Christmas Gifts - buying from small businesses

[SoulDestroyer]

I try to buy all my gifts from small UK-based businesses. I have a few tough-to buy-for people and I end up wandering virtually around masses of small stores looking for inspiration.

I wondered if we could all share our small business recommendations?
Also this could be a place to ask whether people can recommend places to buy a certain gift.

I'll start with some places I can recommend:

The Eden Project Shop - sustainable gifts

Happy & Glorious - gifts

Love The Lakes - items made in the Lakes

Janet Bell - homewares and art

The Bearded Candlemakers - candles, wax melts etc from Ireland

The Future Kept - homeware and gifts

Forage & Find - one-off jewellery pieces

Birdhouse Tea - tea (obvs!)

Bomb Cosmetics - the alternative to Lush

There's also Etsy!

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Love this as a thread idea!

For kids - the kid collective, bunny hop kids, Kidly stocks some ethical/sustainable brands but not sure how their wider biz model is so a tentative mention!

Not small biz but an easy / accessible conscious swap in that M&S are now doing v cute Kraft wrapping papers that are 100% recyclable. It’s either £6 or £8 for a pack of 3 rolls.

 

[Milktray]

Ooh love this thread! Thank you for the ideas. I haven't started yet but when I see anything, I'll update!

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

I love to support British business but so sharing on here is great. I can be difficult to find them online.

 

[Piff paff puff]

Handmade soap | Smelleez

SmelleezSoap.com Handmade soap for everyone and their dog! Made in small batches in rural Perthshire

www.smelleezsoap.com

A very young, natural soap maker and some items for your dog. Gorgeous hair/body soaps with very creative names and delicious smells. Prices are good too compared to other natural soaps from other sellers.

 

[Koalabear]

I love Eat Pray Pedal for flower vases and baubles.

I'll be back when I remember more!

 

[SoulDestroyer]

Handmade soap | Smelleez

SmelleezSoap.com Handmade soap for everyone and their dog! Made in small batches in rural Perthshire

www.smelleezsoap.com

A very young, natural soap maker and some items for your dog. Gorgeous hair/body soaps with very creative names and delicious smells. Prices are good too compared to other natural soaps from other sellers.

I love olive oil soap. It lathers up so well and doesn't dry my skin, so I'll definitely be buying some from here, thanks!

 

[Piff paff puff]

I love olive oil soap. It lathers up so well and doesn't dry my skin, so I'll definitely be buying some from here, thanks!

YES! Cannot beat an olive oil soap. My fave too

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

YES! Cannot beat an olive oil soap. My fave too

Sorry if this sounds silly but do you both use soap to wash every day, like instead of shower gel, and has it been okay please? I’ve wanted to move back over to soap to reduce our plastic waste but remember soap being very drying as a child, even fun soaps from lush always felt horrible on my skin as a young adult, wondering if this would be a good option for an eczema prone person!

 

[JoJo76]

I love Not on the High Street for buying from small independent sellers. Just got these for my daughter and they are lovely.

Sterling Silver Five Little Stars Ear Climbers By attic

Sterling Silver Five Little Stars Ear Climbers by attic, the perfect gift for £18.00! Explore more unique gifts in our curated marketplace.

www.notonthehighstreet.com

 

[Piff paff puff]

Sorry if this sounds silly but do you both use soap to wash every day, like instead of shower gel, and has it been okay please? I’ve wanted to move back over to soap to reduce our plastic waste but remember soap being very drying as a child, even fun soaps from lush always felt horrible on my skin as a young adult, wondering if this would be a good option for an eczema prone person!

I'm not sure you could send her a message? I met her myself the other day and she's a lovely girl and makes them herself so very knowledgeable. They are natural though so, gentle and hydrating

 

[JoJo76]

Sorry if this sounds silly but do you both use soap to wash every day, like instead of shower gel, and has it been okay please? I’ve wanted to move back over to soap to reduce our plastic waste but remember soap being very drying as a child, even fun soaps from lush always felt horrible on my skin as a young adult, wondering if this would be a good option for an eczema prone person!

My cousin uses Aloe Vera soap, she gets it from Amazon. Not sure of the brand though.

Edit: this is going against the point of this thread. I am sure there are some good independent sellers.

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

Thank you both - tbh I’ll do some research on best soaps for eczema and worst case if I can’t use it up I’ll incorporate it into some messy play nothing ventured nothing gained x

 

[SoulDestroyer]

Sorry if this sounds silly but do you both use soap to wash every day, like instead of shower gel, and has it been okay please? I’ve wanted to move back over to soap to reduce our plastic waste but remember soap being very drying as a child, even fun soaps from lush always felt horrible on my skin as a young adult, wondering if this would be a good option for an eczema prone person!

I alternate between shower gel and soap. I lather it onto a sponge or shower puff. I think it depends how good your water is. Mine makes everything bubbly and lathers really well (I never know whether it's hard or soft water)
My grandma swears by goats milk soap like these https://tildastribe.co.uk/collections/soaps

 

[SoulDestroyer]

Charities also have online shops ....

RNLI

RSPB

National Trust

Oxfam

 

[Marwood]

I came storming in to share a load of shops, but for some reason my link icon has disappeared - anyone had this happen before?

 

[heretoreaditall2019]

I came storming in to share a load of shops, but for some reason my link icon has disappeared - anyone had this happen before?

Links automatically generate when you share a URL in a post, but you may have the cog button highlighted in the top bar which greys out all other options?

 

[Marwood]

Nah, everything's energised, but the link button has just disappeared from where it usually is (between the strikethrough and picture buttons, I think?)


Baffling - I'll share them anyway, if people don't mind the ugly links

I don't know if we can post YouTubers here, but a couple that I follow did very nice reviews of their follower's small businesses last year which I'll share if it's allowed!

Two shops based in Edinburgh that I really liked - The Red Door Gallery has lots of art of course, but also nice homeware and decorations and bits and bobs.
https://www.edinburghart.com/

Lots of independent artists (painters, jewellers, textile artists) also work at and sell through Coburg House. You can go very high end of course, but there's more at the affordable end than I expected!
https://www.coburghouse.co.uk/shop

Just come across these - not sure they quite count as a small business (very successful looking garden centre), but they at least claim to be family run and have STACKS of Christmas decorations for good prices. https://www.whitehallgardencentre.co.uk/

The rest of my recommendations would be Irish and mostly art prints - I don't know how things are with customs into the UK at the moment, might be no harm messaging shop owners first.

Sorrel Reilly does lovely lino prints - mostly Irish scenery, but might be nice if someone has a connection there! She has lots more on Etsy. https://irishdesignshop.com/collections/sorrell-reilly
The Irish Design Shop supports a lot of smaller artists I think, calendars and crafts - tend to be on the pricier side, but good quality. https://irishdesignshop.com/

Jam Art Factory https://jamartfactory.com/ stock loads of nice artists for prints as well as as decorations and homeware, as do Damn Fine Print https://damnfineprint.com/ and Hen's Teeth https://www.hensteethstore.com/collections/art (bit more notions with them, as we'd say here), including Hephee who I do love. https://hephee.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage

I'm a martyr to The Irish Chandler https://www.theirishchandler.com/ for candles (LOVE Irish Christmas which is plum and clove, and Cupán Caife which is coffee and almond), Maple tree pottery https://mapletreepottery.com/ is very nice for ring dishes and such, and Kaiko jewellery https://www.kaikostudio.com/collections is nice and unusual.

In fact it's worth looking at all the vendors of the last Dublin Flea Market (may it rest in peace and may gouging developers find none), because there's plenty of gold: http://dublinchristmasflea.ie/market/

I'll edit/delete this if it's too unreadable!

 

[SoulDestroyer]

Thanks for all of those @Marwood! Shame about the Dublin Flea Market - those kind of places are always great for unusual finds.

 

[Millie2023]

Fikkerts - UK manufacturer of natural toiletries & home fragrance

Fikkerts are a family business based in Yorkshire, that has been making natural skincare products for over 100 years.

www.fikkerts.com

Are lovely for skincare, etc. but OH went a bit overboard for Mother’s Day, so I won’t be asking for any for Christmas!