Clean Beauty Gift Guide (Local-Made)

Photo By: Alex Ashman Photography

4 min. read (read all the way through to enter the give-away correctly)

Happy Holidays & Happy Small Business Saturday!

I am kicking off a campaign to coincide with Small Business Saturday and it’s called, Small Beauty Saturday. This campaign will run all the way through the Saturday after Christmas. And good news for you, it’s going to start and end with a killer clean beauty gift-away so if you’re not following me on Instagram, now is the time to head over there and follow @naturalmakeupchic

Local-Made Clean Beauty Gift Guide

In my search for clean beauty products made in the DMV (DC, MD, & VA), I was so thrilled to see the love and care that goes into the beauty products that I’m featuring and their dedication to clean ingredients! As a bonus, all of the companies featured are women/family owned and operated. I am sharing 6 clean beauty companies and my favorite picks from each company. Each of my favorites will be part of the gift-away so one lucky winner can enjoy all the clean beauty goodness this holiday season. You can also shop all of these products online and I have linked each companies website below.

BLUEFLOWER (MD)- A natural self-care company specializing in essential oils. BlueFlower is a women-owned, small business located in Rockville, MD. They believe perfume can be your medicine, your personal care products can be your personal retreat, and that surrounding yourself with pure ingredients is the best escape from harmful toxins and chemicals commonly used in the industry.

My Pick- I am OBSESSED w/ the Blueflower Ylang, Ylang Essential Oil (touch-ready roller). I use ylang, ylang as a daily calming and uplifting oil and to have it pre-dilluted with just the one oil by itself is such a convenience and so beneficial to my daily health! $24

HUNNYBUNNY (DC)- A boutique manufacturer and retailer specializing in all-natural bath and beauty products designed for families. “Before it hits the shelves, every hunnybunny product must pass the "Owner's Challenge" - is it good enough and safe enough to be used on the company's two owners, Nya and Zuri. Made by a mother for her children, there is no higher standard. Before your family uses it, our family uses it.”

My Pick- The hunnybunny soaps are so, so good. I especially love the lemon poppyseed body bar. The bar contains gentle exfoliation because of the poppy seeds which is perfect for the winter to naturally slough off dead skin cells. $5

SANCTUARY BATH & BODY (VA)- A family owned business with a passion to create all-natural beauty and bath products that are safe, good for you, and effective. Anusha’s (founder) message really spoke to me, “After experiencing postpartum depression with mood swings, low energy and just feeling down, I used my knowledge of oils and skills from being an Occupational Therapist to make natural body products that helped to nurture and nourish my body and mind back to health.”

My Pick- I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Sanctuary’s Body Butter from their Chillax collection. I am really picky about body butters and and I want them to be thick without feeling sticky. The Sanctuary body butter is just that and absorbs into the skin nicely. It smells so fresh too with a hint of grapefruit. $22

SKINCANDO (DC)- Skincare products handcrafted in Washington, DC with certified organic, natural + local ingredients. I have been a huge fan of Skincando for a while now. Sara (esthetician, owner, and product creator) is very generous and sends me products to try. She has a cult following for her Combat-Ready Balm and has been donating Combat-Ready care kits to U.S. troops overseas since 2005.

My Pick- Sara sent me her newly released CBD makeup remover and cleansing oil. OMMMG it’s amazing! It smells so good and leaves my skin glowing. $60

URBAN FOREST PERFUMES (DC)- Thought-provoking, sybaritic perfume for those who love city living and connecting with nature. Maker, Sara created Urban Forest out of a, “desire to pay homage to the city, honor my deep love of nature, and to share my passion for wearable, plant-based aromatics.”

My Pick- Sara sent over 3 samples of her perfume including newly released, Magic. Which happens to be my favorite. It has a magically intoxicating scent of rose and vetiver. As a plus, vetiver is grounding and calming so it makes sense to start my day with Magic. Also, my house smells so good all day after I spray it on myself in the morning which is nice that the scent lingers. If you are the winner you will get all three of Urban Forests perfumes to test out. Each scent has it’s own personality. (3 perfume sample pack $36)

WAXING KARA (MD)- A company creating healthful, nurturing Bee Inspired® goods. Waxing Kara is an extremely unique and robust brand and as stated on the website, “Kara Brook’s Story shows how her passion for working with beeswax-infused art caused her to start her own hives. Soon after she began beekeeping, she started sharing her honey products with friends and family who loved them too. That was the beginning of Waxing Kara®”

My Pick- I have personally used Waxing Kara products for a couple years now and I love them. I was thrilled when Kara wanted to participate in my gift guide. I buy the lip tints from, Noreen’s Boutique Spa in Annapolis, MD and have purchased candles from The Inn at Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in Stevensville, MD. I recently tried the Waxing Kara Lip Scrub and Lip Gloss and it is now my go-to lip kit. The scrub exfoliates so gently and I noticed that my lips are less dry and have a naturally brighter color to them. The gloss is soft like a lip moisturizer, but not at all sticky like many glosses. The flavor of the gloss is Strawberry + Honey and it took the brand nearly a year to perfect with no artificial color, flavor, or petroleum products. $30

Enter the Local-Made Clean Beauty Gift-Away

I have been so exciting to share this local-made DMV gift-guide with you and not just in this blog post, but in person — to one lucky person that is. All of the brands above are gifting each product that I selected as “my favorite pick” to a lucky winner on Instagram. The entire local-made clean beauty collection retails at $175+. You can enter to win this self-care package for yourself or enter to gift the bundle to a friend.

Here is how to enter…

Step 1 to enter:

Follow me @naturalmakeupchic

Follow @Green_Beauty_Guide we collaborated on a clean beauty blog post on where to shop local for clean beauty over the holidays and why we love the clean beauty shops in our area. You can find that post here!

Follow @blueflowerproducts

Follow @love_hunnybunny

Follow @Sanctuary.beauty

Follow @Skincando

Follow @UrbanforestPerfumeco

Follow @WaxingKara

Photo By: Alex Ashman Photography

Step 2 to enter:

Comment on my latest Instagram (@naturalmakeupchic) post with the photo above (has to be the photo above to enter). Comment by tagging a friend who is interested in clean beauty. With each friend that you tag in the post, you will get an extra entry so your chances to win will be that much greater.

Thank you!

I hope you enjoyed learning about these amazing, local clean beauty brands that are doing powerful things in our community and beyond. Small Businesses needs people who care so they are able to continue to do what they love and keep providing us with goods we love! My passion is to make you aware of cleaner beauty options and introduce you to brands that work so hard to keep us healthy.

This season, I am beyond grateful for my loyal clients and followers. Thank you for giving me the ability to do what I love and share my gifts.

Remember, you can shop small beauty with me too! I have gift cards available for the holidays for makeup lesson packages. Let me know what type of lesson you’re looking for and I will direct you to the best package for you. You can also shop Beautycounter products with me. I have a brand new shop Beautycounter section on my website where you can read my story and have easy shopping access.

Lastly, stay tuned because Small Beauty Saturday continues on through the whole month of December and ends with another gift-away!

* Local-made gift-away is for US residents only and ends on Cyber Monday (11-26-18) at Midnight and the winner will be chosen at random. The winner will be notified via a direct message on Instagram and has 24 hours to respond with mailing address. If you do not respond within 24 hours to the DM, then another name will be chosen at random and notified.