NYLON’s Holiday Beauty Gift Guide 2022: Skincare Bestsellers

We all know someone who’s obsessed with their skincare, who can tell the difference between glycolic, lactic, and and salicylic acid off the top of their heads, and would rather prioritise a good serum over ‘frivolous’ items such as clothes and jewellery. After all, good skin is an immediate confidence-booster, though it takes more effort than one realises, which brings us to this list of skincare sets and bestsellers that’ll, hopefully, do all the work for us if we stick to a regular self-care regimen.  Here’s to good health — and a healthy skin barrier — for your favourite skincare junkie.

L – R — La Mer The Moisture Radiance Collection, $285 | Sigi Skin Dream Capsule Daily Overnight Sleeping Mask, $82 ; Idyllic Fields Daytime Moisturiser, $78 | Tatcha Dewy Skin Essentials Set, $132 | Farmacy Honey Haven Set, $100

Anybody making their first foray into the world La Mer would love this gift-worthy set of essentials, including The Treatment Lotion, The Eye Concentrate, and the iconic Crème de la Mer, infused with Miracle Broth, to rejuvenate and uplift skin. The gift of glowing glass skin awaits too thanks to this duo that highlights YouTuber Pony’s favourites from the brand — the Dream Capsule features a whipped smoothie texture that plumps and nourishes skin overnight, while Idyllic Fields is a day-time moisturiser that soothes and heals dry and sensitive skin.

Skincare lovers swear by the Japanese-inspired skincare formulas by Tatcha as well, hence a curated three-step ritual of essentials that are all for plump, dewy skin, with skin-replenishing formulas that include potent ingredients of hyaluronic acid and Okinawa algae. For sweet results, have them try Farmacy’s honey-infused bestsellers, perfect for those looking to trade in their dry skin for one that’s plump and nourished. The regime sees a masking session with the Honey Potion Plus Ceramide Hydration Mask, followed by a resurfacing serum and a full-sized ceramide moisturise to seal in all the dewy hydration.

L – R — Lancôme Génifique Serum 50ml Skincare Routine Set, $189 | L’OCCITANE Immortelle Reset Set, $98 | Kiehl’s Limited Edition Ultra Facial Cream, $56 | Chantecaille Bio Mask Duo Set, $355.

This gift is as good as it gets, with a full-sized 50ml Advanced Génifique Serum that’s been Lancôme’s bestseller for years. A trio of anti-ageing creams complete the collection, in a box adorned with the precious Lancôme x Richard Orlinski rose. Lightweight and made for supple skin, L’OCCITANE’s Immortelle Reset Serum is filled with 3,000 antioxidant-rich Immortelle bubbles that protect against sensitivity, dullness and fatigue during the day, while activating our skin’s stress-recovery process at night, and available in a festive holiday set this season.

Things get even more festive with Kiehl’s, where you can spring for any of their holiday gift sets, or go for their limited edition skincare items, including the lightweight squalene-infused Ultra Facial Cream, which features artwork by London and Cape Town-based animation studio, Made By Radio. If you’re going for a classic gift, count on this Chantecaille set that sees two different-sized version of the upgraded Bio Lifting Mask+, now reformulated with plant stem cells, peptides, and more to offer even more visibly smoothing, lifting benefits.

L – R — innisfree Green Holidays Green Tea Seed Serum Set, $53 | Dr. Barbara Sturm Serum House, $768 | Paula’s Choice Winter Glow, $36 | belif The True Cream Moisturising Bomb Special Set, $65.

innisfree refreshes their packaging for the holidays, with the Green Tea Seed Serum and more with illustrations by Korean studio étoffe, of dogs, cats, and even squirrels, in picture-perfect scenes of snow, presents, and bows, which evoke feelings of warmth and contentment. This Green Tea Seed Serum Set consists of a jumbo-sized serum and three complimentary travel-friendly products that offer healthy, hydrated skin. For the ultimate pampering treat, Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Serum House arives all cheery with some their best cult-status serums presented in a festive house. These include the Hyaluronic Serum, Super Anti-Aging Serum, Glow Drops, and the Night Serum.
A holiday kit that’s made for actual holidays, the vacationing kind, Paula’s Choice has curated a winter set meant to accompany friends on their snowy adventures, with skincare that deeply hydrates and replenishes skin, while restoring skin’s natural glow. Korean skincare brand belif’s sets are jazzed up for the holiday season, with enchanting Christmas illustrations on the gift boxes, and a duo of their ultra-hydrating gel cream and essence for glowing skin all around.

Above — Aesop Precipitous Kit , $265 | Shiseido Holiday Ultimune Blockbuster Set, $403.

This year’s theme for Aesop’s annual gift kits revolved arond ‘The Poetry of Place’, with each kit taking after the form of an iconic Aesop store, which ties in to the brand’s love for local culture and architecture. Precipitous features a trio of antioxidant-rich Parsley Seed Skin Care for city-dwellers and busy souls, with a recycled paper pulp box of little details that resemble their New Town Plaza store in Hong Kong.

For those who believe skincare’s an investment, Shiseido’s holiday set comes with everything they’ll need to kickstart a life of healthy skin, starting with the bestselling Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate that boosts skin’s immunity, along with a cleanser, softener, moisturisers from their White Lucent brightening series, the White Lucent Power Brightening Mask, and a Modern Matte Powder Lipstick to complete the look.

L – R — Drunk Elephant Trunk 6.0 Skincare Set, $650 | Fresh Best Of Beauty Bundle, $58 | Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Serum Ex Holiday Set, $275 | Estée Lauder Youth Generating Power Repair + Firm + Hydrate Skincare Set, $185

Try and resist this Drunk Elephant blockbuster set filled with a whopping 10 full-sized skincare essentials, and seven little samples, packed in a limited edition insulated cooler that’s as bright as the brand’s signature bottles and tubes. The kit includes everything from the C-Firma Fresh and Virgin Marula Oil to the F-Balm and Protini Cream, to cleanse, exfoliate, brighten, replenish, and moisturise skin. Over at Fresh Beauty, they’ve put together a three-piece set that includes a mini-sized Soy Face Cleanser and to-go-sized Rose Face Cream and Rose Facial Toner, where the latter includes actual rose petals in a rose-infused formula that refines the look of pores and balances skin. 

Those into Asian-based skincare and ingredients ought to be fans of Sulwhasoo’s luxurious and effective formulas, which incorporate the powers of Ginsenomics in the Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Serum EX, a resilience-boosting nourishment that deals with signs of ageing such as the appearance of fine lines and a lack of skin elasticity. The anti-ageing set is complete with four other signature products in travel-friendly sizes. If you just know someone who’s a major fan of Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Serum though, this is it — a full-sized ANR along with three of the same in deluxe travel sizes.

L – R — Sisley Paris Sisleÿa L’Intégral Anti-Âge Duo, $680 | Clarins Power Duo, $245 | Elemis Pro-Collagen: The Classic Tale of Double Cleansing Gift Set, $36 | Ole Henriksen Seeking Self-Care Skincare Favourites Set, $85.

In limited edition holiday packaging, this exclusive Sisley Paris set pairs the Sisleÿa Skin Care Lotion with the nourishing Essential Skin Care Lotion, both of which are integral in addressing the visible signs associated with the three dimensions of aging: behavioural, environmental and genetic. Fans of Clarins’ iconic Double Serum will love how it now comes with a holiday pouch and an accompanying V Shaping Facial Lift Face Contouring Serum that helps with the goal of sculpted, contoured and youthful-looking skin.

We love this little introduction to Elemis’Pro-Collagen classics too, this time a cleansing duo meant for the most invigorating double cleanse session, thanks to a cleansing balm that melts away makeup, pollutants and impurities, and an Energising Marine Cleanser that leaves skin soft and glowing after. The goal of brighter-looking healthy skin is also achievable with Ole Henriksen’s trio of a potent Glow2OH Dark Spot Toner, the Strength Trainer Peptide Boost Moisturizer that instantly hydrates and strenghten skin, and the Banana Bright+ Eye Crème that instantly brightens the undereye area and visibly reduces crow’s feet.

L – R — Clé de Peau Beauté Cleansing Trio Set, $120 | KOSE SEKKISEI 4-Steps Basic Set, $290 | Origins Plantscription 4 Piece Set, $197

Here’s another pick from Clé de Peau Beauté’s constellation-inspired Radiant Sky collection. Adored with beautiful illustrations of the stars across the night sky, you’ll be getting a Cleansing Oil and Micellar Water to thoroughly remove makeup and impurities, as well as their Softening Cleansing Foam that purifies and softens skin. As a bonus, silky ‘The Cotton’ cotton pads accompanies the series too, which subtly refines skin and leaves it smooth and refreshed.

From KOSE, this 4-piece set is a safe bet for those with sensitive or sensitised skin, since the SEKKISEI series consists of gentle formulas such as the SEKKISEI Lotion, loved for how it improves skin’s texture, brightens skin, and refines pores, and the SEKKISEI Emulsion, a gentle brightening emulsion that maintains the skin’s ability to retain moisture. And finally, with a focus on skincare powered by both nature and science, Origins’ anti-ageing Plantscription series is potent yet gentle on the skin, which is why this series of a Plantscription Power Serum, cleanser, lifting cream and eye cream will be much appreciated.

 


ALL ITEMS AVAILABLE AT THEIR RESPECTIVE BOUTIQUES, COUNTERS, AND ONLINE AT THE LINKS PROVIDED.