Your Ultimate 2020 Indie Gift Guide

This year, it’s more important than ever to shop small. We’ve created a gift guide for every indie beauty lover on your list. From lipgloss to skincare, we have it all! We will continue to update this list as the holiday’s approach. Remember, when you purchase from a small business, you’re supporting a dream. You also get things that are one of a kind and made with love, which make the best gifts!

Eyeshadow Lover

Do you have a colorful friend who can’t get enough eyeshadow palettes? Indies have some of the most interesting palettes ever with beautiful packaging to boot. Here are some eyeshadows that will wow any makeup lover!

Alien Cosmetics has so many beautiful eyeshadow palettes. Their formula is handmade, hand-pressed, and one of the best I’ve ever tried! They even have a beautiful Holiday 2020 palette of rich blue and red hues. You can use code THEINDIEMOOD for 10% off Alien Cosmetics! All of their products are vegan, too!

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Hipdot has been releasing so many awesome collections, they have an eyeshadow palette for everyone. From Kesha’s line to hot sauce collabs, to Spongebob themed collections to pretty neutral palettes, they have it all!

Lethal Cosmetics is an Indie Beauty Brand based out of Berlin, Germany. They have stunning eyeshadows and their website has a “create your own palette” feature where you can place individual pans in a number of different magnetic palettes. You can build a totally unique palette for that special someone on your list!

Zero/Low Waste

If the zero-waster on your list loves beauty, Fat and the Moon is a great option for them! They offer a variety of lip tints, highlighters, eye kohl, and more.

Check out Serenade – a 100% zero waste beauty boutique online! They have tons of color beauty products along with skincare, bath, and body. We interviewed the founder of Serenade a few months back about her zero waste journey!

For more general housewares, check out Sea Witch Botanicals for zero waste dish soap and produce wash.

Unwrapped Life makes my favorite shampoo and conditioner bars. They smell amazing and work just as well. They also sell convenient travel sets that come with tins to bring them along with you.

Ritology Razor is a zero-waste safety razor. They have starter kits that come with a 10 blade refill pack. You can even get a subscription of replacement blades. Aside from being sustainable, the razor is also beautiful and really effective! Check out our review on Ritology here!

Vegan Gift Guide

Luckily, indie brands are often vegan! Also, every brand we post on Indie Mood is cruelty-free. For clarification, cruelty-free means products have not been tested on animals and vegan means there are no animal-derived ingredients in the products.

Some of our favorite Vegan Indie Brands:

As mentioned before, Alien Cosmetics has unique, colorful cosmetics that are all 100% vegan!

Earth Harbor is a clean skincare brand that is 100% vegan. They have beautiful skincare, body care, haircare, and more.

Root Pretty is a vegan beauty brand with tons of beautiful products! Their eyebrow pomade is my absolute favorite, and their loose eyeshadows are gorgeous! They also have skincare products, hair care products, and more!

Haus of Gloi is an amazing fragrance, bath, and body house based in Oregon. All their products are vegan. They have perfumes, body butter, scrubs, whipped soaps, and more.

is a 100% vegan woman-owned shop with makeup, skincare, body care, fragrance, and more! Their eye tint and eye serum are Giulia’s faves. Every order over $20 ships free, too!

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The Witchy One

You know the one: they always smell like the woods in fall mixed with a bit of patchouli, they always have a crystal somewhere on them, and they’re always thrilled to hear about your weirdest dreams. The following shops are for these ones on your list!

Hagroot has one of a kind fragrance oils, jewelry, teas, ritual items, and more. Everything I’ve purchased from her has the special feeling of a ritual item to be displayed on my alter thanks to being meticulously handmade. Learn more about the brand in this interview!

Witch Baby has been a favorite of mine for years! They have the most sumptuous body butters, fun bath bombs, beautiful soaps and more! They regularly release seasonal collections and astrological fragrances.

Dirt Witch has handmade skincare and ritual products for those who worship the earth. I recently reviewed some of their products, and they blew me away! Their skincare is effective, yet natural.

Anita Apothecary is a mother and daughter owned store full of beautiful, handmade witchery. I love their oils, teas, and handmade candles.

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Clean Beauty Gift Guide

Clean Beauty… what does it even mean? We know that clean and green has been a trending topic these days, but through years of trying out indies, we’ve honed down our list to a few incredible indies with clean ingredients. This means more natural, fewer preservatives, chemicals, fragrances, and the like. Fear not, these clean beauty faves are still just as effective.

Doubledown Cosmetics is a clean beauty and skincare brand founded by Kristin and Marvin Speller, a powerful and inspiring couple who donates their time and proceeds to domestic violence and addiction-related causes in their community. I’ve loved every product I’ve tried from them. Their highlighters are so glowy and their eyeshadows are pigmented and beautiful. I love their tinted balms and glosses, and their skincare is amazing, too!

Skincare 

Any skincare fanatics on your list?

Velvette is an organic face oil company with stunning and effective oil serums. I’ve been using their dry skin day and night oils for over a year, and I love them! I also use their hair and body oils. The body oil smells so amazing and sinks right into my skin for lasting hydration. Use code THEINDIEMOOD for 10% off!

Earth Harbor is a tried and true favorite of ours. They have all-natural skincare products in pretty, low-waste packaging at an affordable price range! My favorites are their Tidal Rose Hydration Toner and their Aqua Aura Reparative Eye Cream.

Solana Skin is a vegan, cruelty-free, and low waste skincare brand. They’re one of Giulia’s favorites! Their products are beautiful, effective, and natural.

Akar Skin makes luxury skincare inspired by the founder’s Tibetan roots. Their clarifying toner is one of my favorite products of all time!

Graydon Skincare is a Canadian skincare brand that’s 100% vegan. Their products are potent and effective. My favorites are the Aloe Milk cleanser and the Full Moon Serum!

Horror Movie Nerd

As a horror movie fanatic, I have some great recommendations for the horror fans on your list!

Sick Wix has unique and funny candles and body sprays themed around horror classics. I have their Live Deliciously candle and it smells absolutely incredible, exactly how I assumed Black Phillip would smell. Their packaging artwork is incredible and the candles are poured in luxurious glass.

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Sixteen92 is a perfume company with collections that embrace the macabre. Their name comes from the year of the Salem Witch Trials. They also have a Classic Cinema Witch collection, a Sabrina the Teenage Witch collection, and a Stephen King collection.

Bath and Body Lover

Do you have a friend on your list that seems to always be in a bath or on their way to take a bath? They probably smell awesome, and these brands are for them!

Living Giving Co. has a wide variety of beautiful bath bombs that smell amazing and make your skin soft and hydrated. They also have shower steamers that clear a stuffy nose and handcrafted soaps. Every order place plants a seed, they use biodegradable packing peanuts, and they plan to eliminate all plastic from their packaging by Fall of 2021!

Loquita Bath and Body is a Latinx owned and operated business selling the cutest bath products you’ve ever seen! Their products smell amazing, like a panadería of skin goodies! They have concha shaped bath bombs, horchata sugar scrubs, and more.

Gamer

The Geekpothecary is one of the first brands we ever reviewed is still one of our favorites. They’re a bath and body shop themed around classic video games. Their products are colorful, smell amazing, and the packaging is so cute!

Gift Guide for the One Who Can’t Get Enough Lippies

Do you have a friend whose purse weighs 75 lbs because there are so many lipsticks in it? This person isn’t afraid to pull off a bold color and is probably very sad that masks prevent the world from seeing their beautiful lipstick of the day. (but happy that they keep other’s safe) Here are some brands for the lipstick lover on your list!

Propa Beauty is a black owned brand with the most stunning nude lipsticks you’ve ever seen. They have a nude lipstick for every skin shade and undertone out there. Their creamy formula is hydrating and super pigmented. They are also cruelty-free and vegan! Use code INDIEMOOD for 15% off!

Necromancy Cosmetica is an all-time favorite for me. They have the most unique shades of lipstick I’ve ever seen. This Puerto Rico based brand sells classic bullet lipsticks in a pigmented matte formula with some metallic shades, too! They also donate a portion of their proceeds to cat rescue efforts in Puerto Rico which makes my cat-loving heart happy.

If you’ve ever thought of a lipgloss shade, Rosewood Cosmetics has it. This black owned brand has every shade of lip gloss under the sun along with other beautiful products like eyeshadows and highlighters. Check out our interview with the brand owner here!

Bougie

For the bad and bougie babes on your list, here are some higher-end indies. I’m not going to lie, I am a Taurus Sun with my Venus in Taurus… I like nice things. I’ve been known to splurge on a higher-end brand once in a while, so these are tried and true favorites I had to include in our 2020 Gift Guide.

Lilah B. has some of the most beautiful packaging ever. Their heavy compacts are shaped like pebbles and open up to stunning cream products with clean formulas. I absolutely love their Divine Duo Lip + Cheek Tint and their Tinted Lip Oil – the shade b.bold is to die for! Their pan products are also refillable to reduce waste!

Chantecaille has stunning beauty and skincare products that give back to animal conservation related causes. Their package artwork is so beautiful!

Kjaer Weiss also has refillable compacts for waste reduction. Their stunning products are for the natural, no-makeup makeup person on your list.

Roen Beauty has simple, beautiful makeup staples. If you love to glow but also don’t have a lot of time for makeup, this brand is for you. They’re clean, cruelty-free, and sustainable. Here’s a post reviewing their products with more info on the brand!

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