‘Tis the season to be jolly—but sometimes your holiday gift shopping list just keeps growing and growing and growing and growing. Thankfully, you can gift to your heart’s content and still keep your bank account intact. I have a really fun holiday gift hack that will yield FAB beauty gifts for at LEAST 13 people on your list. AND it involves a trip to one of our favorite places: TARGET.
So this holiday gift hack may be something you’re already doing, but when Target approached me with trying it, my mind was BLOWN. So, I took a trip down the beauty aisles of my local Target. I find myself in that beauty aisle even when the only thing on my shopping list is groceries. I can’t help it—it’s so bright and pretty over there! Target tasked me with picking up some fab beauty gift sets—something I’m NO stranger to buying for myself and gifting at the holiday time. But here’s the hack: break up the gift sets to create tons of DIY customized gift sets. MIND. BLOWN.
Do you realize how genius this is? We know from our beauty buying experiences that more often than not, gift sets will include items you (or the gift recipient) may not use. So being able to break these down into smaller — but FABULOUS — customized gift sets is SO smart on SO many levels. I got super giddy while buying the gift sets AND the super cute gift paper and accessories from Target’s Sugar Paper line.
Here’s what I got:
- e.l.f. Chic Color 20-piece Nail Polish Collection ($20)
- e.l.f. Mad for Matte Lip Set ($10)
- e.l.f. Elegant Eyes Collection ($10)
- e.l.f. Perfect Pout Lip Set ($10)
- e.l.f. Nude to Bold Look Books ($15)
- Burt’s Bees Tips to Toes Set ($12.99)
- Sugar Paper White and Gold Gift Box ($5)
- Sugar Paper Gold, White, and Black Tissue Paper ($3.50)
- Sugar Paper Gold Gift Tags 10ct and Twine Set ($5)
- Sugar Paper Boxed Card Oh What Fun 8 ct ($12)
- Sugar Paper gift bags and gold ornaments were all $1 each
- The gold scissors and metallic pencils were items I owned before but also happen to be from Target, too.
I opened up all six gift sets and went to work breaking them down. I knew immediately the 20-piece nail set could be easily customized by color/trend so I did that first. I had one set for glitters, one for light neutrals, one for jewel-toned colors, one glossy top coat set, and then a matte top coat set. Then because I paired the nail polish sets with an item from the Burt’s Bees Tips to Toes Set. So now I have four perfect gift sets for nails.
I also, of course, opened up the makeup sets and put them together based on color/trend as well. These are perfect for makeup newbies or makeup junkies on the go since the pairings are already done so there’s not a ton of thinking to do.
After making the perfect gift companions, I wound up with THIRTEEN gift sets! They can be broken down even more if you’re really stretching the budget, or you can group more items together if you have fewer people on your list. That’s the fun in this gift hack.
Now, of course, the next fun part is the gift wrap. If you’re like me, you LOVE pretty present presentation but you don’t have the time or the patience for actually wrapping presents. No matter. I hit the Sugar Paper display and got all my gift wrap essentials.
Phew! This was SO much fun and probably one of few DIYs I can follow through with!
A former finance girl, Danielle Gray is a New York City based freelance writer and fashion and beauty expert. She’s a Hofstra University and Fashion Institute of Technology grad with an obsession with fashion and beauty which she loves to tell you all about every weekday on her award-winning blog. Think of her as your style and beauty entourage all wrapped up into one bubbly brown package. She’s appeared as an on-air style expert on CBS New York’s “The Couch” and WPIX11’s Savvy Shopper segment.
Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Target. As always, all opinions are 100% my own.
