The Luxe List Beauty Gift Guide (Beauty Gifts £35+)

For the final instalment of my 2015 Beauty Christmas Gift Guide is the expensive stuff. Some of these are tried and tested favourites and some have found a spot on my own personal Christmas wish list, but all of them are lovely so lets have a look.

Since I've mentioned them in every single gift guide this year (and will probably do the same next year - just saying) I'll start with the Luxe List gift from Aromatherapy Associates. Their Ultimate Bath Jewels is currently available in Space NK and on Cult Beauty and at £58, it's actually a pretty good deal. You get 10, 9ml, bottles of their bath oils and it's a great selection that includes all of my favourites: "Deep Relax", "De-Stress Mind", "Revive Morning" and "Support Breathe".

For the skincare lover in your life, the Tata Harper Glow On Demand kit looks lovely. At £36 it only just priced itself out of my last gift guide post so I had to mention it here. It has 4 great deluxe 15ml samples of products I've been itching to get my hands on for months: Regenerating Cleanser, Purifying Cleanser, Resurfacing Mask and Hydrating Floral Essence and contains a sample of their lip product too.

While the Nars one Shocking Moment Cheek Palette isn't strictly speaking a Christmas release, it would still make a great gift. For £45 you get 4 blush shades, a contour and highlight duo and a full sized Laguna Bronzer, all packaged up in a nice sturdy palette with a big mirror. If you want to see me full review of this one it's here: Clicky Link.

I love the Ambré Vanillé scent in Laura Merciers body products so when I saw the Sweet Temptations Luxe Body Collection, I got a little excited. For £49 you get the shower gel, body cream, honey bath and the fragrance in a pretty presentation box. The set also comes in the Almond Coconut Milk fragrance.

If you want to go to town giving someone the gift of absolute relaxation, then look no further than the Therapie Luxury Kit. At £108 it's the most expensive gifting option I'm mentioning in this post but it comes with 3 full sized Therapie products, the Hymalayan Detox Salts, the Equilibrium Bath & Shower Essence and the Uplifting Joie Bath Infusion, all of which would make nice stand-alone luxe gifts at £37, £40 and £48 respectively.

Another set on my skincare radar this Christmas is the Sarah Chapman Skinesis Facial-In-A-Box. I can see this being a great option for the girl who loves a good pampering. The set includes a 15ml Ultimate Cleanse, one of her Cleansing Mitts, 2 of the 3D Moisture Infusion Masks, 5ml of the Eye Recovery and 5ml of the Overnight Facial. I like that this is effectively an entire routine in a box from cleanse to treatment.

Diptyque seem to have launched a special edition of their Do Son Eau De Parfum for the Holiday season. Space NK have an online exclusive full size version of this fragrance for £75 in a beautiful bottle (linked). Alternatively, you can pick up the regular version for £90 in store.

The Lust List eyeshadow palette was a tough choice, and an honourable mention needs to go to the Charlotte Tilbury Colour-Coded Eyeshadow Palettes. At £38 per quad they're pretty and would make a lovely gift, but when it comes to money-no-object gift giving I figured I had to give it to the Tom Ford Eye Colour Quads. At £64 a piece they're a pricey purchase but they practically ooze luxury and would make a perfect little treasure for the makeup lover in your life. I have my eye on the shade "Orchid Haze" in particular.

I've been a big fan of Omorovicza's skincare products for a while now and their Introductory Kit is a really nice collection of some of their best products. For £59 you get a 15ml Thermal Cleansing Balm, a 30ml Cleansing Foam, a 30ml Queen Of Hungary Mist, and 20ml Balancing Moisturiser and a 15ml Deep Cleansing Mask. It's a really luxe line of skincare but I've enjoyed everything I've tried from them in the past and a lot of the thing in this kit are things I like to have in my lineup.

And finally, the luxe candle. I had to include this one because I gifted it to my mum last year and she loved it: it's the Jo Malone Home Candle, one of these will set you back £42 but the burn time is great and they kick up so much scent. I'm pretty sure it's available in all of the fragrances that Jo Malone stocks and for the candle loving recipient I can see this going down well.

Empties Two

So it's been a while since I did an empties post and with my month of no buying and trying to use up my stuff I'd noticed that my empties box was looking more than a little bit full. (clicky link here) if you want to know more about those ones. There's some repeats in this post that were in my previous empties post so I'll skip over those pretty quickly and you can check that one.

The repeats from last time are the Dove Invisible Dry Deodorant and the Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot Powder. They're just a couple of those products that I always use and usually you'll find back-ups of in my stash as I just can't be without them.

There's quite a large selection of hair/bath/body bits in this months empties so I'll touch on those. I'm not sure where I picked up some products from the Amouage bath and body range but the scent on these is great, I have the Bath and Shower Gel and the Conditioner and they smelled lovely. I didn't pick up the shampoo as it has SLS in it but the other two were nice. The shower gel lathered nicely and the conditioner was moisturising but not too heavy.

I also used up a mini of the Bumble and Bumble Hairdressers Invisible Oil Conditioner which I've mentioned on the blog before (clicky link here) and it's not really my favourite from the range. The shampoo would be in here too but I'm rationing the tiny bit I have left because it's trés expensive but I love it. And finally for conditioners, I also used up the last of my VO5 Nourish My Shine Conditioner, which was a repurchased favourite until I discovered the OGX Argan Oil Conditioner.

I've finished 2 minis of the Weleda Replenishing Shampoo. It's SLS free so I tried it but it doesn't lather as nicely as some other sulphate-free formulas and I much prefer the L'Oreal EverPure Colour Care & Volume Shampoo, which I've also managed to use up recently. It's sulphate-free but has a really nice lather to it and it leaves your hair feeling really clean.

Finally for hair I have an empty can of the Ojon Full Detox Dry Shampoo, now I'm on the fence about this one. On one hand, it's a great dry shampoo that doesn't leave your hair feeling too product-y and doesn't leave a white cast. On the other? It's £10+ for a tiny can and you have to use so much that it doesn't really last long enough for me to justify a repurchase. I wish they'd bring back the Batiste Hint of Red, but for now I'm trying the Bumble and Bumble Prêt a Powder.

I finally managed to finish off the Soap & Glory Orangeasm Body Wash. It's a nice shower gel but for me the scent was just not for me and it's something that came in a christmas set. I much prefer their Sugar Crush and original scent ranges and will stick to those in future. And for scent I've also finished a Soap & Glory Glam-A-Lot Body Spray which is my favourite of their body sprays an I will pick up another bottle once I've finished the ones I currently have on rotation.

I won't dwell too long on this one as it's a bit of a random beauty empty, but the Boots Cotton Wool Double Faced Round Pads are my favourite cotton pads ever and I've gone through a whole pack of those.

And now for some skincare. I finished off a tiny trial size of the Omorovicza Thermal Cleansing Balm. The scent on this does put me off as it's very herbal-y but if you like those types of scents the actual texture of this cleanser is lovely. Despite it being a tiny sample I actually got quite a few uses from it so I can imagine the full size would last you ages.

I've also made my way through a mini of the Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish which was nice but probably not something I'll be running out to repurchase, it's a nice cream cleanser that I like for an AM cleanse. And I've managed to make my way through a full sized Clarins Cleansing Milk with Gentian which is the one for oily skin and I love it. It's a simple milk cleanser that again I like for morning use and it's just very gentle and refreshing, I did try to repurchase but picked up a slightly different one from the range but I like that one too.

Finally for cleanser I have a Cailyn Dizzolv'It Makeup Melting Cleansing Balm which I have a whole post about here. It's a good first cleanse for the evening but I prefer to remove my makeup with an oil cleanser and the Superfacialist by Una Brennan Vitamin C Brighten Cleansing Oil has my heart where a first cleanse is concerned and so while I did enjoy the Cailyn, I won't be repurchasing.

I've used up another bottle of the Good Things Miracle Mattifier Moisturiser but I've since moved on to using facial oils for my morning hit of hydration and so I haven't picked up a new one, but it's a nice moisturiser for those with an oily skin type and it smells nice too.

A face mask I've finished up recently is the Soap & Glory Fab Pore Facial Peel. I'm not sure why they call it a peel as it's not really a peel and you don't peel it off. I'm not sure if they've reformulated as I know they've repackaged a lot of their skincare range recently but I wasn't really keen on this mask. It took ages to use up because it didn't really do much of anything for my skin.

And finally, the First Aid Beauty Facial Radiance Pads, I'm currently working my way through the Nip & Fab equivalent of these and really enjoying them but I can see myself going back for another pot of the FAB because they're great. I also have my eye on the new radiance pads from Pixi but I'll keep you posted on those.