For the Curly Girl Who Keeps Her Crown Hydrated
Try: Bread Kit-1 Wash, $58
The trick to maximizing curl pattern, bounce, and hydration? Strike the right protein and moisture balance. Sometimes, this pursuit can mean some seven or more hair care steps come wash day. So when Bread Beauty Supply debuted this year with a three-step process geared for 3a to 4c curls, early adapters praised the line for its ability to create killer curl definition and bounce while minimizing frizz. This kit packs everything a curly girl needs for wash day, streamlined into 3 steps (wash, mask, and gloss), plus a big, fluffy scrunchie (because 2020). What's more, each full-sized product smells like the candy (SweeTarts!) and sugary kids cereal (Fruity Pebbles!) from our childhood.
For the No-Makeup Makeup Queen
Try: Jamie Makeup The Blighlighter, $34
Dab-and-go makeup just got cooler, thanks to Jamie Greenberg, the makeup artist known as Jamie Makeup to her nearly 100,000 Instagram followers. This fall's release of blighlighter (that's blush-highlighter hybrid) and her namesake makeup line have fans like Kaley Cuoco, Rashida Jones and, yes, TotalBeauty editors hooked on the cream-to-powder formula that delivers a flush of color in seconds and won't wear off after your first Zoom call. Wrapped in happy packaging, this is the perfect gift for low maintenance types who are always looking for that Je ne sais quoi beauty product that makes your complexion come alive in the most natural-looking way.
For the Fragrance Lover Who Wants To Smell Like Royalty (Or No One Else)
Try: Krigler Abrakaadabra 221 Perfume, $395 for 1.7fl.oz./50ml.
Since its founding in the early 1900s, Krigler has become world famous for making fragrances beloved by European royalty — and de facto American royalty, too (think F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Marlene Dietrich, and Audrey Hepburn). To this day, the brand remains a thing for those in the know. That's because it isn't sold in department stores or Sephora, but has intimate shops tucked inside lavish hotels in Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Palm Beach, Chicago and New York. There, you can get heritage scents worn by artistic legends... or Abrakaadabra 221, the latest fragrance from the house, which opens with bergamot and pepper before introducing lily of the valley and relaxing to notes of tonka bean, and white musk.
Both warming and bright, the scent was serendipitously imagined pre-pandemic to conjure feelings of healing, coziness and peace. Of course, if your brand of peace comes with knowing no one else in the world wears your signature fragrance, the house is happy to create a bespoke fragrance at one of its labs.
For the CBD Aficionado
Try: Muri Lelu Mauvaise Herbe Indica Oil, $135
For the connoisseur who knows her CBD from her terpenes, this lightweight indica oil more than passes the sniff test. Inside the gift-worthy box and bottle is 100 mg full-spectrum cannabis extract, which contains plant cannabinoids (interacts with our bodies' own endocannabinoid system and receptors), chlorophyll, fatty acids and terpenes, the compounds responsible for a plant's scent and flavor and known to carry their own therapeutic properties. (The terpene linalool, for example, is found in cannabis and lavender and carries anti-inflammatory properties.) Factor marula, baobab, prickly pear, pomegranate and cranberry oils into the mix and you have a sophisticated blend that showcases the scent of a live plant while wielding the power to hydrate and nourish skin.
For the Skin Care Fanatic Who Thinks She's Tried It All
Try: Retrouvé Nutrient Face Serum, $395
We weren't supposed to know about Retrouvé. As legend has it, Kiehl's heiress Jami Heddinger tasked some of the industry's best cosmetic chemists to develop a personal stash of the most potent, filler-free skin care around — and she spared no expense doing so. But after friends caught wind of what she had made (and wouldn't quit bugging her for a stash of their own), the brand was officially born.
While you don't have to travel in a heiress's circle to get your hands on the brand, it remains so under the radar that only those in the know (or paying attention to background details when people like Tracee Ellis Ross post Instagram Stories from their bathrooms) are keyed in to the spendy, but hyper-concentrated skin care line that includes a cleanser that Zoë Kravitz swears by and serum so nourishing, it doubles as a moisturizer.
