How to Create Christmas Beauty Boxes 2012

This is the third of my festive themed posts, and today I am going to show you how I create beauty bags and boxes for friends and family.

These beauty parcels make great Christmas gifts, but work just as well for birthdays and other occasions throughout the year, too. Just change the gift wrap accordingly.

I love giving presents much more than I do receiving them, and I always put a lot of thought in to them. I try to personalise them as much as possible, and spend a lot of time considering what the particular person would love. I consider their tastes in fragrances and make up, and it's also important to consider any allergies, skin conditions, and whether they even have a bath tub!

I've been collecting this little lot for my Sisters and best friend... (If any of you three are reading, this is where you stop!)

Gifts I'll Use

As you can see, I've been collecting little goodies like a squirrel preparing for Winter! I budgeted about £20-£25 for each of my three recipients, and ended up getting a little carried away. This lot came to a little over £70, with £45 spent on The Body Shop products alone.

 I stocked up on their products over three transactions to take advantage of some great offers (5 minis for £5, free delivery), and couldn't believe the wonderful toiletries that were on sale for just a few pounds each. Taking advantage of offers will allow you to buy more for your money, and make a hamper look much more substantial for the same cost. I bought lots of cosmetics ranging from shower gels to cleansers and scrubs, a little make up, soaps, and chocolates.

A full sized bottle of her favourite beauty product will earn you major brownie points, and will last her for months. Nostalgic scents are a fun touch and will have you both reminiscing about the good old days.

Mini bottles of daily essentials are an easy and inexpensive way of providing variety, and are perfect for people who have an upcoming holiday, or trip planned. The Body Shop has a large variety of different products and scents. I picked up shower gels, body and foot lotions, shampoos, conditioners, and a cleanser and toner with each person's tastes in mind. I personally favour the satsuma and coconut scents.

Body scrubs and butters are perfect for some essential post-Christmas pampering. These pots were just £2 each on sale, they smell divine, and they give skin the TLC it deserves!

Cath Kidston is such a beloved and well known brand here in the UK, and CK gifts are always well received in my family. These hand creams were on sale via ASOS last week for just £1.50 (!) so I quickly snapped some up. A little bit of luxury will make any girl feel special.

A beauty box wouldn't be a beauty box without a fragrant soap to compliment the lotions and potions. This range of handmade soaps reminded me of Lush's range (which I swear by), but they were a little cheaper at £1.99 each. These smell deliciously of grapefruit and other citrus fruits. I'll be going back for one for myself!

I found this great Accessorize nail polish gift set in Superdrug which is perfect for my Sister. The Lily Cole lipgloss is another of my Body Shop purchases.

Little boxes and packets of chocolates are great for bulking up a gift and are perfect for chocoholics. The boxes were found in the supermarket and Superdrug for a £1 each, and I picked up the M&Ms in a new local sweet shop which now stocks American goodies! 

Handmade Touches

I always make time to write a hand written letter on lovely stationery to send with any presents, and I also send CDs up to my best friend from time to time. On this occasion, I even made album sleeves to put them in, too. (Although I've been meaning to send those up since September). Oops.

How to put it all together

These are some of the things I may use to wrap my beauty parcels. You can use gift bags or boxes, or you could just use a sturdy cardboard box. If it has branding on the outside or you just want to make it look prettier, you could cover the box with wrapping paper.

I love to add a little decoration to presents at Christmas. I purchased little packs of inexpensive tree decorations from Paperchase last year for this purpose, and I still have enough to embellish this year's lot, too! Once the presents are opened, the decorations could go on their tree if they want to keep them. 

I'm also that annoying friend who adds confetti to cards.

I'm sending the following parcel to my best friend.

Without any gift wrap, I can't help thinking how dull and ugly this parcel would look to the recipient... I can soon change that!

Line a box or bag with a sheet of tissue paper. Then shred a couple of sheets to nest the presents. 

You could use a shredder, or use a pair of scissors. Just cut a sheet of tissue in to quarters; then fold each piece over and over length-ways until the paper is about an inch in width; then cut it in to thin strips. When you undo the little pieces of paper, you'll have long wavy strands perfect for nesting the presents! 

I like to wrap each gift up individually, but you can just pop the gifts in the box or bag as they are and hide them in layers of tissue paper.

I used different patterned tissue paper to wrap these, and finished some with ribbon, string, and/or little star and jingle bell decorations.

Arrange everything in the box with the heaviest items on the bottom.

Top with some more shredded tissue, and fold the box lining over the gifts. Arrange the letter, and personal touches like mix CDs on the top.

Make sure to add a Christmas card with a personal message and place it on top of the gifts.

And to finish, seal the parcel, and get it to your loved one!

And voila! That's how I put beauty parcels together for my friends and family.

I usually give more of a variety of brands and products when giving beauty hampers. The Body Shop and Lush are my personal favourite brands to use, but you could easily find some gorgeous products from any number of brands in department stores and pharmacy shops like Boots and Superdrug. I will probably add a couple of face masks and a nail polish or two to these presents, which are both great products to include.

I hope you've enjoyed this long-winded post. If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with it!