How To Gift Beauty Products They're Sure To Love

There's lots of good reasons to give your family and friends beauty products this holiday season. Maybe you noticed your brother or your boyfriend complaining about dry skin, or maybe your little sister has been asking you lots of questions about your eyeshadow. Maybe you know a hardworking coworker or new mom who deserves a relaxing treat. Perhaps you want to bring your holiday party hostess a gift, but you want to give something a little more creative than the usual bottle of wine. Maybe you just want to share your passion for and knowledge of beauty products with the people closest to you.

Whatever the reason, the right beauty product can make for a great gift. However, it can be tricky to find the right product for each person on your list. Beauty products, whether they're in the realm of skincare or fragrance or makeup, can be extremely personal. What one person loves, another person might hate. Some people have sensitive skin, are picky about fragrances, or have certain requirements when it comes to their beauty products (such as no animal testing).

To that end, I did my best to make it as simple and easy as possible with this little beauty-themed gift guide. Below you'll find some thoughtful and unique gift ideas, tailored specially for each person on your list. If you want to get your loved ones something nice but you're not sure what, hopefully this guide will give you some ideas that they'll love.

1. For The Hardest-Working Woman You Know

Everyone knows someone who deserves a weekend at a spa. If you can't afford that, however, this little bath-time gift basket is a great option. I filled mine with a L'Occitane Winter Forest Scented Candle ($21, usa.loccitane.com) to set the mood; Hask Macadamia Oil Moisturizing Deep Conditioner Packette ($3, ulta.com) and Hask Keratin Protein Smoothing Conditioner Packette ($3, ulta.com) to nourish their hair; and Beauty 360 Tissue Face Masks ($5 each, cvs.com) to soothe their skin; as well as the most important part: Lush Bath Bombs ($4-$9 each, lushusa.com).

I love Lush bath bombs because not only do they make your bath and skin smell amazing (and leave your skin feeling soft) but they also make bath time fun. (Check out this video of Lush bath bombs in action to see what I mean.) Pictured above are Frozen, Yoga Bomb, Guardian of the Forest, The Experimenter, and Intergalactic.

You could also include some body lotion (I personally love this Soap & Glory lotion), a bottle of wine or perhaps a tin of fancy tea, and a new book or a stack of their favorite magazines.

2. For The Fragrance Lover

This Scentbird gift set takes the guesswork out of gifting perfume. Scentbird is a monthly fragrance subscription service and they offer several gift set options: three boxes for women and two for men, with each box containing three different fragrance samples. As you can see above in the Miss Heartbreaker set ($60, scentbird.com), each sample comes in a beautiful twist-up vial that fits in a purse or a pocket.

The Miss Heartbreaker set includes the scents Dolce & Gabbana Dolce, Gucci Guilty, and Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gioia. (You can see which scents the other four sets include here.) Best of all, the recipient of this box set will also receive a free month of Scentbird, allowing them to explore even more fragrances.

3. For The Host

Sure, you can just bring a bottle of wine for the host of all your upcoming holiday parties, but sometimes it's nice to give something that shows some extra thought (and that lasts longer). L'Occitane is one of my favorite beauty brands, and they have a huge selection of holiday gift sets filled with their best products for both men and women. Of course, you may not know your host well enough to offer them something like perfume or makeup.

Luckily, L'Occitane also offers fragrant gift sets for the home. I love the idea of showing up to a party with these two beautifully packaged sets under my arm: Savons De Provence ($25, usa.loccitane.com), which contains four scented bars of soap, and the Home Perfume Diffuser Kit ($18, usa.loccitane.com) with their Candied Fruits Perfume, which promises to make your home smell like a French candy store. Your host will appreciate the gesture and think of you every time they use it.

4. For The Vegan Animal-Lover

If you have a friend or family member who is vegan or against animal testing, it's important to be careful when selecting beauty products for them. Many big beauty brands test on animals and, of course, they don't advertise it.

You can check the labels for anything that states the brand never tests on animals, but if you're in too much of a time crunch to do much research, I want to recommend the brands pictured above. They're not tested on animals and they contain all natural and organic materials.

Plant Skincare products (pictured on the far left) are made fresh to your order with all-natural ingredients; I love their Soothing Chamomile Face Cream ($35, plantskincare.com) and their Coffee & Orange Firming Night Cream ($35, plantskincare.com). Plus the packaging is gorgeous.

I also like the idea of giving the gift of skincare in small sample sizes, such as the Meow Meow Tweet Face Mask pictured ($6-$30, meowmeowtweet.com) which is made with natural ingredients such as pumpkin and aloe.

Hair needs TLC too! I love this My Mane Care Hair Mask ($15, mymanecare.com) which is vegan and made with coconut oil. This pouch has enough for 3-4 uses, and it's also included in this gift set if you want to go all-out.

Finally, I included some makeup in the form of the Alima Pure Ultimate Lipstick Duo ($42, alimapure.com). Louise is a pretty everyday pinky-nude and Stella is a gorgeous red. Both are creamy and hydrating, and of course, made with natural ingredients and cruelty-free.

5. For The Teenage Girl

Teens can be hard to shop for, but if my teenage sister is any indication, it's a good age to let them have some fun experimenting with makeup. An eyeshadow palette is a nice place to start, because it encourages them to have fun in an artistic way (as opposed to handing them concealer with the aim of "fixing flaws").

There's no need to break the bank to find a high-quality eyeshadow palette fit for a teen. Pictured are a couple palettes from two of my favorite drugstore brands: on the left is Nonie Creme Colour Prevails Watercolour Eye Shadow Palette in Nude & Neutral ($19, walgreens.com) and on the right is MUA Professional Back To Basics Eye Set ($20 in CVS stores or you can buy just the palette for $14, cvs.com).

These palettes contain mostly neutral colors, although they both also have some muted jewel and metallic shades. The Colour Prevails palette contains a brush while the MUA palette includes a brush and an eyeliner.

If you really want to impress, I suggest including a high-quality eye shadow primer to make her makeup last longer and eye makeup remover to help her take it all off. A set of nice brushes would probably help a lot, too.

6. For The Men

Whether it's your dad, your brother, your boyfriend, or your third cousin that you see once a year, it can sometimes be hard to shop for the guys. I'm personally trying to think beyond the three B's this year (booze, books, and Blu-ray sets) for the men in my life, and I know any one of them would get a lot of use out of these products.

Pictured is another fragrance gift set from Scentbird, Lush Dirty Hair Cream, Beardbrand Beard Oil, and an on-the-go grooming kit from Triumph & Disaster.

This Scentbird set is The Trendsetter ($60, scentbird.com) and it includes the scents Versace Eros, Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb, and Gucci Gucci Guilty Black in three sleek vials, in addition to a free month's subscription to Scentbird in case none of those catch his fancy.

I highly recommend Lush Dirty Hair Cream ($17, lushusa.com) for any man in your life. It has strong hold but feels great, and it smells amazing (like pine and sandalwood). I actually use this hair cream on myself, it's that good.

If your loved one has a beard, help him keep it soft and nice-smelling with a Beardbrand Beard Oil ($25, beardbrand.com). Tree Ranger smells like a pine forest and Spiced Citrus smells like Christmas (and they have other scents as well!).

Finally, the Triumph & Disaster On The Road Travel Kit ($50, triumpanddisaster.us) comes in a stylish box inside a handy pouch and contains travel sizes of their YLF Body Wash, Ritual Face Cleanser, Old Fashioned Shave Cream, and Gameface Moisturizer, all of which smell great and contain natural ingredients. Perfect for the guy on the go or just someone who likes to test-drive product before committing to the full size.

Now that your shopping's basically done for you, you can focus on drinking eggnog and snuggling up in ugly sweaters for the rest of the season — you know, the truly important stuff.

Images: Kelly Dougher