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My Favorite Small Businesses and Indies

Today is Small Business Saturday in the US, in an attempt to encourage people to combat corporate greed by shopping at locally run businesses.

Shop where you needs and budget dictate. If that happens to be with small businesses, here are some of my favorites. Most of these are in the US because that’s where I am.

Lotions and balms: Heather’s Hues Her WiTS lotion in amazing and comes in a ton of scents. You can also order scent samples or unscented. I also get her cuticle balm and use it as just a hand balm and her cuticle oil. Her nail polish sticky base coat is my favorite. She also carries beard oil and a few other things. Be aware of her turnaround time; all her stuff is handmade to order so it usually takes a week or two.

Body scrub: Stella Chroma I love her sugar scrub. It’s kind of a luxury and I don’t get it often, but the Oceanside Dreams scent in amazing. She also has a very nice nail polish line, lotion, and cuticle oil. She regularly donates to charities. She usually chooses organizations that support young women and/or the sciences. She does have some Harry Potter themed items on the website still, but she made a very good public statement and has been steadily phasing them out. I’m pretty sure she’s just selling through her old stock before she rebrands them as something else.

Nail polish: Polished for Days is one of my favorite indie polish brands. Her shimmers are just ridiculous. She’s been working on including diversity in her color swatches and regularly does charity donations.

Books: 57th Street Books is my local indie bookstore. They’re a co-op and non-profit. They also took care of them employees during the pandemic shutdowns.

Books, music, movies, video games, tabletop games, graphic novels, and weird desk toys: Bull Moose is your Amazon alternative for everything media. They’re a small indie chain in New England; they used to be my local indie. They sell new and used everything, have huge markdowns on books, and their free-shipping threshold is $35. Also, since they buy and sell used, you can sometimes find out of print or hard to find things.

Comics, graphic novels, and games: First Aid Comics is my local comic shop. They’re fabulous and you can shop on their website. They also have a ton of games.

Tea: Just Add Honey Tea Co. is a black-owned tea store in Georgia. I’ve ordered through their website. It comes beautifully packaged. My husband likes the cocoa chai.

Cross stitch and embroidery: The Black Cat Stitchery is a really lovely needlework shop in northern Illinois. The do mail orders by phone, email, and through their website. I’m sure they do special orders.

Miscellaneous crafty things: 123Stitch might not qualify as a small business at this point, but they are indie. I usually only buy cross stitch stuff from them, but they also have a huge range of other crafty stuff. They carry a lot of international designers and brands. Shipping is very quick unless you get something that’s backordered and their prices are consistently good. They also do special orders if you contact customer service.

Engraved wooden things: Hereafter sells pretty wooden things like ornaments, journals, and boxes. Some can be personalized.

Dragons: Dragons & Beasties sells vinyl figurines, pins, coloring books, and all kinds of things.

Beads and jewelry making: Bohemian Findings is Canadian actually, but their shipping rates to the US are quite good. When I was making jewelry, I bought an absurd number of charms and findings from them.

Greeting cards: Little Creek Card Company Alright, to be fair I haven’t ordered from them yet, but they have the most gorgeous holiday cards I’ve ever seen. Seriously.

I’ll probably think of more later and wish I had included them. But there you go.

Happy holidays, lovely people. Stay safe and be happy.

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