Last week I met LORAC founder Carol Shaw (she’s beyond sweet!), at a small event held at a hotel here in NYC. She told me an a handful of other bloggers about how when she was younger she felt like an “ugly duckling” and that a makeover changed her life; she actually began to tear-up and it was incredibly touching and a true reflection of how false it is when people say “makeup is just makeup.” With that in mind, Carol (LORAC is Carol spelled backwards!), made a clear point about how with her holiday kits she tried to give her customers the biggest bang for their buck and boy has she this year! LORAC has a number of limited edition holiday value sets, but the two that stand out most are the LORAC Bejeweled Lip Gloss Collection ($132 value for $25) and the LORAC Bejeweled Day & Night Jewelry Box ($415 value for $56). I love glosses so I was immediately drawn to the gloss set. You get six full-size glosses for only $25! Best of all each of them have a brush — not a sponge — applicator and a wide variety of colors are included. The caps are equally adorable and since the glosses are full-size you can take the kit apart and gift the glosses separately if you choose to.

The second gift set comes with two eye liner pencils in dark brown and black, two high-shine lip glosses in rose and peach, a bronzer, a face palette for day with 16 shadows and a blush, and a face palette for night with 16 shadows and a blush. Everything is packaged in a keepsake jewelry box and what’s cool about it is that the pieces actually come apart, so you can toss your palette, or your gloss, or your bronzer etc. in your bag without having to lug around the whole big box.