2017 Holiday Gift Guide

With the festive season officially underway, I put together my 2017 holiday gift guide just in time for you to hit the mall. I featured some amazing products on CTV yesterday, but didn't have enough time to talk about everything on-air, so all the details are here to make your holiday shopping a breeze.

For the beauty lover:

Clarins: Clarins is one of my favourite skin-care companies. The 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar is the perfect gift to give someone to start celebrating the holiday season early, because they'll receive a little gift every day for 12 days. It contains two full-sized products and 10 discovery-sized products, which are much larger than sample size. It’s exclusively available at The Bay and on www.clarins.com. It retails for $92, with a  value of $174.  

The Essentials Winter Palette: The Essential Eye Palette by Clarins is a holiday exclusive with sales going to support indigenous communities of the Brazilian Amazon. It available for $62, and comes with ten eye shadow palettes, inspired by the shades of winter. It contains 4 different textures: 5 pearl-finish shades, 1 silvery diamond pop, 3 satin-finish shades, and 1 matte shade.

Caudalie: Caudile is incredible skin care for anyone, and I love the pretty holiday gift boxes the make giving the perfect gift that much easier. This set includes the best-selling Vinoperfect Complexion Correcting Radiance Serum, (an immediate brightening boost to the skin), Caudalie's Brightening Essense, and the Vinoperfect Overnight Renewal Cream, a cream that works overnight to resurface, brighten, and detoxify the skin. Find it in stores for $89.

Elizabeth Arden: I can’t get enough of Elizabeth Arden skin care products. The Ceramide Eye and Face Capsules are a must for my day and night routine. These products leave skin feeling soft and moisturized. They are the perfect capsules to protect your skin from the elements of winter, and they help prevent fine lines and wrinkles. 

The Prevage line from Arden is my ultimate favourite; the Prevage Daily Serum, together with the Prevage anti-aging morning and night cream, work incredibly well to reduce the visible signs of aging, targeting wrinkles, sun damage, age-spots, and discoloration. These products help improve the look of firmness, tone, and radiance. 

Another great product to gift the beauty lover in your life is the SUPERSTART Skin Renewal Booster, which supports the surface layer of the skin. The ultra-lightweight, fast-absorbing formula is clinically proven to restore the healthy appearance of the surface of the skin for smooth, more radiant looking skin. 

Elizabeth Arden has all your make-up needs covered, too, with their luscious Plush Up Lip Gelato in a variety of bright colours, like Flirty Fuschia and Berry Burst, Cool Glow Cheek Tint in Pink Perfection, the Four Ever Bronzer Bronzing Powder, and my ultimate favourite, especially for those hot summer days (or your winter trip down south) the Elizabeth Arden Bronzing Oil, making your skin look shiny, bronzed, and making it feel silky smooth. 

Moroccan Oil: For hair that shines, feels healthy, and smells absolutely delicious, use Moroccan Oil. From shampoo and conditioner to their oil, they are the perfect hair care products to use and gift this holiday season. 

NYX Cosmeics: One of my favourite gifts to give this year is the NYX Advent Calendar. It’s a fun calendar with 24 days of beautiful, colourful lipsticks and lip gloss. Get Holiday Glam with this NYX makeup advent calendar, the perfect gift to give or keep for yourself as you count down the days until Christmas. 

Skinceuticals: Great skin care products that truly take care of your skin. To maintain and improve skin health, an effective skin care regimen must contain three elements: prevention, protection, and correction. These products are designed to prevent signs of future damage, protect healthy skin, and correct the appearance of previous damage. SkinCeuticals is committed to advanced skin care products that are backed by science. 

Hard Candy: Hard Candy is a great gift to give the teenager girl in your life, or anyone who loves collecting make-up.

Benefit: Benefit Cosmetics is celebrating the holiday season with a collection of beautiful ‘snow globes’ featuring iconic San Fran scenes. Each set holds a cute selection of Benefit favourites, and make the perfect gift to give. Many of these sets include full-sized products. The Hello San FrancisGLOW set features Benefit’s most popular highlighters. 

Kerastase PARIS: Just in time for the holidays, Kerastase Paris has come out with their luxury holiday trio for those who love to take care of their hair. This beautiful boxed set helps improve the appearance of any type of hair, making styling easier, and leaving you with shiny, healthy, bouncy hair. 

For the fashion lover:

Columbia Women’s Heavenly Light Hooded Jacket: This incredible jacket is all you need this winter and at only $189.99, it's very affordable. It's available at select retailers in Canada and online at www.columbiasportswear.ca. The Heavenly Light Hooded Jacket is a sleek, long (to the thigh) and lightweight jacket that’ll keep you cozy and warm when you’re outside this winter season. The jacket combines a light yet toasty synthetic down insulation and a thermal-reflective lining for bonus warmth without the bulk. The shell fabric resists wet weather, while a flattering, longer cut and comfort cuffs with thumbholes provide crucial coverage from the chill.

Men’s Voodoo Falls Turbodown 590 Jacket: This jacket retails for $199.99. When 550-fill power down meets 40g Omni-Heat Thermal insulation, magic happens. The Voodoo Fall 590 TurboDown Jacket retains nearly every degree of body heat and is one of the warmest, softest, and lightest jackets Columbia makes. A durable, water-resistant shell with grid baffling provides a snug, close-to-body look and feel. This product is made with 100% responsibly sourced down, because Columbia is committed to ensuring the highest industry animal welfare guidelines.

Ann Taylor:

Ann Taylor has a wonderful Holiday 2017 line, including some gorgeous dresses you can shop for yourself or to gift to someone; perfect dresses to wear to all the holiday parties you’ll be attending. I love giving hat and glove sets, and the Ann Taylor embellished hat and gloves make wonderful gift to give. Also popular this year, the Ann Taylor Pom Pom Hat. A super cute and stylish hat to wear to stay warm this holiday season.

For the jewelry lover:

Bulova: A stunning, classic Bulova watch makes a perfect gift to give that special someone in your life. The Bulova Rubaiyat watch is a gift that will be treasured for life. The Rubaiyat watch has been reinvented in a stainless steel case with synthetic blue spinel cabochon crown at 12 o’clock position and 141 diamonds individually hand set with double curved sapphire crystal, a stainless steel bracelet with double-press deployant closure, and the iconic dye-struck “Goddess of Time” dimensional case back. This watch is also water resistant to 30 metres.

The limited edition Buloval Rubaiyat watch (my favourite!) has 50 diamonds individually hand set with a textured grey dial, double curved sapphire crystal, stainless steel bracelet with double-press deployant closure, featuring the iconic dye struck “Goddess of Time” dimensional case back, and it is also water resistant to 30 metres. Bulova watches are available at Hudson’s Bay.

Alex and Ani: Alex and Ani jewelry make a beautiful gift to give a loved one this holiday season. With bracelets, necklaces, and rings ranging in price from $30 to over $200, there is something just right for that special someone on your list. I love the Moon and North Star set of Five bracelets, retailing for $153 at Alex and Ani and Nordstrom.

For the tech lover:

Huawei P10 Smartphone: Fun fact: This awesome smartphone is pronounced Wah-Way, and the Huawei is a phone that delivers—making it a great gift to give someone who is really into technology and loves taking pictures, too. Some great features on this smartphone include a duel-camera, with vivid colour images and crisp details. It takes very high-quality photos and it’s also a very fast phone with great memory. A huge bonus with this phone is the long-lasting battery: a 30-minute charge provides a full day’s use. This phone retails for $700, and is available at major carriers across Canada, like Rogers, Bell, and Best Buy.

Nintendo Switch: If it’s from Nintendo, it’s guaranteed to be the most perfect gift at all, in most households… including mine! The Nintendo Switch is the perfect gift to give this holiday season. Perfect for the entire family and for those who love video games. Pair it with the new Super Mario Odyssey for countless hours of fun and play. 

For the Hostess:

Grey Goose: While everyone is giving the gift of wine this holiday season, why not stand out and bring a bottle of Grey Goose? Bring a touch of French luxury to your celebrations this holiday season with Grey Goose, an extraordinary vodka you can share with family and friends. Grey Goose is made with the finest French ingredients and creates great cocktails for the ultimate holiday soiree. Retails at LCBO for $49.95.

Star of Bombay: another great hostess gift this holiday season is surprising the host with a bottle of Star of Bombay. This premium gin is available at the LCBO for $49.95.

For the home:

Paderno: Paderno is Canada’s only cookware manufacturer. This cookware is perfect to gift the foodie in your life, especially because it’s made for eternity. I love the Paderno Canadian signature frying pan (retailing for $269.99, currently on sale for $79.99, until December 21st at Canadian Tire, which is an incredible deal). 

The Paderno Maple Paddle Board is also a great gift to give and modestly priced at only $49.99; I love using this tray when I’m entertaining guests over the holidays; it’s the perfect tray for cheese and crackers. The Paderno kitchen towels are a great addition to give the host or hostess this holiday season, too.

Stocking Stuffers: 

Purdy’s Chocolates: Tis the season for spreading holiday cheer, and since Purdys is the official chocolate of Christmas, a beautifully wrapped box of chocolates will make a lovely addition to add to someone’s stocking. 

Mad Radish: Mad Radish is one of my favourite places to go to for lunch, and thankfully, it's just down the street from my office. A Mad Radish gift cards would definitely make an excellent stocking stuffer to give someone who wants to start the new year the healthy way. (And Mad Radish salads are delicious!). 

Second Cup: Second Cup gift cards, mugs, hot chocolate and coffee make excellent teacher gifts and perfect stocking stuffers–we love the classic hot chocolate–it's a staple in our house all winter long. 

Starbucks: Starbucks Canada always makes me happy, especially during the holidays with their much loved red cups. This holiday season, Starbucks wants to help keep your shopping full of cheer. Starbucks is all about keeping it practical and chic with beautiful designed holiday products available in-store. I love the idea of gifting friends and teachers something from Starbucks, like a gift card inside a mug.

Sugarfina: For those with a sweet tooth, give them a beautiful holiday box from Sugarfina filled with favourite candies and chocolates inside. The boxes are so pretty, you almost don’t want to open them!

For Him:

Remington: The Remington Durable trimmer is a new, all-in-one tool for trimming, shaving, and styling any length of hair to 0.2 mm without irritation. With state-of-the-art precious blades, you will never have to replace your blades again. It’s also waterproof and conveniently charges by USB, with a 60-minute run time. This newly launched Remington DuraBlade is available at retailers across Canada for $49.99.

American Crew: American Crew is a great line for men which includes 3-in-1 shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizing shave cream to make shower time go by even quicker for those hectic mornings. The American Crew Grooming Starter Kit is for the beginner’s to grooming; clean and condition your hair and body with American Crew’s 3-in-1, and use the American Crew Pomade to create classic, slicked back looks, a modern, flexible alternative to styling gels. Available at salons across the city, for under $30

Happy shopping, everyone! Thank you to all the fabulous companies and brands who worked with me to make my 2017 holiday gift guide such a success. I love all of these products, and love sharing what I love with all of you.

If you would like more details about any of these products, please feel free to contact me.