Holiday Gift Guide: Stocking Stuffers (under $20)

1. Sephora by OPI Perfect Pair nail polish duos ($10) - These are so adorable and would make a fun surprise in someone's stocking. The duos come in three different complimentary color combinations that would look great if you decided to do nail art or accent nails. My personal favorite is Pink & Choose -- a hot pink and sheer cool light pink. 
2. Tarte Clean Slate Deluxe Primer Trio ($9) - Give the gift of flawless makeup. This trio is a great way to test out these primers or give someone who loves them a portable version. These deluxe travel sizes are great for on the go and provide enough product to give you a solid feel for the product's performance. Available at Sephora and ULTA. 
3. Burt's Bees Tips n' Toes Kit ($12.99) - Most gals love a mani-pedi. Keep your their hands and feet looking great between nail salon visits with this gift set by Burt's Bees. Best of all, it's a pampering kit that you can feel good about because Burt's Bees is a natural brand, which means no sulfates, parabens, phthalates, or petrochemicals. The kit includes: replenishing lip balm with pomegranate oil, lemon butter cuticle cream, hand salve, coconut foot cream, almond milk beeswax hand cream, and thoroughly theraputic honey and grapeseed oil hand cream. Available at drugstores. 
4. AHAVA Hand & Foot Cream Ornament or Body Care Ornament ($10) - I love when they put travel-sized items in ornaments during the holidays. I think its so cute. I'm tempted to decorate my Christmas tree with beauty products, have a party, and then have my friends try to find their specific ornament. That's why I chose these cute ornaments by AHAVA: one has a hand and a foot cream, the other a body lotion and shower gel. They're great little gifts anyone could use. I like to keep a travel-sized lotion in my purse all the time for when my hands are dry. As you can imagine, I'm partial to the hand and foot cream ornament myself. Available at Nordstrom. 
5. Purity Made Simple One-Step Facial Cleanser Ornament ($10) - Well, if I'm going to talk about  my love for beauty products wrapped like ornaments, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Philosophy's Purity Made Simple face wash. Every year they have the travel-sized version available in this little packaging. Every year, I love it. Why not give the gift of good skin? Don't let the size fool you. You can easily get quite a few washes from this bottle. I had one in my shower for a month before I went through it. This cleanser is great for all skin types. It cleanses and tones and makes your skin feel super soft. Available at Nordstrom and ULTA. 
6. Lush Lip Scrubs ($9.95) - These little sugar  lip scrubs are great and they taste pretty darn good too (don't worry it's ok to lick them they're natural). This is great for the lipstick lover on your list because she needs to make sure her lips are always in prime condition. Lipstick looks awful on flaky lips! All she's gotta do is lick her lips, rub a little lip scrub on and lick if off if she pleases. I'm partial to the Mint Julips flavor, it tastes a bit like mint chocolate chip ice cream, and it's refreshing. Plus, if I use it after lunch, it's a little like an after-dinner mint. Sweet lips is another good one too. 
7. Fresh Hesperides Grapefruit Rollerball Ornament ($19) - Here I go again with the ornament gifts. But honestly, they are just too cute! I recently discovered this scent last week on a trip to Sephora and I love it. It's fresh and crisp with a hint of warmth (thanks to the musk note). If you happen to have someone on your list who loves LaVanila Vanilla Grapefruit, they'll probably also love this scent by Fresh. Notes: mandarin (if we haven't figure this out I'm a sucker for orange/citrus scents), Italian lemon, grapefruit, bergamot, lotus flower, transparent jasmine, rhubarb, musk, and peach. By the way, if this particular pick doesn't suit your fancy, any roller ball perfume (of your giftee's preference) could substitute. They make great gifts. I love keeping a small perfume in my purse for when the occasion calls. You can find a wide selection at any beauty or department store. Fresh Hesperides Grapefruit is available at Sephora. 
8. eos Smooth Lip Balm Sphere Holiday Gift Set ($9) - I love eos lip balms. I've written about them here. The shape makes them quite cute, attracts people's attention, and is usually easy to find in your purse (although not so great for a little clutch). They're also 95% organic, and glide on smoothly thanks to moisturizing shea butter and jojoba oil. Plus, no parabens, sulfates, phthalates, or petrochemicals. These three flavors aren't available outside of this gift set and include: blueberry, watermelon, and vanilla. It's a fun little stocking stuffer you can easily find at drugstores. I've personally spotted them at Target and Walgreens. 

Are any of these products on your wish list? Are there any products out there you think should make the list? 

Burt's Bees Lip Balms are the Bee's Knees

So I've confessed to my ridiculous lip balm obession and you got a little peek at my eos collection. But darlings, it doesn't stop there. On no. This goes beyond a fascinations for brightly-colored balls of lip moisture. I just like balms that glide onto my lips and smell delicious. I need to keep my pout kissable whenever possible.

I don't discriminate either. I even love my 92 cent tubes of regular ol' Chapstick. You just don't know how far this ridiculousness goes.

Among my favorite deliciously scented lip moisturizing products is Burt's Bees. I'm sure your familiar. They have a following. First of all, I love the packaging. I don't know what it is about the mustard yellow background with block letters that draws me to it. There must be a science to it, or else I'm convinced its some kind of voodoo.

I have to say, I'm a big fan of their newer flavored balms. That's not to say I don't like the original beeswax lip balm. I mean, it was super minty, what with peppermint oil among the main ingredients and all. But, the two tubes of it that I had always needed to be broken in, so to speak. They felt hard and like I had to warm them up before they glided onto my lips. It would take several uses before they felt smooth. I don't really like that. Sorry Burt.

But then I got my hands on their Pomegranate flavored lip balm and that experience set everything straight. It was smooth from the start and it smelled fantastic. I'd say it smells like pomegranate, but I've never smelled a pomegranate. It smells like other pomegranate flavored stuff I've purchased, so I'm assuming the smell of my lip balm is accurate. But this flavor has been around for a while.

The flavor I'm totally head over heels about is the new grapefruit scented lip balm. It has all the great qualities of its pomegranate sibling. It goes on smoothly, hydrates, doesn't have parabens, and it's all natural. It feels good to use it and it makes you feel like you're doing something good when you buy it. 

I've said this before. I love citrus scents. So naturally, I like the crisp scent of this grapefruit balm. It pretty much smells just like the Neutrogena grapefruit face wash. But not soapy. Big thanks to my hubs for brining this one to me. Great choice! You may remember when he gifted it to me because I tweeted the photo below. 

That's right, he gifted me another pomegranate and the grapefruit lip balm along with two fashion mags. What a thoughtful man.

While I was a CVS the other day, I noticed Burt's Bees has a few more flavors I want to try: mango, acai berry, passion fruit, honey, eucalyptus oil. You see? This is how I end up hoarding so many lip balms. I. Must. Try. All. Flavors.

But, back to the topic at hand. I'm a big fan of these scented Burt's Bees lippies. I can tell the difference between them and the original formula. And I don't just mean because they smell differently. I love a good minty lip balm. And while eventually my Burt's Bees balm would warm up and smooth out, I'm not crazy about how dry and tough it feels at the beginning. But these are smooth from the get go and that makes all the difference to me. I don't have to work to get them to perform like I want them to. 

Have you tried any of the other Burt's Bees lip balm flavors? Do you have a favorite? Do you think I'll like any of the others as much as I love grapefruit?