Shop Small and Shop Women-Owned This Year
7 gifts that support small women-owned businesses + meet the founders behind the brand!
Curated by Lexie Smith, THEPRBAR inc.
Here’s a wild idea…consider taking a break from Amazon this year when shopping for the holidays and instead support female-founded small businesses! The following products represent a thoughtfully curated selection of brands who have come across my personal radar over the past year. Beyond the products themselves, I have found myself truly inspired by the women entrepreneurs behind-the-brand.
Like what you see? Please feel free to share this guide with your friends or send to your partner for a less-than-subtle nudge to fulfill your holiday gift wishlist!
*I am receiving NO affiliate kick-backs or any monetary advance from the purchase of these products. I truly just love what they offer and the founder behind the brand!
A Gift that Gives Back — The Strand Wrap by Noble Sands
About the Brand: Noble Sands is the first travel, earth, and heart friendly resort wear brand. Its signature product, The Strand Wrap, can be styled 15+ ways as a dress, skirt, top, coverup, set or accessory. Made in Los Angeles with custom Repreve® recycled fabric, a portion of all sales go towards women’s heart health research.
Meet the Founder, Julie Habelmann: Julie Habelmann, is a marketer, turned expat, turned intercultural consultant, turned designer and advocate, and first-time entrepreneur. As a global citizen and a heart attack survivor, raising awareness about conscious consumption and women’s heart health were key as she launched Noble Sands — the first travel, earth and heart-friendly resort wear brand. Grounded in purpose, Julie created Noble Sand’s Strand Wrap after recognizing a need for versatile modern resort wear that is both sustainable and distinct rather than ubiquitous. Made with high-quality recycled Repreve® fabric, all production is done locally in LA, and a portion of all sales goes towards women’s heart health research.
A ‘Surreal’ Gift — Handmade Planters by Carmen Ellis Studio
Meet the Artist, Carmen Ellis: For as long as she can remember, Los Angeles designer Carmen Ellis has been captivated by the strange and unexpected. Her inspiration can be traced back to childhood fantasies. As a young escapist, she dreamt of living in more enchanted realms — places like Alice’s peculiar Wonderland, a world with anthropomorphic flowers, talking caterpillars, and invisible cats; a land where reality is relative. This affinity for the surreal was the driving force behind her eponymous collection. She currently creates objects inspired by the beauty of the bizarre. Hints of the human form spring out of what would be commonplace items, bringing life and whimsy to objects often otherwise overlooked. Her designs are meant to inspire change in how we see and interact with these works.
Carmen’s designs are created through a hybrid process that blends old world tradition and modern technology: each vessel begins as a sketch in her book before they are 3D modeled and printed. The final works are made by hand using the centuries-old technique of slip
A Beemin’ Gift — Subscription to The Beem Box
About the Brand: The Beem Box is a beauty subscription box for women of color owned by women of color. A beauty box in which you will receive 5 to 6 full-sized beauty related items, carefully selected for deeper and darker shades, pigments and undertones. You can send one Beem Box or Gift Subscription directly through their website.
Meet the Founder, Nimi Fafowora: Originally from Nigeria and raised in Southern California, Nimi is the founder and owner of The Beem Box, a beauty subscription box curated for women of color. Her first goal in launching this California-based business was to recognize the place that women of color have in the makeup and beauty industry; “to let them know they are not an afterthought.” Her second goal remains supporting and promoting independent beauty brands by other women of color. Through these efforts, Nimi hopes the mainstream beauty industry will take more notice of their customers of color. To influence these brands “to begin to create colors, shades, and pigments truly intended for a wider range,” she says, would be to achieve her final and highest goal.
Gift a Beach Vacation in a Box — Clean Coastal Candles by Malibu Apothecary
About the Brand: Malibu Apothecary is a Southern California mission-based candle company that crafts cleaner candles for a cleaner Earth by giving back 20% of their sales to coastal conservation. Unlike 95% of other candles on the market, Malibu Apothecary never uses gasoline byproducts like paran wax. These handcrafted comforts are poured with only natural coconut and soy wax, essential oil-infused fragrances, and cotton wicks. Each coastal candle draws inspiration from names and notes of beaches traveled by their founder to capture the essence of a vacation through fragrance.
Meet the Founder, Claire Ellis: Malibu Apothecary started as a love for travel, wellness, and everything luxury. This passion for travel led their founder, Claire Ellis, as a young woman all around the globe; from months spent on the Côte d’Azur to a solo trip around Asia, no beach should be left unexplored. Aiming to capture the spirit of the people and stories of the places traveled through fragrance, Claire started pouring candles as a hobby in her SoCal apartment. She discovered the toxicity and unethical standards in the candle industry. Ultimately, graduating from what would be more than a few small spills, stained wood floors, and a lost rent deposit, Malibu Apothecary today is a reflection of a passion for clean, non-toxic living and a thirst for the undiscovered that inspired its founder in her travels and creations.
Gift Culture AND Food — A Gift Box by Tiny Bodega
About the Brand: Tiny Bodgea is a marketplace dedicated to healthy BIPOC indie food brands. “We’re pulling brands out of the tucked away ethnic food aisles and bringing them into the lit space they deserve — because supporting BIPOC brands is our love language.”
Meet the Founder, Taylor Cook: “One of those Millennials with a weak-ass gut”, Taylor Cook found herself needing to eliminate gluten and dairy from her diet in 2017. Because of this, she started paying more attention to the ingredients in food and how things are made. This ultimately meant eating out less and cooking in more. Her creative boundaries in the kitchen started expanding, and she quickly became obsessed with pantry goods that fit her new restrictions. Fast forward to June 2020. “I’m now living in a world met with the hugest global health crisis of our lifetimes and racial unrest. I find myself in my New York apartment scrolling through images of cities burning and tensions rising because, for some reason, it’s still debatable whether Black Lives Matter. My protest was with my dollars.” Taylor started with a full pantry audit and began researching more Black and Brown owned brands to buy. She was absolutely blown away by what she unearthed and wanted to tell everyone about them. In just three short months the list she had compiled had grown to just shy of 100 companies that were not only BIPOC owned but were also allergy-friendly and health-conscious.
A Gift for Wine-lovers & Change — Wine by Spirit Horse Vineyards
About the Brand: Spirit Horse Vineyards is a 100% woman-owned boutique winery that empowers community and connection through delicious wines, unique member experiences and philanthropy. Founded in 2013, Spirit Horse offers a roster of limited production wines produced in Napa Valley, California, as well as other emblematic wines from around the world. Spirit Horse wines are not only delicious, but also support the local communities from which the grapes are sourced by proudly partnering with the Spirit Horse Riding Center to provide local children with equine therapy. Company efforts also support Napa Valley’s leadership and empowerment program, Off the Vine — a program that pairs local foster girls with female mentors in their community.
Meet the Founder, Heather Rader: An Oregon native, Heather Rader is a high-energy corporate executive turned wine entrepreneur. After earning a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Oregon and before working in the wine world, Heather hustled for the NFL sponsorships division and in sales at Monster.com plus a variety of start-ups. Now living her dream, she is the Founder and Owner of Spirit Horse Vineyards, a winery that brings community together to help the next generation of girls thrive. With Spirit Horse Vineyards, Heather created a company that merges her passion for fine wine with community, empowering connection and fun, one sip at a time.
A Gift of Encouragement — Stationary + Cards from Asaadi Graphics
About there Brand: Asaadi Graphics is a New York Based Design studio founded by Neela Asaadi.
Meet the Artist, Neela Asaadi: Neela Asaadi is a forward-thinking, cosmopolitan innovator based in New York City. A formally trained graphic designer and experienced brand specialist, she launched her company Asaadi Graphics in 2017. “If you ask me my passion, I’ll say art and design. At a young age, I was drawn to literally anything that allowed me to be creative and expressive. I am obsessed with “the details” — the moments that literally make us stop what we’re doing and use our senses. A taste of freshly brewed coffee or the scent of a lit candle, the colors on your plate, the lyrics of song, the street graffiti on the side of a building. These are the moments most meaningful to me, that I search for.”
And in conclusion…
Just like scrolling through Instagram has become a habit…so has our gut instinct to head straight to Amazon to purchase gifts and necessities. The accessibility and convenience is enticing (trust me I get it!) However, this holiday season will be make or break for many small businesses this year. So, while taking out your credit card, remember this: every small purchase makes a big difference.
Know of another female-owned small business that you think would make a great addition to this list? Feel free to shoot me an email at lexie@theprbarinc.com.
