The £50 skincare selection box that suits everyone

And it’s worth a whopping £218. Your 7 step Sunday spa session awaits (or stash it under the tree for a skincare nut if you’re feeling nice)...

Selection boxes rarely please everyone. Whether it’s the toffee penny in the Quality Street tin or Bounty left at the bottom of the Celebrations box (taking on controversial issues here I know), there’s always at least one dud in the pack. I’m going out on a limb here to say that the gift box I’m trumpeting here is flop-free. It’s been so thoughtfully edited that I doubt any product in here will go unused, which is obviously just as well seeing as you’re paying for them, but as we all know sadly universal appeal is a hard nut to crack. As such, for the purposes of this review, I’m calling the Look Fantastic Limited Edition Little Black Box, £25, the nutcracker.

What’s in it?

A seven piece skincare bundle taking in cleansing, exfoliating, moisturising, treating and masking. Here’s your lot:

Foreo Luna™ Play Midnight

A mini sonic facial cleansing device that’s about the size of a small potato but packs a punch in terms of hygienic, powerful yet gentle exfoliation and circulation boosting pre masks and the like. The ridged silicone ‘knobs’ (for want of a better word) buff skin to peak smooth without irritating, and you’ll get 100 one minute uses out of this. The Look Fantastic team have also wrapped it in a spangly jacket and bow to jazz up an otherwise functional gizmo for the festive season. Nice touch.

Dermalogica Multivitamin Thermafoliant (75ml)

Give skin a good silly season sloughing with this warming exfoliant that combines both physical polishers, in the form of light grains, and chemical pore decloggers- namely salicylic acid and retinol. Go easy and use once or twice a week max- it’s mightily effective.

Erno Laszlo Sensitive Hydrogel ‘Soothe & Calm’ Mask

Like an SOS cold compress for your face, this rose-based sheet mask has a refreshing gel texture and gives dehydrated and dry winter skin a long, cool hydration boost. Leave it on for half an hour, chill out in every sense and peel off to reveal supple, bouncy skin.

Erno Laszlo Detoxifying Hydrogel Mask ‘Exfoliate & Detox’ OR Erno Laszlo White Marble Cleansing Duo (it’s a lottery)

Now for the potluck part: your box may contain a charcoal based gel sheet mask, or it could house a mini cleansing oil and white marble treatment bar (oil up, do a whip round with the bar and flannel off). Exciting times. Either way, clean, fresh, de-grimed skin coming up.

Nuxe Crème Fraiche 48H Moisturising Cream (50ml)

Not a side to a Christmas dessert, but soothing crème fraiche for your visage. Developed as a moisture-binding, anti-pollution unction for sensitive skin, this rich but speedily absorbed cream combines softening allantoin with an antioxidant algae extract and vitamin rich botanical extracts for hydration and defence.

Espa Tri-Active™ Advanced Instant Facial (30ml)

Developed to combine the benefits of a serum, facial oil and skincare essence (so technically adding even more bounty to your box), this light elixir is brimming with vitamin C and a unique antioxidant kelp extract to brighten skin tone and fight free-radicals, while a hydrating plant oil complex helps to give blah skin a glow.

Balance Me Radiance Face Oil (10ml)

Last but not least, a 100 per cent natural, lipid rich unction that restores balance to delicate, sensitive skin and imparts immediate radiance. If you’re not getting your usual (ha!) eight hours thanks to Christmas overwhelm, this helps, and the same goes for new mums, shift workers and the generally exhausted. There’s just something about massaging in a lightly fragrant plant oil, and being left with dewy, plump skin afterwards, that helps to dissolve all of that tension. At least in part.

Who is it for?

As above, almost everyone. The reactive of skin may want to tread carefully where the Thermafoliant is concerned, but otherwise, this was made for home spa sessions en masse.

The verdict

The perfect excuse to shut yourself in the bathroom this Christmas. Also, it’s an absolute steal, whether you’re treating yourself or someone else in need of luxurious yet efficient skincare intervention. Replacing an LBD for LBB one evening is starting to look like a very good idea, and let’s be honest it’s probably the same price as a return cab journey over holiday season.

Look Fantastic Limited Edition Little Black Box, £50, buy now

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