Essential oils are precisely termed. They’re essential because they are filled with key plant ingredients and are extracted by distillation. These essential oils can be used alone, under makeup or mixed into makeup so the powders are more emollient.

MAC’s Warm & Cozy collection has two types of essential oils:

Sweet Orange & Lavender

Grapefruit & Chamomile

I love the faint hint of fragrance, not overpowering like a Hummer on the road, but like a mysterious veil that gives you just a tad and not too much. I played with the essential oils on my face and on my lips and my windburned face felt so comforted after a particularly deep-freeze kind of day.

When I wore these oils my golden retriever started licking my face so uncontrollably that I swore she ingested a substantial vial of this stuff. Note to those with pets…

These oils are $19.50 each at MAC online and in stores.

Moisture is the thing our skin craves this season. And Ojon is what our skin secretly craves. Remember the Black Ball we wrote about? The one that smelt exactly like chocolate and the one that my Golden Retriever secretly tried to gobble up? Well, they’ve launched a White Ball.

Not as tasty smelling, but it is oh-so-luxurious to lather and rub all over your parched skin cells.

This white ball produces a creamy lather that nourishes and cares for skin in a way no shower BFF can. Each ball can take up to TWO DAYS to craft. Luxury this big doesn’t come cheap, of course, and the $65 price tag is because of its unique blend of ingredients that include White Cocoa Seed Butter with wildcrafted Ojon and Swa oils.

Absolutely artificial color and fragrance free. If you thought the Black Ball was a little too much for the nose (and appetite) to handle in the shower, the White Ball is a must for your holiday shopping list.

www.ojon.com and at www.sephora.com