5 minute read
Gift guide
self-care stocking stuffers
SHOP LOCAL THIS HOLIDAY SEASON WITH GIFTS FROM SMALL BUSINESSES
This family business moved from Lower Greenville to the Bishop Arts District in February, offering a mix of vintage handbags and jewelry, along with new stuff, such as costume jewelry, Jolly Rancher sunglasses and trendy outfits.
Candles are by far their biggest seller, says the boutique’s owner, Aimee Hughes. That’s because this isn’t just a Bath & Body Works candle. Each one is made of soy wax and essential oils sourced from a perfumer in New York City. They’re all organic and contain no chemicals.
Besides that, they come in unique, refillable vessels. Hughes and her two adult children spend their free time shopping for vintage things to put in the store, including candle vessels and matchstick holders.
Once your candle is burned down, return it to Bella & Brawn to be refilled for $1.95 per ounce.
Hughes works full time as a nurse practitioner, and the boutique is her planned retirement gig.
“We love the neighborhood. We love the business owners and the people who live in the neighborhood and the fact that we have such a large amount of out-of-town customers who come because of the neighborhood,” she says. “I feel like we fit in this neighborhood because my whole motto is that anyone can walk into my store and find something for themselves.”
Bella & Brawn, 413 N. Bishop Ave., bellaandbrawn.com Candles, about $45
Visiting former Oak Cliff friends who now live in New Mexico or Colorado, or wherever everyone is off to now? Bring them Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters’ Rosemont Crest signature blend. Yes, because it is so Oak Cliff, but also because its flavor profile of brown sugar, ripe cherry and herbs is appealing to just about anyone.
Not into coffee? The company’s 5 Mile Chocolate hot chocolate makes cozy times luxurious, made only with cocoa beans and organic sugar.
Besides that, Davis Street Espresso has a fabulous selection of Oak Cliff T-shirts and housemade bread loaves and jams, which also make great gifts to grab on the fly.
Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters 819 W. Davis St. oakcliffcoffee.com Rosemont Crest Blend, $14
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The aroma hits as soon as you walk into the train side of Tyler Station.
The sweet and savory smell of essential oils isn’t from the hair salon; it’s the one-woman manufacturing space of a locally owned skincare company, Studio Beige.
Oak Cliff resident Andrea Rogers started making bars of soap as a hobby while obtaining her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Dallas. The painter and printmaker gave the soap to friends and family, and sometimes, they later asked to buy more.
“Since I’m selftaught, I found a lot of stuff on forums where you can find formulas and troubleshooting,” she says. “A lot of those forums have skincare stuff too, so I just started trying that because I had some of the ingredients, and it grew from there.”
Although she had the opportunity to work with an art dealer to sell her paintings after her MFA, that didn’t feel right, she says. So she went all in on her skincare brand.
Besides bars of soap, Rogers makes smallbatch face oils, facial exfoliants, beauty balms, cuticle cream, salves, lip balms and hair oil at Tyler Station (which is not a retail location; order from Etsy and receive a package, usually in a couple of days).
The packages are works of art. Rogers cuts down her own handdrawn screen prints to make each label unique.
Etsy, where all her
supply is for sale, keeps track of inventory and customers’ past purchases. A lot of business has come from word-of-mouth or people who received products as gifts and are returning to buy more.
Working with essential oils, she’s found that a lot of it is tied to agriculture. During a bad season for plum seed oil, for example, she once had to change up a formula. Ukraine is the world’s No. 1 supplier of sunflower oil, a product Rogers uses a lot, and the war has driven the price up, she says.
Rogers has a few trusted suppliers, and she switches between them depending on her needs and their inventories.
Besides that, skincare can be a difficult niche, Rogers says. The market is highly saturated, and it’s hard to set yourself apart.
When she started in 2016, some of the products, like face oil, were not as mainstream, she says. Now L’Oréal makes one, and you can find 15 kinds at Sephora.
“You really have to have a reason why you’re different,” she says.
Rogers works part-time as a bartender at the Kessler Theater. She also makes stationery and sells vintage costume jewelry on Etsy. She says she’s ready to start something new, too. Earlier this year, she made dozens of realistic paper plants in psychedelic colors for her 40th birthday party, and she’s considering incorporating that craft into her business as well.
Studio Beige, etsy.com Lip balm or bar soap, $7
Husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Martha and Eddie Velez were among the first legal hemp farmers in Texas. They opened their first retail space at Tyler Station this year. All the products they stock are things they use themselves or have tested.
Their Sereni-Té is “not your abuelita’s tea,” containing a blend of organic chamomile, organic lavender and Oak Cliff Cultivators hemp.
For stocking stuffers, she also recommends a new product, the Tranquilo caramels ($20). Each one contains 14 milligrams of Delta 9 THC and 5 milligrams of CBD.
To keep it very Oak Cliff, try the mango tajin gumdrops ($45 for 10), which won Oak Cliff Cultivators their title for most-creative product at the Taste of Texas Hemp Cup.
