Léa Begin's holiday gift guide to essential beauty and skincare products

If anyone in Montreal knows what belongs in a self-care routine, it's Léa Begin.

The founder of the go-to Beauties Lab for clean beauty and custom skincare has spent over fifteen years working in the industry, from professional makeup artistry to building one of Montreal's most thoughtful boutique-spa hybrids.

These days, she's less about telling people what they should want and more about helping them figure out what actually works for their skin, their lifestyle, their budget. That means she's seen every kind of beauty consumer walk through her door: the overwhelmed beginner, the product junkie with seventeen half-used serums, the person who just wants to look less tired.

So we asked Léa to put together a holiday gift guide: Far from a list of trendy packaging or Instagram-bait products, these are tools and treatments she's used, stocked, and recommended to clients who come back asking for more.