This article first appeared on www.vanitystories.com. Click here for the original and featured products. Courtesy of Abigail Kussow.

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Holiday Mariah Carey is back on the radio, gloves are once again the number one essential clothing item, and beauty brand marketing teams are pumping out advertising material in red, white and green. It’s time to break out the gel pen and stationery because this week, we are making our beauty item wish lists and checking them twice.      

Disclaimer: As a beauty editor who has bought her fair share of trending cosmetics with limited success and has slowly crawled her way to a travel-sized collection of indispensable products, I empathize with the struggle. Whether it’s skin hydration, lash extension or hair elevation, finding a product that is worth the hype can seem like a never-ending cycle of try and reject. Fear not; the journey to completing your vanity kit is supposed to take some effort; it’s curated specifically to you by you, and you are one in a billion. In the end, your varsity roster will likely be a smörgåsbord of budget-friendly to luxury-branded items that have both broken the internet and stayed clear of it. 

My wish list reflects this perspective. 

Take a scroll through products that have been marked as personal favorites and potential newcomers to my get-ready routine, and feel free to gather some inspiration from what you find.