9 best beauty Christmas gift sets for fragrance, make-up and skincare fans
If you’re shopping this Christmas for a beauty obsessed loved one, allow us to share our top-rated gift set recommendations. Often limited edition, they can offer fantastic value for money, meaning you and your recipient can enjoy more bang for your buck.
Beauty can be personal, so we’ve painstakingly explored the brands offering products which will be loved, and most importantly, used throughout the year, rather than collect dust at the back of a cupboard. Whether it’s topping up on products you know they love, or splurging on luxurious new treats you know they’ve had their eye on, there’s no shortage of gift sets to shop this year.
Spanning skincare, make-up, haircare and fragrance, beauty brands pull out all the stops to make their sets as impressive as possible, and some even come ready wrapped in festive packaging, which will save you time and money – just pop them under the tree ready for 25 December.
To save you trawling through the many on offer for 2022, we’ve been carefully testing as many as we could get our hands on to bring you the very best. Featuring an array of make-up tools, glowy skin must-haves and fabulous scents, we’ve covered all bases.
With the cost of living crisis at the forefront of everyone’s mind, the cost-to-value ratio is more important than ever, so gift sets offering the best value for money, the most full-sized, and useful products, came top of our list.
How we tested
In our efforts to find the best Christmas beauty gift sets, we tested a series of products across a range of budgets. We’ve looked at sets with as many full-size products as possible, and only included minis if we felt they added value – nobody wants a bunch of tiny products they don’t need. When it comes to makeup we’ve also ensured the sets we’ve rated don’t require shade matching. These are the ones that are sure to add some sparkle to their day.
The best beauty Christmas gift sets for 2022 are:
Best overall – Edy London brush set: £60, Edy.london
Best haircare gift set – Ghd travel hair dryer set: £69, Ghdhair.com
Best make-up gift set – Bobbi Brown the essentials: £29.50, Bobbibrown.co.uk
Best luxury gift set – RMS glowing icons: £46, Naturisimo.com
Best gift set for all skin tones – Fenty lip gloss trio: £34, Boots.com
Best fragrance gift set – Miller Harris 10ml trio: floral and sweet: £36, Millerharris.com
Best multi-purpose gift set – Vieve glow kit: £59, Vieve.com
Best bodycare gift set – Caudalie scented duo thé des vignes: £39, Caudalie.com
Best budget gift set – Sanctuary spa special occasion hamper: £18.75, Boots.com
Edy London brush set
While this is one of the most expensive sets on our list, it’s also the best value. For £60 you’ll receive eight brushes, which works out to less than £8 a brush. The kit, as the name would suggest, includes all the essentials you need for cream, powder, liquid, eye, lip and complexion products.
It contains; a large contour face brush, tapered oval foundation brush, tapered face brush, large shader brush, medium angled blender brush, angled brow brush mascara/brow brush and a lip brush. All are high-quality, wash well without moutling and rival much pricier brushes we’ve tried. It comes packaged in a recyclable cyclinder tube box and you can pick between turquoise, lemon, cool grey and pale pink handles.
Buy now £60.00, Shop.edy.london
Ghd travel hair dryer set
Give the gift of good hair days with this travel-size hair dryer from the pros at ghd. It’s compact, but not massively smaller than its full-size designs, and easily folds in half to fit inside the accompanying case. Not only is it a cost-effective way to enjoy one of the best hair dryer brands on the market, it’s also easy to store too, with the case coming in handy for keeping tangle cables out of sight and out of mind.
The hairdryer itself has a removable nozzle, variable speed and temperature settings and safeguarding technology which will automatically switch it off if it overheats or is too close to the hair. It operates with both 240 and 120 volts, so if your recipient is a frequent flyer, they won’t have to compromise on efficiency. Easy to use, fast to dry hair and compact, it’s a no-brainer for all hair types and will see plenty of use.
Buy now £69.00, Ghdhair.com
Bobbi Brown the essentials
Small but mighty, this set from Bobbi Brown contains four of its most popular products, all of which we’d highly recommend for using in any makeup routine, no matter how full coverage or minimal you like to look. It contains a full-size lip balm, which is designed in the shape of a lipstick and is clear to suit all skin tones. It’s smoothing and hydrating, which is not only great at keeping chapped skin at bay, but also for priming lips ahead of applying lipstick.
Alongside this, there’s three deluxe minis. There’s a creamy, easy-to-blend eyeshadow stick in the shade of golden bronze, as well as a vitamin-enriched face base – one of the best makeup primers and moisturisers on the market. And finally, there’s a cleansing oil, which swiftly melts down even the most stubborn of mascaras for a clean complexion.
For just under £30, it’s a great way to explore the best of Bobbi Brown’s extensive range without feeling shortchanged. Each product works across all skin tones, so you won’t need to worry about shade matching your recipient and spoiling the surprise.
Buy now £29.50, Bobbibrown.co.uk
RMS glowing icons
Luxury Australian brand RMS is the brainchild of Rose-Marie Swift, a professional makeup artist. Most of its products are cream-based and come packaged in minimalist pots with easily blendable, multi-purpose formulas. And this glowing icons gift set includes a full-size mascara, and limited edition minis of its sheer cream bronzer, blush and lip cream, highlighter and skin luminizer – the latter can be used beneath makeup for added dewiness.
Given RMS’ high-end price tag, this is a more affordable way to test drive its bestsellers before committing to the full-sized versions. The mascara’s packaging is also made from 80 per cent post consumer recycled paper and vegetable ink, it’s a lovely lengthening formula for everyday looks, which gives volume, length and definition – it’s easy to remove with an oil-based cleanser too.
Buy now £46.00, Naturisimo.com
Fenty lip gloss trio
This trio of the much loved Fenty lip glosses contains three full-size products, each costing £19 individually, so one of the shades is free. Featuring its best selling shades, it contains a nude with brown undertones, a dusty pink and metallic fuscia shimmer, so you can achieve understated or statement looks with all three. In our opinion, Fenty’s lip glosses are the best money can buy, with long-wearing, high shine formulas that feel moisturising, stay glossy for hours and can be worn alone with lip liner or as a topper for added dimension. Each shade is flattering for pale to deep dark skin tones and beauty buffs are sure to enjoy unwrapping this set.
Buy now £34.00, Boots.com
Miller Harris 10ml trio: floral and sweet
At £160 for 100ml bottle of Miller Harris perfume, it’s a brand that certainly doesn’t come cheap. However, this gift set from the fragrance house, led by master British perfumier Lyn Harris, is the perfect way to explore its olfactory offerings. For less than £50 you’ll receive three of its best selling scents; scherzo, rose silence and secret gardenia, which can be layered or worn individually.
The packaging is beautifully presented, and the bottles feel just as luxurious as the full-sized versions. Scherzo is a heady, rich sweetness that lingers on the skin for hours, secret gardenia is fresh and light, and rose silence is your classic rose scent with a kick thanks to notes of blackcurrant and mandarin. A cocktail of floral and sweet blends, we found them to be long-lasting – scherzo was our favourite – and perfect for popping in our handbag. It’s a lovely way to discover a new perfume without committing to a 100ml bottle.
Buy now £36.00, Millerharris.com
Vieve glow kit
This glow kit features three of our favourites – and we’ve tried everything the brand has made. It’s comprised of a full-size skin nova, skin and lip dew. Skin nova is an all-in-one complexion products that can be used as a primer or mixed in with your foundation for a dewy, glowy complexion, skin dew is a liquid highlighter that has golden, light-reflecting pigments (you only need a tiny bit for the cheekbones) and lip dew is the brand’s lip oil. The latter delivers the long-lasting shine of a lip gloss while feeling like a hydrating balm. It has a large doe-foot applicator for even coverage and can be worn alone or as a topper over lipstick.
Buy now £59.00, Vieve.co.uk
Caudalie scented duo thé des vignes
While it may seem pricey for two items, this gift set features full-size products: a 100ml fragrance and a 150ml body lotion. Firstly, the packaging is ready wrapped in a plastic-free pink cylinder which looks as impressive as the treats inside. Secondly, we love this layering duo, the body lotion is a lightweight cream that absorbs quickly and keeps dry skin at bay, while thé des vignes fresh fragrance is an inoffensive, floral scent that we think is a crowd-pleaser.
More affordable than most 100ml fragrances from luxury brands, it’s a nice way to gift a larger bottle and get your money’s worth. The fragrance is comprised of notes of white musk, neroli and ginger, orange blossom and jasmine.
Buy now £39.00, Uk.caudalie.com
Sanctuary spa special occasion hamper
If you’re looking for a beauty gift set under £25, this Sanctuary spa special occasion hamper ticks every box. It doesn’t scrimp on size, there’s a generous six products and it still has a luxury feel without the price tag. We loved the range of body products on offer too, there’s a shower oil, body wash, body butter, salt scrub, heel balm and body lotion – everything you need for a pampering night in. The set comes packaged in a pale pink cylinder box with floral detailing and all of the products are vegan too. This is fantastic value, and has all the hallmarks of an impressively large gift set which is more than bang for your buck.
Buy now £18.75, Boots.com
The verdict: Beauty Christmas gift sets
The Edy London brush set is brilliant value and, therefore, our best buy. The brushes are high-quality, versatile and wash well without moulting. We also loved the Fenty lip gloss trio which is sure to be a hit among makeup lovers and allows you to bag three full size products for the price of two.
If you’re shopping on a budget, we can’t recommend the Sanctuary spa special occasion hamper enough, which contains the second most products on our list for the lowest price tag. And a special mention goes to Miller Harris 10ml trio: floral and sweet for allowing lucky recipients to test out its bestselling scent before committing to a full size version.
Add some glam to your festive feast with the best luxury Christmas crackers
