Holiday 2022 Shopping Advice Thread: What’s in Your Basket?

[TeamBIC]

2022 Holiday Shopping Advice

Happy holidays, Beauty Insider Community! We like to think of this thread as your ultimate resource for getting – and giving! – unbiased shopping advice for all your gifting needs and winter basket-building inspiration. Whether you’re ready to start making a dent in that gift list, or mainly looking to scoop up a few beauty steals for yourself, you’ve come to the right place to ask for all the recs, show off your shopping haul, get help making those hard purchase decisions… and don’t forget to share all your glorious unboxings, swatches, and more! 🎁❄

Reply below and let us know: What products are you eyeing to buy this holiday season? Be sure to tag any products you mention using the “#” sign!

[PrettyPaint]

@Ispend2much6  Ooooh, that styling wand looks really cool. I hope you love it. 

[niki172]

off topic but I love your new avatar @PrettyPaint !

[PrettyPaint]

Thank you so much @niki172 

[Ispend2much6]

@PrettyPaint  I actually have one, and I love it.  I can style my hair at a lower temperature and not get that "burnt hair" smell.  The only thing to watch out for is my hair, as it's got long layers, can get stuck at the part that attaches to the base.  So, I have to be careful when sectioning and curling.  That's a small price to pay!

[PrettyPaint]

@Ispend2much6  Well now I’m especially interested! My hair is fine and more damaged than I would like, so low temperature settings are key!

[Ispend2much6]

@PrettyPaint  My hair is the same.  I use the third heat setting (not sure what temperature that is,) and ten seconds is plenty of time to set a curl.

I did use Oribe's Balm D'Or as my heat protection, which I love to use for curls, and I did see steam come off of the wand, but I think it was the product steaming. Maybe I didn't wait long enough for it to dry?

Oh, wow!  I just realized that the interchangeable T3 set doesn't have that fancy clatch at the base of the wand that always catches my hair- all problems solved!!  Definitely get the set, not the individual wands.

Here are pictures of the two types so you can see what I mean:

Smooth rose gold metal where the wand meets the base.That rose gold clip is what catches my hair and breaks it.

[CynthieLu]

It's fun @Ispend2much6 to think about what you can get during the sale 🤩 lol

[Ispend2much6]

@CynthieLuYes, yes it is, until reality sets in. 😂

[CynthieLu]

@Ispend2much6 Hahaha yup 🤣

[WinglessOne]

Heh, I forgot all about the upcoming holiday sale when I placed my F&F order. Let's see... I'll pick things that are exclusive to Sephora (or can't be snagged elsewhere at a deeper discount via reward points). Without knowing certain brands' holiday promo plans yet, I'll consider: 

SEPHORA COLLECTION Satin Hydrating Lipstick - I just bought Undisciplined. Might pick up more shades if that shade does well during my wear test. 

Jouer Cosmetics Essential High Coverage Concealer Pen Butterscotch - might be the lighter concealer shade I need to strategically mask my hollow tear troughs. 

Youth To The People Retinal + Niacinamide Youth Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL - I need to check the INCI list again to see if this'll play nice with my face. I doubt it'll beat my beloved Avene retinaldehyde, but curiosity wants me to test it. Wish there was a mini version for that purpose. 

Commodity Paper Expressive Eau de Parfum 3.4 oz / 100 mL - well, one of the Paper versions anyway, or maybe 2 of them in travel sizes. 

Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder 6 - I have shade 7 coming via my F&F order, so I'll see how that one works for me. If it doesn't, I'll exchange it for 6. If 7 does work but I still also want a lighter shade, then 6 will be a holiday event purchase. 

Hyper Skin Brightening Dark Spot Vitamin C Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL - it'll be time to restock by the time this sale starts. 

If PAT McGRATH LABS MatteTrance™ Lipstick Modern Woman is still in stock at the current sale price when this sale starts, I'll probably grab it. 

The Nue Co. Forest Lungs Anti-Stress Fragrance Travel Spray 0.3 oz/ 10 mL - been wanting to try this for months now. 

And maybe DedCool Discovery Set ... I'm not quite sold on it yet, so I need to smell these in person first. 

[faeriegirl]

Nice list @WinglessOne ! So far I like the Youth To The People Retinal + Niacinamide Youth Serum 1 oz/ 30 mL but I haven’t seen enough results to repurchase it.

[RandaRC]

I love every product in the Youth to the People Line - the Kale and Spinach face wash, the Prism Serum, and especially their adaptogen facial moisturizer.

[haleyvvvv]

Your lippie list, @WinglessOne!! 🤩🤩🤩

[tastelikewater]

@WinglessOne I've seen the Dedcool set (which is a slightly different assortment from the pre-made discovery kits they offer on their site) at the Michigan Ave and Lincoln Park locations. They also offer the option to build your own sample pack for the same price as their discovery sets, along with a 20% discount on a full bottle. If I'd known this before I bought the Sephora set, I might have taken that route! 

[WinglessOne]

@tastelikewater  Oh, good to know! I'll be near the Michigan Ave store sometime this week, so I'll stop by to sniff that discovery set. I like that Dedcool offers a build your own sample pack; might take advantage of that. Thanks for the heads-up! 

Last Sephora I visited was State Street a couple days ago, and I completely forgot to check the fragrance area for Dedcool or Commodity. I did notice they have Boy Smells candles and fragrances in-store now, which I didn't expect since it's usually Michigan Ave that gets the full (or nearly full) Sephora-available line of any new-to-Sephora brand. 

[tastelikewater]

@WinglessOne I haven't noticed Commodity in stores yet, but I clearly didn't look hard enough! The Discovery Set is calling my name, maybe for the holiday sale...

[CynthieLu]

Very well thought out purchase ideas @WinglessOne 🙂 YTTP is a really nice brand, have you used anything by them that you've liked?

[WinglessOne]

@CynthieLu  Youth To The People Superfood Air-Whip Lightweight Face Moisturizer with Hyaluronic Acid 2 oz / 59 m... used to be my daily AM & PM moisturizer. Then YTTP reformulated it to add more fragrance components, so I had to stop using it. (I know fragrance isn’t a big deal to some folks, but those folks don’t have my fussy skin.) Also, I was confused about the INCI changes because Sephora’s site listed the new version while YTTP’s site listed the old version. When I contacted YTTP about it, I couldn’t get a straight answer from them. (I asked if they’d added new ingredients, changed %s of ingredients, or were simply calling out existing ingredients, like fragrance components, in better detail.) Neither could another BIC member who asked. In fact, at first they told her they hadn’t reformulated at all.

Since then, I’ve had little trust in the brand overall. So it’ll be a huge leap of faith for me to try their retinaldehyde serum. I’m not saying the brand’s products are bad—heck, I still like Youth To The People Adaptogen Soothe + Hydrate Activated Mist with Peptides 4 oz/ 118 mL during cold months. But I personally don’t trust them to be honest about what’s in their products anymore. 🤷‍♀️ 

Before all that, I’d tried their cleanser (much too drying, stripped my skin), adaptogen moisturizer (too greasy for my skin), facial oil (liked that one but prefer both of e.l.f.’s), and their original vitamin C serum that used a derivative instead of ascorbic acid (not bad but also not very effective for me). Oh, and a mask I don’t think they make anymore… came in a green jar. Pretty sure I’ve tried their superberry sleep mask (aka moisturizer) before, too, but don’t recall how my skin felt about it. 

[CynthieLu]

Thank you for that explanation @WinglessOne  I really appreciate your thought process and in depth knowledge. 

I do think transparency and integrity are very important in business. I feel like if whatever customer reprentative didn't have the information for you or the other BIC member, they should have just said so rather than claim no formula change.

Question, Is it true in beauty products ingredients below 1% or something don't even have to be listed?  I feel like I heard that somewhere but I'm not sure if it's real 😅 and I feel like you world know 😋

[WinglessOne]

@CynthieLu  To make the YTTP thing even more interesting: if I recall correctly, it was a cosmetic chemist or someone from that dept. (vs. a customer service rep) who replied to our emails. And this was before L’Oréal bought the brand. Eh, their new parent company should give me more confidence in the brand when it comes to formulations and providing honest info. I do appreciate that they now list out so many of the fragrance components in some of their products. 

About your question: in the US, per the FDA, all ingredients must be listed in order of highest to lowest concentration. Exceptions are any ingredient that's: 

Spoiler

At or below 1% concentration - these still must be listed, but not in concentration order. So if a product uses 2% alpha, 2.1% omega, 1% beta, 0.5% gamma, and 0.2% delta, the ingredients must be listed as: omega, alpha, [in any order: beta, delta, gamma]. Sometimes things at/below 1% are listed in alphabetical order. 

FDA-classified as a drug - these are listed before all other ingredients as “active ingredients.” Common skincare examples are salicylic acid, benzoyl peroxide, adapalene, and hydroquinone. Note that retinol and retinal (retinaldehyde) don’t qualify because the FDA calls them cosmetic ingredients, not drugs. Retinol and retinal are not FDA-approved for acne control, but adapalene is. Arbutin's not a skin-brightening drug, but hydroquinone is. 

Trade secret ingredients - things the FDA has exempted from public disclosure (there's a whole process companies must go through to get that exemption). If a product contains secret-sauce-zeta, and the FDA has said “yep, Brand X can keep secret-sauce-zeta a secret from competitors,” then it’ll appear at the end of the ingredients list as “and other ingredients.” 

That’s not necessarily the same thing as trade name ingredients, which should still be listed—but not as their trade names. 

Spoiler

Trade name ingredients are usually listed as their INCI/Cosmetic Ingredient Dictionary names, which could be a combo of ingredients. Example: The Inkey List Retinol uses RetiSTAR™, a trade name ingredient created by BASF as a “stabilized retinol." The actual INCI name is “Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride (and) Sodium Ascorbate (and) Tocopherol (and) Retinol.” You’ll find all 4 of those ingredients on that product’s ingredient label, listed in order of concentration. 

Color additives - even if their concentration’s above 1%, these can appear in any order after all other ingredients that aren’t color additives. This category includes titanium dioxide and all those "D&C [color] No. [x]" ingredients you usually see on makeup labels. 

Incidental ingredients - usually something that was added and then removed to help chemists formulate a product. If it remains in the finished product, it should be present at an insignificant level and have no functional effect. These ingredients don’t have to be listed at all. 

For all the nitty gritty on this stuff, read FDA regulation 21 CFR 701.3 or check the cosmetics labeling guide at the FDA’s site. I don't recall if/how Canada's regulations differ. 

[CynthieLu]

@WinglessOne 

Oh wow,  if it was a chemist responding that changes alot of things.  That would be one way to make a customer disheartened with a brand. 

I don't know the FDA regulations in our Canadian Ingredient listing I really should look into it cause I'm curious now after this conversation, just an odd tidbit about food.  I work in the food industry. Soy is in almost every cooking oil here,  if it is below a certain very low percentage it doesn't have to be listed.  For people with serious Soy Allergies I always reccomend steering away from deep fried foods due to the unknown trace amount of Soy present in the oils.