With the holidays approaching, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite gift ideas. Here is a little list of things I like to give. I'd love to hear your ideas and what you are gifting this holiday season.

Remember: reduce, reuse, recycle...yahoo! It's green to re-gift!

Books
Books that you know someone will love are great in general. Try for used copies on Amazon.com or half.com, or even Craigslist. I like to give The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell as a gift to some folks, and Food Revolution by John Robbins and Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman. I also love the Real Food Daily Cookbook. It all depends on the person. Any cookbook by Christina Pirello is perfect.... the Love, Eric desserts cookbook is so pretty. Love, Eric and Sanae is a nice cookbook too (by Eric Lechasseur and Sanae Suzuki). And hey, The Kind Diet would be a great gift too!

Sweets and Treats
For my local gift-giving, I like to pick-up baked goods and truffles and make little goody baskets with them.... like the truffles, nutty bars, and cookies from M Cafe, or the shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate from Mani's Bakery on Fairfax. And my friend Tevia, the most amazing spin-instructor in the world, has a vegan baking company called The 'Lil Vegan Baker That Could. Her peppermint cookies and peanut butter balls are a must for the holidays and year round.

From Whole Foods, Uncle Eddie's Vegan Cookies make perfect gifts as well. I find that the favorite is usually the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, but I love the Molasses too. They are all good.

Allison's Gourmet- I love to give her brownies, brittle, and peanut butter cups! Absolutely amazing.

I like to make my Crispy Rice Treats with Chocolate Chips, cut them into squares and wrap them in parchment paper to give as gifts. The Oatmeal, Walnut, and Dried Plum cookies from the book would be great too.

Then there are specialty chocolates. Some of these have sugar in them, but I just have to overlook that this time of year and cheat a little because they are so good and make such pretty gifts. My favorite brands are Vosges and Dagoba chocolates. You can't go wrong with the Red Fire Bar from Vosges.... and most Whole Foods carry almost their whole line now, which is exciting. Check for the dark chocolate ones without dairy. We used to have to order them all online. And I recently learned about this new vegan truffle company, Nicobella (more on them in an upcoming blog), but they are yummy and you can order them here. The yummiest truffle flavor from Nicobella is the Walnut Flaxseed Crunch...but they are allllllll delicious.

Cleaning supplies
This may seem a little odd, but I do like to give Earth-friendly cleaning supplies that people may never even know exist in the world. I know they will get used! And my hope is that if the recipients like them, they will continue to buy them. My favorites for gifts are Bon Ami (it's like an eco version of Ajax or Comet), the Citrasolv concentrate that can be mixed with water to make loads of solution, and even things like recycled paper towels. You can get creative with this, especially since there are so many cute enviro cleaning supply brands out there now.

Sneaky Kitchen Staples
I have been giving Earth Balance Butter and Vegenaise to people for years. I just put it in a little bag with tissue paper like a regular gift. You need to make sure they get in the fridge quickly though after giving these. After that, people start to buy it on their own, which is the best as far as I'm concerned. Depending on who you are giving to, Umeboshi Vinegar and Shoyu can be good too.... also a good quality salt, a great knife or a nice bamboo cutting board.

Hair & Body
Jason Seafresh toothpaste...I like to give this. It's my favorite toothpaste. Dessert Essence makes my favorite lip balm...the one in the pink-ish tube. It's called Dessert Essence Lip Rescue with Shea Butter. Pharmacopia makes the most delicious lavender body lotion and for shampoo and conditioner, I like to give the Kiss My Face shampoos and conditioners in Big Body or Miss Treated. I also adore Dessert Essence conditioner in Red Grape, so I give that one too.

Journals
I love journals and notebooks and love them as gifts. Papergeist makes journals and planners and things out of recycled paper and makes the covers out of old record labels. I have a cute one with a man and woman kissing on the front. And Ecosystem makes these groovy and sophisticated looking planners and journals that I'm using right now. You can personalize your notebook on both of these sites.

Animal Adoptions (Kinda)
Don't forget, you can always get someone a sponsored animal for the holidays! This is what I did when I was on Miss Match, you can read more about it here.

Flowers
Flowers always make such beautiful gifts. I give organic flowers and try to give whatever is in season. Organic flowers are grown locally (not shipped from overseas! Nearly 70% of flowers are shipped from overseas!), and they are better for the environment. Flowers take lots of pesticides to make them perfect, and organic growers practice sustainable farming practices. California Organic Flowers and Organic Bouquet are great sites.

And a note about gift-wrapping:
I have not bought any wrapping paper, ribbon, or boxes in I can't remember how long. Maybe 13 years! I save all salvageable wrapping materials and store them in a big container in the closet. Anytime I need to wrap a gift, I just use something from my stash. If you don't have a stash, you can use old newspapers, paper grocery bags, whatever you have laying around. I don't mind if it doesn't look gorgeous, but the recycled gift-wrapping usually ends up looking super cute. And now, there are lots of 100% recycled gift-wrap paper options out there. I also like to deliver gifts in canvas bags. The canvas bag is a little gift on it's own.

I also wanted to let you guys know about my line of makeup brushes that I did with ecoTOOLS.



I'm sooo freakin' excited to share my ecoTOOLS products with you. They are so beautiful, super high-functioning, green, cruelty free, and inexpensive. And I'm so proud of them! I'm not telling you to run out and buy these, because I don't encourage anyone to get more "stuff" if you don't need to, but if you really do need new makeup brushes or bags these are the best! Beautiful and green! This was such a fun collaboration for me and the collection is so cool because it's made from all eco-friendly materials like bamboo, recycled plastic, recycled aluminum, soybean oil and crushed walnuts. How cool is that? They are available at Target and Amazon.com right now if you are looking for them, but they officially launch on December 1st. Just in time if you need to get some beautiful and smart holiday gifts!

5 Piece Brush Set and Bag - These brushes feel sooo amazing on your skin and are so soft and scrumptious! All of these brushes were designed specifically to achieve the kind of look I want with my make up; the natural and glowy look. This set includes a blush brush, feathery finishing brush, eye shadow brush (perfect for a smokey eye!), and lash & brow groomer brush.

Overnight Bag - This is the bag I use when I travel. It's so beautiful and I love it because it's made with hemp and all of the ink is plant based! This was designed with removable and separate compartments in case you spill soy sauce on them like I did! It's so easy to take the linings out and wipe them clean. And the linings are made out of recycled plastic bottles!

Train Case - I like to imagine this is what Marilyn Monroe would have carried with her! I use this one to keep all of my makeup in at home and for traveling!

Cosmetic Bag - I love this bag because it's so small and cute. It's great if you just need to grab a couple things and throw it in your purse.

Cosmetic Brush Bag - Most brilliant bag of them all! This is the bag I take with me whenever I have a meeting. I put my lip stuff and powder on one side and the brushes on the other side. Usually my brushes get all dirty and yucky from throwing everything in together but this is so smart because it keeps everything separate.