsed it off, my skin was super soft and smelled gloriously like roses! I absolutely love how my skin feels after just one application of the Ro’s Argan Body Conditioner, and it’s become a new favourite in my shower routine.

The second product is Ponche Shower Gel ($9.95 for 100mL), which is inspired by traditional Mexican punch. It smells deliciously citrusy, and it has real tequila in the ingredients! Compared to the other LUSH shower gels I’ve used in the past, this one is a bit on the thin side, doesn’t lather as much and isn’t as moisturizing. I think the fresh citrus scent, coupled with its other attributes, makes this a better shower gel for the spring/summer months. Overall though, I like because it does a decent job at leaving my skin clean but not stripped, which is what a shower gel is supposed to do.

Lastly, we have Bûche de Noël ($12.95 for 100g), a holiday cleanser similar to Angels on Bare Skin. With ingredients such as ground almonds, cocoa butter, cranberries, it’s the perfect holiday treat. Apart from smelling AH-MAZING (like all LUSH products, so no surprise there), it does a great job at gently exfoliating. The cocoa butter and glycerin create a barrier between the physical exfoliators and the skin, and helps the exfoliators glide along the surface of the skin without being harsh.

The downside to this product is that it’s very dry and clumps together, which mean even when I wet my hands and face, a lot of the cleanser fall to their death to the floor of my bathtub. Also because it uses ground almonds, which is a physical exfoliator, I make sure not to use this too often because it might make my skin sensitive. I use this 1-2 a week at the most. I would say that you’re looking to control your holiday purchases, I would skip this cleanser.

With so many holiday offerings, it must be super overwhelming. I’ve narrowed down my list of my top choices for LUSH holiday purchases: