From cult makeup products to game-changing skincare sets, Velvet finds the best buys for beauty lovers of every age, stage and style

Evolve Organic Beauty The Glow Boosters, £40 (worth £55), evolvebeauty.co.uk

Looking for a brilliant beauty gift which doesn’t cost the earth? Handmade in small batches in the brand’s wind-powered Hertfordshire studio, Evolve’s natural, organic, carbon-neutral formulas are famed for delivering impressive results without resorting to chemical nasties. Containing a trio of hero glow products - a toner, mask and booster, all formulated with radiance uppermost in mind - this gift set is a shoo-in for any skincare lover. Star of the show is the Bio-Retinol +C Booster which deploys bakuchiol - a natural, plant-derived alternative to retinol, loved for its ability to stimulate collagen production - to tangibly improve texture and tone.

Sigma Diana Saldana Eyeshadow Palette, £48, sigmabeauty.com

This is the Holy Grail of eye palettes, period. The 18 shadows are buttery to apply yet don’t fade, fall out or crease on skin; the range of finishes, from true-mattes to metallics, glitters and full-on foils, will take you from desk to dancefloor; and every single pan contains a genuinely wearable colour (neutrals, pinks, plums, golds, a green, a teal, a charcoal), so you’re guaranteed to love the lot. A collaboration with US influencer Diana Saldana, it contains a look for every mood and occasion, from subtle glow to all-out glam. Any makeup lover, from keen amateur to real pro, will love it.

Molton Brown Merry Berries & Mimosa Body Care Gift Set, £58, Molton Brown, Rose Crescent, Cambridge

This year’s new limited edition festive fragrance from Molton Brown is the olfactory equivalent of sunshine hitting a fresh fall of snow: the berries are bright and sparkling, the mimosa clean and soft. It’s rare - and wonderful - to find mimosa lending its scent to bath and body products; a winter-blooming flower with a global harvest of only 100-300kg per year, it’s usually reserved solely for fine fragrance. This duo comprises a pleasingly foamy bath and shower gel and a silkily absorbent body lotion, both of which leave skin feeling and smelling scrumptious. The gel is ruby red and shimmering with gold glitter - what could be more festive?

Environ Multi-masking Self-care Set, £48, harveynichols.com

Famous for pioneering the use of Vitamin A and antioxidants in skincare - both now cornerstone ingredients of the industry - Environ is the brand to browse if you have a genuine beauty buff to buy for. This set contains three hero masks in discovery size: the deeply cleansing and balancing Skin EssentiA® Hydrating Clay Masque; the healing and protecting Focus Care Comfort+ Purifying Anti-Pollution Masque; and the Focus Care Youth+ Tri BioBotanical Revival Masque, which supports skin to look and feel its best. All are a pleasure to use - hence the ‘self-care’ element - and deliver real results, too.

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Pat McGrath Divine Blush + Glow Cheek Palette, £59, patmcgrath.com

Every item in Pat McGrath’s Christmas collection is, as you’d expect from the woman hailed the world’s most influential makeup artist by Vogue, seriously covetable. Our top pick from the range - which is titled Celestial Nirvana and comes in glorious, gilded packaging - is this Divine Blush + Glow Cheek Palette. It contains a quad of blushes in demi-matte and satin finishes, all of which sync seamlessly with skin’s tone and texture, and an all-purpose highlighter, an instant radiance boost in powder form. The palette comes in two colour options, Divine Rose (pinky) and Nude Venus (more coral). Any makeup lover would fan-girl on finding this in their stocking.

Noble Isle Spiced Soiree Gift Set, £15, nobleisle.com

Putting natural, native ingredients front and centre in its fragrances, Noble Isle wears its Britishness proudly on its sleeve: as the labels shout out, the whisky in the Whisky & Water Bath & Shower Gel comes from Banffshire’s Dufftown Distillery, while the Fireside Bath & Shower Gel is enriched with extracts of beetroot farmed in the Mynwy Valley, Wales. Both unisex scents are warm, woody, spicy and singularly inviting - and the gels, swift to foam and silky on skin, are a pleasure to use. If you’ve got a hard-to-buy-for bloke on your Christmas list - haven’t we all - this duo is an ideal stocking filler.

Okiki Face & Body Soap Bar Gift Set, £20, okikiskincare.co.uk

Paying tribute to their Nigerian and Ghanaian roots - the brand name means ‘prestigious’ in Yoruba - natural face and bodycare brand Okiki is the brainchild of a mother and daughter on a mission to produce products which care for animals, people and the planet as well as your skin. This set is a great intro to the brand, containing four of its calling-card bar products: the best-selling Lolu Facial Soap, which deploys charcoal and pink rose clay to unclog pores and slough dead skin; Black Clay & Dead Sea Mud Soap, which not only deep-cleans but also hydrates, nourishes and tones; Carrot & Papaya Soap, which, dosing the dermis with Vitamin C, promotes collagen production and gives glow; and Gunpowder Soap, which uses green tea extract, pumice powder and buriti oil to exfoliate, detox and calm. Unlike many bar formulas, they produce a lovely lather and are non-drying on skin. A shoo-in for beauty fans who want to lower their carbon footprint.

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Dominic Paul The Culture Palette, £25, dominicpaulcosmetics.com

It’s currently one of the beauty world’s best-kept secrets but, with Naomi Campbell and Kim Basinger among its growing band of celebrity fans, Dominic Paul Cosmetics is set for stardom. Created by the eponymous makeup artist, the whole range, which is vegan and cruelty-free, promises pro-level performance. For Christmas gifting, the new Culture Palette is perfect: paying homage to Dominic’s Thai heritage, the elephant-embossed eyeshadows, six mattes and three shimmers, range from creamy nude Bamboo to chilli red Tom Yum and true black Wok. Allowing you to create a myriad of looks from just nine pans, pigments and payoff are impressive, too.

Elie Saab Girl of Now Gift Set, £68, theperfumeshop.com

A coffret containing a 50ml eau de parfum and 75ml body lotion, designed to be layered for maximum fragrance effect, this is a lovely gift for any scent lover. Layering the brand’s signature patchouli with bitter almond, fresh orange blossom, rich - and rare - ormon flower, sweet tonka bean and soft almond milk, the scent is singular, seductive and fiercely feminine. The EDP wears beautifully, mellowing on skin without fading, while the lotion leaves skin feeling satiny smooth. The 50ml EDP alone retails for £63, so this set is also cracking value.

Yardley London English Lavender Perfumed Talc & Luxury Soap Collection with Powder Puff, £14, boots.com

A single sniff of Yardley London’s English Lavender scent transports you to a flower-filled country garden at summer’s height: it’s a classic, yet never gets old. With all the brand’s products certified vegan, free from cruelty and parabens and made from up to 95% naturally derived ingredients, this set contains a luxury bar soap, full-size talc and super-soft powder puff (impressive for £14). And don’t think this brand’s just for grannies: it’s a winner for anyone who enjoys a spot of pampering, Old Hollywood starlet-style.

Green People Organic Young! Skin Goals, £38 (worth £42), greenpeople.co.uk

If you’ve got teens to buy for, this skincare set is a winner. Containing hero products from the Organic Young! range by Green People, the brand which has been blazing the organic beauty trail for 25 years, it’s formulated specifically with teenaged skin issues, including acne, uppermost in mind. The three-step system - Clear Skin Foaming Face Wash followed by Purifying Serum and Cleansing Moisturiser - delivers extracts of organic green tea, willow bark and prebiotics to deep-clean, soothe and smooth skin (and boost confidence, too).