Healthy Holiday Gift Guide 2016: $50 or Under + Safe Skincare Giveaway!

It’s officially holiday season! As stressful as December can be, I do love all the twinkly lights, family time, and decorations. I know many of you have started doing some holiday shopping already, but I wanted to help you out if you need more ideas for those hard-to-get folks and I also have a healthy skincare freebie and a giveaway for you at the end of this post!

I love giving gifts that inspire a healthy and happy lifestyle, because of course I want my loved ones to live a long life full of vitality! This gift guide does just that and these items are also easy on the wallet because they are all $50 and under! Hope this helps your holiday shopping go much easier.

1. Naughty to Nice Charcoal Bar and Mask Gift Set, $48. I’ve talked before about my love for activated charcoal for skin care and how much it’s helped me reduce my hormonal acne. This gift set from Beautycounter contains 2 of their most popular items at a reduced price! I love all their safe and toxin-free skin care products, and I use both the bar soap and the mask regularly to detox my skin of impurities and oils.
2. Foam Roller, $24.97. When I first bought a foam roller, I didn’t realize how much I would LOVE using it! It works incredibly well at loosening up sore and tight muscles, speeding up recovery time after a workout, and my favorite: massaging my back and shoulders. I hold a lot of stress in my neck and upper body, and foam rolling every night has helped a ton in getting out the kinks and stiffness. It’s one of those gifts that the recipient doesn’t even know if he or she needs it until they try it!
3. Meditation Pillow, $32.95. I’m a huge proponent of meditation, and I think everyone should try to incorporate it into their daily lives. Having something so comfortable like a meditation pillow will make it so much easier to sit on it and learn to breathe. This one comes in 6 different colors and it’s made with organic cotton. I also love that you can remove the inner fill for easy washing!
4. Salad Dressing Bottle, $6.99. What a fun little stocking stuffer! This glass salad dressing bottle has 8 different dressing recipes on the bottle with fill lines for the different ingredients. Salad dressing is something that’s so easy to make at home and the typical store bought ones contain crazy ingredients and hydrogenated oils. Now this gift can make it even easier to enjoy homemade dressing. Some of the ingredients suggest vegetable oil and sugar, but you can just omit those and it will still be delicious!
5. Luminous Nudes Gift Set, $48. Another awesome Beautycounter gift set! This one contains Sheer Lipstick in Twig and Lip Gloss in Bare Shimmer, 2 colors that go with every skin tone. I was a bit nervous about buying these colors because of my dark complexion, but they complement my skin really well. I actually didn’t like to use anything other than lip balm until I started using these! They contain jojoba esters and vitamin E to moisturize and nourish, so your lips are never chapped while using them.
6. Adult Coloring Book, $9.57. Coloring has become one of my favorite ways to unwind and relax at the end of the day, and this coloring book contains such pretty details and designs. It’s become increasingly important for many of us to slow down and do something we enjoy, especially because we are always on the go and busy at all times, and coloring is a great, calming way to do that. I mean, who doesn’t love to color? It works for many people because you don’t have to be artistic to enjoy this simple activity.
7. Zoya Nail Polish, $10-20. Since I regularly talk about the importance of safe skincare, I’ve been asked several times what nail polish I like to use. I love a good manicure and pedicure and nail polish wasn’t something I wanted to give up on. Luckily, Zoya’s nail polish is toxin-free and made without common harmful ingredients like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, and DBP (dibutyl phthalate). Plus, it stays on for a long time which is important for someone like me who cooks all the time. You can buy their nail polish individually (so many colors!), or they have a some great gift sets that you can buy for a reasonable price!
8. Stainless Steel Lunch Box, $28.95. I’m all about encouraging bringing your lunch to school or work. You just eat so much healthier and more nutritiously when you make your own food. However, the quality of containers that you put your food in is important as well. This stainless steel lunch box is free of BPA, BPS, lead, toxins, and harmful phthalates, and I love the different compartments it comes with! It comes in 2 sizes, but I would go for the large size to pack meals and snacks to hold you over during a long day.
9. US Wellness Meats Gift Card, $25-250. Some of us are fortunate enough to live near farmers markets and stores that have a great variety of high quality meats. However, there are others who do not have easy access to grass fed beef and pasture raised pork and chicken near them. Well, good news! US Wellness Meats is an awesome company that uses proper farming techniques to raise healthy and happy animals, and they deliver these meats straight to your door! Plus, I love that they have hard-to-find items like rabbit, liver, bones, and even wild-caught seafood. I think their gift cards, ranging from $25-$250, is a great way to support these farmers while encouraging your loved ones to eat better quality, healthier meats.
10. Homemade Mixed Nuts, $5-10. I love homemade gifts because there’s always so much thought and love that go into them! It’s even better if it’s something you can eat. There are many recipes out there, but my Spiced Maple Rosemary Mixed Nuts are a hit every time and people really love them during holiday season! It’s a perfect combination of salty, spicy, and sweet. Put it in a glass jar, tie a bow around it, and it instantly becomes so pretty and fun. These kinds of gifts are also perfect when you are trying to save money over the holidays.

Safe Skincare Freebie & Giveaway time!

Now it’s my turn to gift YOU something. I’m in such a happy holiday mood, that:

I’m giving anyone who orders from Beautycounter through me in the entire month of December a free sample of the Purifying Charcoal Mask – no minimum orders!

I absolutely love the charcoal mask and I use it about twice as week, and it’s also great as a spot treatment on acne. It really is one of the best methods to cleanse and detox your skin! This offer ends on 12/31/16, 11:59pm PST.  Start shopping HERE!

Now for the giveaway…

1 lucky winner will score Beautycounter’s travel set, worth $48, which includes:

• Body Wash in Citrus Mimosa
• Hydrating Body Lotion in Citrus Mimosa
• Daily Shampoo and Conditioner
• Travel Bag

All these items are safe and toxin free, and perform beautifully. It’s a perfect set to pack for your holiday travels! To win, enter below:

This giveaway is open to US residents only. It will be open for entry until Friday, 12/9/16 at 11:59pm PST. The winner will be announced above and will also be contacted by email.

Happy Holidays and good luck!