With consumers and the industry alike revving up for the holiday season, the market is seeing its annual influx of limited-edition releases.
Nonetheless, with US consumers intending to spend more during this season than in 2020, and pandemic restrictions easing up, it’s safe to say that the prospect of being able to join with friends and family during this upcoming holiday season has set tongues wagging for gift-purchasing opportunities.
From a brand perspective, given the quick onslaught of releases, both in volume and speed, standing out is of utmost importance. A variation of a crimson shade, gold packaging, or tinsel trim will not do. From an unconventional backstory to cross-industry collaborations, BeautyMatter selected the standout creations for the yuletide season.
Emilio Pucci x Acqua di Parma
Two Italian maisons meet, not only to adorn Acqua di Parma’s packaging with Pucci’s iconic swirling, psychedelic Vortici print, but also to resurrect the Notte die Stelle scent. The warm, woody fragrance contains notes of pine, birch wood, guaiac wood, clove, and raspberry. Fusing philanthropy and festivities, each purchase also helps support the Save the Children Rewrite the Future project.
RéVive Skincare x ArtJar
Great packaging design is undoubtedly an art form, but RéVive Skincare took it one step further by launching their own art initiative to spotlight the work of contemporary artists. Each year, the brand will work in partnership with a different creative who designs a limited-edition ArtJar packaging. The inaugural edition of its bestselling Moisturizing Renewal Cream Nightly Retexturizer bears the colorful artistic footprint of Brooklyn-based illustrator Mike Perry. “The visual arts have always been a passion of mine; in fact, I view plastic surgery and even RéVive as art forms and both are highly creative,” RéVive Skincare founder Dr. Gregory Brown stated in a press release. “Mike has done an excellent job of capturing the happiness and efficacy of RéVive with his use of multiple organic spheres and concentric patterns of renewal, the true essence of RéVive.”
Hermès Poudre d'Orfevre
Hermès is the quintessential embodiment of luxury, and its makeup release for the holidays is no exception. Featuring a high concentration of golden mother of pearl, the brand’s holiday highlighter doesn’t just go for the gold on the inside, but on the outside as well, with a white compact designed by luxury footwear designer Pierre Hardy bearing a golden embossment of the French house’s ex libris motif.
Cire Trudon
Many home fragrance lines release holiday-themed, limited-edition candles, but Cire Trudon always goes the extra opulence mile with its Christmas editions. Manufactured in the company’s atelier in Normandy, France, the candles come in gilded and glistening vessels for the brand’s bestsellers like Ernesto (a leather and tobacco scent), plus more season-specific compositions such as the spicy cocoa-scented Bayonne or cardamom, cinnamon, and clove-featuring Gloria. The candles come in three sizes, ranging from a standard 270g version up to an impressive 2.8kg variety.
Kilian Paris Holiday Miniature Set
Fragrance bottles resembling crystal whiskey decanters is a fitting choice for this gift set: Kilian Hennessy’s family roots are in crafting cognac, and the fragrance range housed in the brand’s holiday set is called The Liquors. The five scents—Angels' Share, Roses on Ice, L'Heure Verte, Apple Brandy on the Rocks, Vodka on the Rocks—range from floral to fruity to woody, but all contain gourmand elements like cinnamon, cucumber, absinthe, vanilla, and cardamom.
Malin+Goetz
Streamlining gift-givers will rejoice at Malin+Goetz’s take on extravagantly embellished holiday sets. The brand drew inspiration from the city of NYC for its limited-edition encasements for skin, home fragrance, and body care value sets, a medley of graphic lines in alternating primary colors. “Ever since our first shop opened its doors in Chelsea 17 years ago, the diversity, creativity and energy of New York City has been a great influence on our brand, inspiring everything from our minimalist approach to our obsession with design. This year, our holiday gift boxes were inspired by the movement and pulse of NYC. Defined by strong, graphic lines and bold pops of primary color, our gift set packaging represents the grid-like uniformity of the city we call home,” state the brand’s founders.
Snif
Snif’s DTC concept extends sample testing from perfume to home fragrance, offering customers free eight-ounce trial candles with its candle bundle set. They pay only for the product they want to keep, getting charged after they have made their decision. While the scented candle bundle contains a green floral (birds and the breeze), woody floral (off the grid), and gourmand woody scents (instant karma), the company also released a limited-edition holiday candle: old saint wick, an herbal woody fusion of pine, jasmine, apple blossom, fir balsam, rosemary, and sandalwood notes. While this product doesn’t come with a trial sample size, current converts will undoubtedly rejoice.
Regardless of what gift consumers settle on, repurposing and recycling packaging wherever possible could make a huge difference, as 25% more trash is thrown away in the US alone during the holiday period, resulting in an additional 25 million tons of garbage. This is where enticing and high-quality product housing doesn’t just create a striking visual impression, but makes reusing it all the more easier.
