'Tis the season for gift giving and merriment, and what better way to make a woman merry than to give her a fabulous gift of beauty this holiday season?
The Early Show contributor David Evangelista has made a list so you can check it twice.
FOR THE FACE
Laura Mercier Holiday Beauty Books ($120 for all; $45, $40 and $35 each): This is the must-have gift for the makeup addict on your gift list this holiday season. The entire set is designed to look like a collection of books — there is an eye beauty book, a lip beauty book and a cheek beauty book — each covered in a fabulous faux lizard. Open each book and you'll find an overwhelming variety of colors: nine eye shadows, eight lip colors and four cheek colors and bronzers. That's 21 colors in all. Try getting 21 cosmetics from Laura Mercier for $120 any other time during the year, and you'll find it's impossible.Sonia Kashuk Beauty Holiday ($14.99 - $29.99): Holiday beauty doesn't have to be ultra-expensive, and no one shows that better than makeup artist Sonia Kashuk. This holiday season, Kashuk has created several inexpensive yet gorgeous cosmetic kits that can be purchased at any Target store in the country. Her "tooling around" kit ($19.99) is being raved about by beauty editors everywhere as one of the best gifts to get under $50, and the cosmetic kits themselves are pretty spectacular. For instance, the "Dinner at 8" kit, $19.99, is a palette of smoky shadows, pale lip colors and glowing cheek color, and folds up into a tiny package no bigger than a cell phone; "Movie Star Eyes," $19.99, filled with fake lashes and smoky shadows, is great to grab when you're running to post-work parties; and the "Glimmering Shimmering Body Sparkle," $29.99, is a fabulous powder body shimmer that comes with an amazingly deluxe fluff brush that you typically find for five times the price. Becca's Berry Bronze Gift Set ($45): Becca is quickly becoming one of the hottest brands in the beauty biz. With their sheer yet colorful glosses, shadows and shimmers, Becca's products leave you looking gorgeous and glowing — not "done." For the holidays, Becca has released the Berry Bronze gift set, which includes two eye colors, two crème blush colors, a glossy lip tint and loose shimmer powder, plus a little cosmetic bag to carry all the products around from holiday party to holiday party for touchups.Benefit Swinging Sweeties Glimmer set ($28) and Dancing Darlings gloss set ($24): A big makeup trend this season is shimmer, and both of these adorable Benefit gift sets pack in the shine in layerable, sheer shades. Three loose sparkle powders for eyes, lips and cheeks come in the Swinging Sweeties package, four lustrous lip glosses in the Dancing Darlings set.Anastasia Beverly Hills 7 Item Brow Kit ($85): The eyebrow stylist to the stars has just released this all-in-one kit that provides the ideal beauty tools for maintaining those must-have perfect brows. The black patent-leather pouch contains all the tools and tips you'll need to create flawless brows, including tweezers, After Tweeze Cream, Brow Powder, four Brow Stencils, Duo Brush, Brow Gel, and Highlighter. Cargo Glossy Greetings ($20 for 10 cards, only at sephora.com): Share the gift of beauty with all your friends with these lip gloss-packed holiday cards! Cargo has taken the ordinary holiday greeting card to a new level and has built in a single serving of their famous lip glosses into each festive card. Even better: 100 percent of the proceeds from the cards sold goes to St. Jude's Research Hospital.Clarisonic Skin Care Brush ($195): This was released early this year, and dermatologists have been singing its praises since it hit the market. Developed by the same folks who brought us the Sonicare toothbrush, the Clarisonic uses sonic waves to dislodge dirt and makeup and clean out pores thoroughly, minimizing problems like acne and dermatitis. It can be used with a daily cleanser or with an exfoliant, so it does double duty and a far more thorough job of cleansing your face than just washing with cleanser and water.Estee Lauder Re-Nutriv Re-Creation Day Crème SPF 15 & Re-Creation Night Creme ($900 for both): Obviously, this is a splurge item. The combo debuts in department stores in December, and pre-order sales are quite strong. Re-Nutriv has been around since the early days of Estee Lauder and it's always been expensive; the original price when Estee created it in 1960 was $115 a pound. But the folks at Estee have revamped the nutrient-rich creme with some "rare ingredients" and 74 trace minerals — hence the high price (some ingredients: padina, a sea plant which grows its own calcified shell to protect itself; micronized mineral concentrate sourced from the islands of Okinawa, Japan; deep sea water containing manganese and copper, and loads of antioxidants and collagen supporters).FOR THE HAIR
Bumble & Bumble 2005 Holiday Box Collections ($20 - $34): The Bumble & Bumble 2005 Holiday Box collections offer comprehensive instructions, stylists' advice and the right Bumble & Bumble products to achieve desired looks. Kits include Bb Updo to create the "sexiest chignon" ($26, includes prep lotion, styling lotion, hair pins and elastics, styling spray and instruction guide); Bb Glamour for the "perfect, everyday coif" ($20, includes gentle shampoo, super rich conditioner, styling lotion and instruction guide), and Bb Big Hair to create volume in the finest hair ($34, includes thickening shampoo, thickening conditioner, thickening spray, styling spray and instruction manual). There's even a kit for the man in your life (Bb Groomed, $31).FOR THE BODY
Molton Brown "Intoxicate" gift box ($79): Includes a heavenly ginger lily moisture bath and shower gel, ginger lily body cream, ginger lily shimmer oil for the body, and a heavenly gingerlily air light candle Frédéric Fekkai Crème Luxueuse Limited Edition gift set ($75): Includes top-selling Crème Luxueuse body cream with shea butter and a specially created shea butter scented candle. Crème Luxueuse, named as one of Oprah Winfrey's favorites, is infused with shea butter, macadamia nut, grape seed and sunflower seed oils, which work together to nourish dry skin and prevent further moisture loss.Fresh Memoirs of a Geisha Kyoto Empress Gift Set ($125): In connection with the release of the film version of "Memoirs of a Geisha," Fresh has teamed up with Columbia Pictures/DreamWorks to release a series of Geisha Gift Sets. The Kyoto Empress Gift Set is the top of the line, including full-size bottles of eau de parfum, sake bath, flower petal face mask and rice face wash. It should be noted that there are less expensive Geisha sets available; one for $38 and one for $48. The big difference is that the less expensive sets contain either the flower petal face mask or the rice face wash, and 15 milliliters of eau de parfum vs. The Empress set's 100 milliliters of perfume.Origins Mask Marvels ($18.50 for three): The discount of the lot, the trio of masks in Origins' Mask Marvels holiday gift set will give a little pampering and pick-me-up for an easy price. The trio includes a Drink Up 10-minute mask to quench the skin's thirst, a Clear Improvement Active charcoal mask to clear pores, and a You're Getting Warmer Purifying clay mask.Bliss You Should Know Butter Bestselling Moisturizer Trio ($40): From the originator of the now ubiquitous "body butter," Bliss is releasing a gift set of three tubes of its emollient rich, fabulously moisturizing and scrumptious-smelling body butters, including the original and all-time favorite Lemon and Sage, the exotic Vanilla and Bergamot, and the sweet Plum scent.