12 Days of Holiday Beauty

Can you believe it? We've finally reached the twelfth and final day of my 12 Days of Holiday Beauty series. We've seen birds of all sorts, lords and ladies dancing, and even some musical touches, as in yesterday's pipers piping. This leads me to day 12, which features the popular percussion instrument: the drum. To put your own spin on 12 drummers drumming, paint the town purple with Karma Organics's Not Your Hum Drum Plum ($10). Put some rocking nail decals on top, and march to the beat of your own drummer with a spritz of Burberry The Beat Eau ($40), a woody floral scent. For more details about each product, click on the images above.




Note: Technically, the 12 days of Christmas start tomorrow on Christmas day, lasting until Jan. 5 (that's one day before the Epiphany). So in case you're feeling inspired by the whole theme, or you have yet to do your holiday shopping, perhaps this year your excuse will be that you were just waiting for Christmastide (aka the 12 days of Christmas) to begin. Just click on the first red link above to see each day's gift suggestions.

It's almost the end of my series, the 12 Days of Holiday Beauty, and today's entry will have you tooting your flute. On the eleventh day, some pipers piped, so let's take a look at some piper-inspired discoveries. OK, so it may be cheating a little, but your family or friends will get the gist if you gift them Kate Spate's gold-plated and crystal-embellished piper bobby pins ($45). Then there's Zoya's Piper ($7), a warm soft pink with subtle tan and mauve undertones. It's the kind of polish that looks great on just about everyone. From a piped makeup bag to a bagpiper-inspired soap to a set of hair pins with a medieval quality about them, just click on the images above to learn more.

Yesterday, we saw nine ladies dancing, and today's 12 Days of Holiday Beauty theme is along those same lines with 10 lords a-leaping. From a religious standpoint, this stanza symbolizes the 10 commandments. It's also been interpreted as representing the leaping dancers who performed at holiday feasts. But let's take a royal approach to this one, since lords can also refer to a regal title, and go with that theme. Click on the pictures, or to find out more, just keep reading.

Dancing is one of the most convivial activities around, and that means there's lots of inspiration from which to draw for today's edition of my series, the 12 Days of Holiday Beauty. As you may know, the ninth day of Christmas is time to bring on those dancing ladies. MAC's Twists of Tartan Eye Kit ($36) includes a palette of perfectly-named shades that go along with the theme nicely, like Lady's Prance, Set to Dance, and Bows and Curtseys. Benefit's Lip Gloss in Dancing Queen ($18) is a oh-so-trendy watermelon pink shade, and as you can see, there are plenty of other blush-toned options for this one. Just bust a move, and click on the images above for more details.

We're nearing the end of the 12 Days of Holiday Beauty series, where we look at each stanza from the classic tune "The 12 Days of Christmas" and suggest gifts inspired by the corresponding day. And since it's day eight, that means it's all about those milkmaids. Before refrigeration existed, milk spoiled rather easily; hence the milkmaid. While this particular stanza in the classical tune has been interpreted from everything to having religious to sexual undertones, today, let's take the beauty approach. From milk glass bobby pins to beauty goods made with the moo juice itself, just click on the images above to learn more about each of these products. There's nothing milquetoast about these finds. Sorry.

There's something so elegant, romantic, and graceful about swans. And that's why these birds, which are actually cousins with ducks and geese, are the perfect inspiration for gift giving — particularly when received from your sweetie. Swans do indeed seem to be having a moment, thanks to Bella Swan of Twilight (check out some Twilight Beauty makeup here), and the recent release of Black Swan. So for day seven of my series, the 12 Days of Holiday Beauty, I present to you these swan-like beauty goods. Just click on the images above for more details.

If only we all had a golden egg-laying goose during the holiday season to keep us from racking up all that credit card debt. While an actual argent avian may not exist, there are still plenty of goosey gifts worth their weight in gold. If we're running with the egg theme, these sweet Kate Aspen Nest Egg Pink Soaps ($30) are a fancy little gift. And for something slightly more practical, there's always the Ped Egg Pro Foot File ($10). If you'd rather go with the goose, this Nostalgia Organics Goose Bumps Clove Apricot Scrub Soap ($8) has perfect packaging, and this Neil George Perfect Hold Hairspray ($22) is packed with hydrating gooseberries. Fans of abstraction need not despair either, since this goose-patterned BCBG Feather Headband ($23) fulfills all the day's requirements classily and subtly.

Getting five gold rings from your beloved would be a nice surprise, but since that may be a bit impractical (and excessive), perhaps some gold-ring-inspired beauty products will do the trick instead. Be sure to check out days one through four of my 12 Days of Holiday Beauty series, and — in the immortal words of Miss Piggy — these "five gold rings, ba-dum-bum-bum."

• For the hair: Ficcare's elastic ponytail holder ($44) has multiple gold rings attached to add plenty of sparkle to your style. Or, take an almost-literal approach to gifting with this gold-plated hair pin ($8), which has five "loops" (ahem, rings) at the base.
• For the nails: For a spot-on beauty gift, you really can't get much closer to five gold rings than with China Glaze's glittery-gold 5 Golden Rings ($6). For something with a bit more subtlety, Essie's Show Me the Ring ($8), an iridescent pearl with golden undertones, is always a safe bet. To find out more about the products, just click on any of the images above.

Each December, we expect our true loves to deliver four calling birds on the fourth day of Christmas. It's thought, however, that the original lyrics stated that four colly birds would actually be the delivery. Colly (or collie) comes from the old word for coal, so put that all together, and you have four blackbirds. Giving something with a blackbird on it might not be as romantic as the thought of some sort of singing, feathered creature, but thankfully, there are plenty of cute blackbird beauty finds to inspire. See what I mean below:

• Hair ye, hair ye: After drying your hair with Conair's Blackbird Turbo Lite Hair Dryer ($30), dress it up with this fabric bobby pin set ($5), or go vintage-inspired with these plastic blackbird bobby pins ($5).
• Beak-o-friendly: For your environmentally-conscious loved ones, a blackbird pocket mirror ($6) made of recycled goods would be a thoughtful gift, and this 100 percent cotton blackbird bag ($13) would be perfect for storing makeup or to carry while out and about shopping.

When you think of the holidays, brown chickens may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but there really is something winsome about these fluffy avians. Why French hens? Well, linguistic evidence suggests that the Twelve Days song originated in France, where chicken breeds were very different from those in England. So when the song crossed the Channel, translators felt the need to specify. You can get into the fowl-iday spirit in a bunch of ways these days, no coop required: