Herbal Holiday Gift Guide

As the holiday season draws near, it's the perfect time to celebrate the charm and uniqueness of small herbal businesses. Beyond the glittering lights and bustling crowds, lies the magical gifts of natural remedies, aromatic plant medicine, herbal teas, soothing balms, relaxing herbal bath salts, and many other enchanting offerings, each telling a story of dedication and craftsmanship. 

Small businesses often provide unique, handcrafted, and specialized products and services to the world. They tend to offer personalized customer service, creating a more intimate and meaningful shopping experience. Supporting small herbal businesses strengthens the fabric of our community. Plus, small businesses often have smaller carbon footprints compared to larger corporations, and many put a lot of intention and care into using ethical and sustainable sources and business practices.

In this holiday gift guide, we invite you on a delightful journey through the world of artisanal herbal products, crafted with passion, care, and expertise by small businesses. We want to help you find the perfect meaningful gift for that special someone, and feel comforted in knowing you are supporting businesses who value the environment and the overall well-being of the world. 

The list highlights a variety of plant-focused ideas, including incense crafting and aromatic arts supplies, herbs, hand-crafted tinctures and teas, plant seeds, artisan oils, perfumes, hydrosols, essential oils, mushroom extracts and more. Let's dive in!

Our company Higher Mind Incense carries a variety of natural and sustainable loose incense, rope incense, resins and gums, and single botanicals. We also offer many options for materials and tools for the incense crafter, such as incense cone molds, incense crafting kits, and more. You can also find beautiful incense burners and natural incense charcoal. Not sure what scents your loved one will like? No worries, we've got you covered with gift cards between $10 - $200.

All of the products at Higher Mind Incense are ethically and sustainably sourced, fair trade, and grown naturally. If you know an incense connoisseur or someone who has taken our incense crafting course at the Northwest School of Aromatic Medicine, any of our products would make a great addition to their aromatic arts practice.

This perfumery is a wonderland for the olfactory sense.

Phoenix Rising Perfumery offers natural fragrances that are free from parabens and phthalates and makes a variety of traditional Oud oils and Artisan attar products. Whether you're looking for rare and unique perfumes and incense, or if your loved one is interested in perfumery and making their own formulas, this shop features many different essential oils, oil blends, and perfumery materials – everything you need to take your fragrance artistry to the next level!

In the online shop, you can also find other aromatic treasures such as Sandalwood oils, loose Agarwood chips of different varieties, incense, resins, and more.

Apothecary’s Garden is a treasure trove to the aromatic enthusiast who loves incense, perfumery, or other fragrant products. They carry a large spectrum of artisan distilled essential oils, hydrosols, perfumes, absolutes, animal musks, natural skin care products, and more. They offer a vast amount of products which can be used to make incense, cosmetics, perfume or any aromatic medicine that you choose.

Their online shop also features sustainably harvested endangered aromatic plant species.

Spagyric tinctures and essences are powerful forms of traditional plant medicine which integrate alchemical and astrological principles into herbal preparations. The alchemical process these preparations undergo reflects the transformational processes in nature, and when working with plants, alchemy is used to unlock the full healing potential of a medicinal herb.

Natura Sophia uses organically grown or ethically wildcrafted herbs for their spagyric apothecary, which includes a wide range of tinctures, essences, and formulas. You can even shop by category of planet if they are interested in astrological medicine, or by elements, organ system, and plant energetics if you're seeking something specific.

Ayala Moriel Parfums offers a wonderful variety of hand-crafted perfumes and botanical fragrances. If you want something specific, they offer custom formulations, and if you're feeling unsure, there are many pre-made formulas and even gift packages to choose from.

Along with artisan perfumes, the company sells incense in the form of sticks, cones, and loose blends, as well as bath and body products such as body, face and hair oils, soaps, scrubs, and salves. They also offer edible products like chocolate, truffles, and tea blends. All of the products at Ayala Moriel are crafted from natural sources.

Learning Herbs offers multiple resources for learning about medicinal plants. The store carries a herbal remedy kit, which includes a herbal starter course, so you can have everything you need to begin using herbs. As well, there is a beginners guide to learning about herbal medicine that features a cookbook and a hands-on learning course for kids called Herb Fairies. These could be perfect gift options to get your loved ones into herbalism.

Learning Herbs also sells a fun board game, Wildcraft, which is a great way to learn about edible and medicinal plants while bringing the family together during the holidays. During the game, players use teamwork to gather huckleberries for grandma’s home-made huckleberry pie. Players climb a mountain and collect other medicinal plants used by grandma along the way.

The adventure game is perfect for children of all ages and covers 27 different plants. Some plants included are Echinacea, Burdock, Huckleberry, Calendula, Chickweed, Comfrey, Dandelion, Chamomile, Elder, Field Mint, Cottonwood, Jewelweed, Lemon Balm, and more.

Strictly Medicinal Seeds is an incredible resource for those who enjoy growing medicinal plants at home. The company sells seeds, live roots, and potted plants of medicinal herbs, aromatic plants, vegetables, shrubs, trees, and succulents, as well as many exotic and rare aromatic and herbal species (like White Sage, Copal, and Guggul).

The potential to grow an amazing apothecary of plant medicine at home can be accessed through this company! You can also find tools for making herbal tinctures, as well as books on herbal medicine and gardening. The choice of seeds and plants are vast through their website, and if you're not sure what to choose, they offer gift cards, too.

Blossom + Thorn is a woman owned herbal medicine apothecary based in Portland, Oregon. They craft small batch products with locally sourced plants that are either organically grown by local farms or ethically and sustainably wild harvested  by hand by them. All products are formulated and handmade by a trained clinical herbalist that has been working for almost a decade in the field of herbalism. This small business focuses on offering potent, sustainable herbal products with high-quality ingredients.

The apothecary offers all-natural herbal-infused products including lip balms, face oil, healing skin balms, beard oil, hair oil, teas, tinctures, and herbal bath blends. A little something for everyone! There are also a few loose herbal smoke blends to choose from.

Feral Fungi is the perfect place to get your fix of medicinal mushroom medicine. The company offers both single-mushroom and blended alchemically made spagyric tinctures, mushroom essences, as well as some mushroom edible treats. They also offer three different delicious maple syrups infused with Cordyceps, Lion’s Mane, and Chaga. Plus, there is a Clarity Mushroom Coffee that is infused with extracts of Lion's Mane, Reishi, and Cordyceps.

Feral Fungi also sells dried mushrooms, which can be rehydrated or made into tinctures if you are interested in making your own mushroom preparations.

Wild Root Botanicals offers a wide variety of aromatic plant distillations and plant medicine products. This is a great shop to find self-care products such as creams, lotions, salves, hydrosols, bath soaks, essential oils, teas and herbal medicines. Their digestive bitters can be handy to offer when people are enjoying heavy holiday meals.

You can also find uniquely prepared gift collections such as a postpartum care kit, a cold-month kit, or a rose gift set, which includes a Rose tea, floral water, lotion and tonic. This can be a simple way to offer a themed holiday gift with multiple products!

Oshala Farm is an organic regenerative farm in Southern Oregon. On their website you can find their organically grown and hand-harvested dried herbs and spices, as well as other botanical products made using their organic herbs, including infused oils, salves, tea blends, and some great options for bath and body products.

They also offer some special products, including a fire cider – which is perfect for the cold and flu season – a Nettle oil, Nettle vinegar, as well as an herbal iron syrup, herbal fusion vinegars, and even beeswax. The store also sells a variety of gift sets, including a new mama’s collection, tea lover’s collection, a salve maker's kit, an infused oil sampler, a food lover's spice collection, a ritual kit and more.

Apothepurity is a philanthropic apothecary and body care company located just outside of Asheville, NC. All products are expertly formulated and crafted by a certified aromatherapist and herbalist with a background in aesthetics, and a graduate of the NW School of Aromatic Medicine.

Their offerings are handmade in small batches with the finest organic and wild harvested ingredients available, many of which are grown by them on their 3 acre homestead nestled in a magical forest. You'll find aromatics including essential oil blends, oil rollers, mists, and more, on top of beautiful beeswax candles, bath salts, body butters, dry shampoo, and seasonal items like a candy cane body scrub. 

Twin Flower Botanicals is a small herbal business currently based in Western North Carolina that offers a wide variety of aromatic plant-infused oils, including Calendula, Lavender, Chamomile, Mugwort, and more. You can even build your own body oil and make a custom order! There are also many different types of body care items, such as body butters, magnesium lotions, salves, and tallow products. 

If you can't decide what to get, they also offer handmade herbal gift boxes and gift certificates so that your loved one can choose what they'd like. 

Wild Women Herbs is a small, woman-owned business featuring handmade herbal potions from the Pacific Northwest. They have a lot of great wellness offerings to share, from botanical skin care and bath and body products, to candles, honeys, syrups, tinctures and more. There is also a seasonal section on the website where you can find herbal teas, sourdough starter, and gift sets.

For those seeking a beautiful and unique stocking-stuffer, there are several different goat's milk soaps to choose from, such as Calendula and Cottonwood, or Reishi and Rose, and more. There are also some delicious, creative finds, like mushroom honey with cacao and vanilla chai maple syrup with Reishi. 

The Herb Rally Store carries herbal minded t-shirts, hoodies, and apparel – including a an amazing retro shirt that reads, "Eat Your Weeds." They also sell mugs, hats, and accessories adorned with plant designs.

Along with merchandise, the store also features plant photography and a few different online courses on frugal nutrition and herbal medicine. All potential great gifts for the budding herbalist!

Hopefully with the help of this guide, you can find the perfect offerings to share with those you care for, all while supporting sustainable & ethical small businesses.

Happy holidays from all of us at The Northwest School of Aromatic Medicine!