Gifting Like a Local: 9 Hometown Beauty Products Made in the USA Inline
Photo: Courtesy of stikscosmetiks.com1/9Stiks Cosmetiks
Hometown: New York City
Morgan Stanley alum Laura Heilman designed her innovative makeup line to fill the white space left by more traditional lipsticks that rely on rounded bullets with pull-off caps. Her New York–based line features a clear, flip-up top that allows for easy, one-handed wielding and immediate color identification with an angled tip for more precise application. Give the gift of options with Heilman’s Stik Kit, a sleek coffret that holds up to three different pigment shades, like her standout Burgundy, Naked, and Red.
Stiks Cosmetiks Lipstik, $15 each, and Stik Kit, $5, for information: stikscosmetiks.com
Photo: Courtesy of littlemoonessentials.com2/9Little Moon Essentials
Hometown: Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Little Moon Essentials started more than two decades ago in Boulder, CO, when a ginger root appeared to singer-actress Laura Lamun in a dream with a skin-clarifying bath salt recipe. When Lamun tried the recipe the next morning to soothe her eczema, it worked. The apparition provided a springboard for what would become a range of salves, sprays, mineral soaks, and lotions made with herbal base oils that are steeped according to the lunar calendar: Each infusion begins on the new moon, and is strained on the full moon to utilize the gravitational pull between the Earth and its satellite (and to sufficiently satisfy Colorado’s super-natural rep). With their colorful, psychedelic labels, Lamun’s muscle-soothing rubs and energy-clearing mists make it easy to check off the mindful beauty enthusiast on your list.
Little Moon Essentials Magical Muscle Oil, $13, and Clear Mind Mist, $9, for information: littlemoonessentials.com
Photo: Courtesy of ecprovisionco.com3/9El Cosmico Provision Co.
Hometown: Marfa, TX
Dry desert air can wreak havoc on your skin. So it goes in Marfa, Texas, which is home to Liz Lambert’s El Cosmico hotel and campground and its increasingly popular provisions company. In the name of hydration, from the sun-scorched Southwest to the cold and windy Northeast, the brand teamed up with herbalist Erin Lee Smith on a natural, plant-based balm, body oil, and face oil meant to target “all areas of the body in need of salvation,” says Smith, who has tucked all three into the Apothecary Provisions Set, along with a pouch of the rose-, lavender-, and chamomile-infused Marfa Shag herbal blend.
El Cosmico Provision Co. Apothecary Provisions Set, $100, ecprovisionco.com
Photo: Courtesy of joabrand.com4/9Jao Brand
Hometown: Lansdale, PA
The brainchild of Pennsylvania-based pharmaceutical chemist David Mayron and his daughter, Gale Mayron, Jao started as an essential oil–based hand sanitizer in 1997. Fast-forward 18 years, and the brand has evolved into a full lineup of nontoxic scents and skincare products with instantly covetable retro packaging. Wrapping a box of the brand’s cult favorite, multitasking Goe Oil, would earn you plenty of holiday-gifting cred, but its Save Face set goes one step further, pairing the Monoi-scented wonder salve with Jao’s new antioxidant Seed Face Oil, its ultra-nourishing Face Crème, and soothing LipJao in one very cool denim pouch, no colorful paper wrap needed.
Jao Brand Save Face Holiday Gift Set, $153, jaobrand.com
Photo: Courtesy of herbivorebotanicals.com5/9Herbivore Botanicals
Hometown: Seattle
When Julia Wills and Alexander Kummerow started Herbivore Botanicals by mixing food-grade, cold-pressed oils and steam-distilled therapeutic-grade essential oils in their Seattle kitchen four years ago, the goal was to create luxurious, made-from-scratch products that could turn routine into ritual. The duo’s Coco Rose Lip Collection, which features a scrub, balm, and subtle tint made with virgin coconut oil and Bulgarian rose extracts, adds a sense of luxury to the simple act of moisturizing your mouth—even more so when offered as part of a trio in their blush pink holiday pouch made in collaboration with fellow Seattle brand Pine & Boon.
Herbivore Botanicals Coco Rose Lip Collection, $49, herbivorebotanicals.com
Photo: Courtesy of olofragrance.com6/9OLO Fragrance
Hometown: Portland, OR
Self-taught perfumer Heather Sielaff started hand-blending unique essential oil accords into a base of fractionated coconut oil in her Portland studio in 2009 and has amassed a steady stream of fans since. The acclaim has earned her a spot at chic boutiques like The Apartment by The Line—as well as her own, recently opened SE Belmont Street storefront, Milk Milk Lemonade. The standout Dark Wave, a warm cardamom, Indonesian vetiver, and wood perfume oil created to counterbalance the gloom of Portland’s nine-month-long rainy season, works equally well at offsetting the chill of a New York City winter.
OLO Fragrances Dark Wave Parfum, $45, olofragrance.com
Photo: Courtesy of Sephora7/9Farmacy Beauty
Hometown: Catskills, New York
In 1999, Manhattan event planner Mark Veeder noticed a strange green flower among the purple echinacea plants growing on his seven-acre Sullivan County property in upstate New York. After sending the plant to a horticultural lab for testing, Veeder learned that he had discovered a new variety of the standard Echinacea purpurea that contained a higher concentration of the herb’s immune-boosting and restorative properties. He began locally harvesting and extracting its potent essence to use in a line of antiaging serums, lip balms, and coconut gel masks that launched in September at Sephora. The New Dawn Mask Medley, which combines Veeder’s powerful plant extract with firming celery, brightening purple broccoli, and wrinkle-reducing rhubarb essences, offers pretty botanical packaging—and ample opportunities for #sheetmask selfies.
Farmacy Beauty New Dawn Mask Medley, $24, sephora.com
Photo: Courtesy of Juniper Ridge8/9Juniper Ridge
Hometown: Oakland, CA
With its booming tech and food scenes, the perks of Northern California living are many. But it is the Bay Area’s proximity to some of the American West’s most beautiful natural wonders—Napa! Yosemite! Mammoth!—that has made it an enclave for wild-crafted beauty ingenuity. Oakland-based Juniper Ridge specializes in cabin sprays, colognes, and candles inspired by mountain meadows, campfire-lit trails, and sunrise in the High Sierras. The six real-wood scents in its Campfire Incense Pack, which promises wafts of white sage, sweetgrass, Douglas fir, desert piñon, and cedar, provide the sensorial experience of scenic switchbacks, without the exertion.
Juniper Ridge The Campfire Incense Pack, $107, juniperridge.com
Photo: Courtesy of House of Intuition9/9House of Intuition
Hometown: Los Angeles
The experienced mystics at House of Intuition’s three locations in Los Angeles are ready to heal what ails you through one-on-one sessions with clairvoyants, psychic mediums, Reiki masters, shamans, and crystal specialists. If you’re looking for spiritual renewal but are not Left Coast–adjacent, there are phone readings—and Magic Candles. Made with all-natural scented palm wax and dressed with crystals, each vessel provides a certain purpose while it burns—from promoting gratitude and balance to removing bad spirits by eliminating stagnant energy and negative vibes with the swipe of a match.
House of Intuition Magic Candles, $15 each, houseofintuitionla.com
