Bluemercury’s Marla Beck Curates Your Perfect Last Minute Presents

Gifting.  It’s joyful — or it would be if you hadn’t waited until the. very. last. minute.  So how do you still give something thoughtful when your only thought is about the Christmas countdown?!? Marla Malcolm Beck, co-founder and CEO of BlueMercury, says stop in and she’ll show you!

“I get 20 boxes a day of sample products.  It’s crazy!” she gushes while guiding us on a gifting tour of the brand’s first-ever store (founded in 1999) in Georgetown.   To be fair, the entire store is filled with Marla’s perfect picks, but for holiday gifts, she promises to show us some specific selections curated from the abundance of new products (and all-time favorites) she tests each year.

So what wonders can you wrap up in a hurry that’ll still make you one of the greatest gifters of the season?

“One of my best friends is the only person I know that uses up an entire lipgloss… I lose them before I use them up!” she tells us about one friend with a particular beauty habit.  “I’m giving her these pocket-sized ones.”

For the one who crushes on cosmetics:  “I’m a junkie for all of the brands.  I love Trish McEvoy’s BB cream… My go-to is Bobbi Brown’s bronzer…” Or fill a stocking with a lot of festivity and Nars Fast Ride, Beck’s favorite for a soft red that goes with almost any gloss.

Beck has selected “Oribe, my favorite dry shampoo” for her best friend that runs a hedge fund.  And for other gal pals that work too hard to get enough beauty sleep (but need to look like they got their best rest!) she’s stashing some Instant Sleep in their stockings.  “I can’t live without this undereye brightener.  You look like you slept 12 hours, instead of what I sleep… which is never 12 hours,” she laughs.

For the planner?  Beck and Trish McEvoy came together to create their own (cosmetic planner) available only at BlueMercury.  “Our inspiration was Catherine Deneuve from the movie Belle de Jour… We did the best eyeliner, eye color, cheek contour, and the perfect little nude lip.”  It comes all prettily packaged — a prime present.

Don’t think she missed the men!  “Acqui di Parma colognia,” she demands.  “I actually called them and told them I have to carry it.  And they have a new one – one of my picks for men,” she holds up the brand’s latest, which is called (and smells scrumptiously of) Leather.

And if all other ideas are exhausted, why not gift something that you’d like to use every day? Beck swears by her M-61 Power Glow Peel, “It’s the one thing I use every single day…  You get this instant glow — it’s a peel, but it’s a mellow one, with anti-inflammatories in it — so it peels your skin and soothes it at the same same.”  A perfect present for sure, and not just because Beck boasts, “It’s our most popular product in the entire company.”

Happy (last minute) gifting!