Well + Away Holiday Gifting 2019: The Ultimate Wellness Gift Guide

Welcome to the gifts we can’t wait to give this year:

For the Health-nut Who Needs A Day Off

Nobu Go Facial, Caesars Palace (Las Vegas)

Source: Caesars Palace

Launched to celebrate Nobu Hotel Caesars Palace’s five-year anniversary, the 100-minute Nobu Go Facial combines five luxury spa experiences in one over-the-top treatment. Meaning “five” in Japanese, the Go Facial starts with a VR meditation experience (yup), then moves into a hydrating facial treatment that includes a gold face mask and topical Botox called the “Cinderella Lift”, followed by masks on hands and feet, and finishing with a full-body moisturizer application.

Ultra-Fractional Treatment, Skin Laundry (Multiple Locations)

Source: Skin Laundry

Best known for its signature, no-down-time, 15-minute laser and light facial, Skin Laundry has stepped it up this month with a high octane (but still no down-time) Ultra Fractional Facial. The new laser facial is a non-ablative fractional resurfacing laser that does all the things we like lasers to do: target pigmentation, reverse sun-damage and improve texture through stimulating collagen. Post-laser, medical-grade serums customized for skin type are applied.

Balance Wellness Package, Four Seasons Westlake (Westlake Village)

Source: Four Seasons Westlake Village

The Four Seasons Westlake Village property is just outside of LA city limits, but feels like a far-flung resort. The spa itself is adjacent to a full-scale medical wellness clinic that shares the grounds with the hotel, so naturally its treatments are going to pamper in a clinically sound way. A 225-minute Balance package includes a 50-minute Tranquility massage, a 50-minute Signature Facial, a 50-minute Ginger Lime Sugar Glow scrub and a 30-minute Classic Manicure and 45-minute Pedicure.

Sugar Peppermint Scrub and Wrap, Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel (Los Angeles)

Source: Beverly Wilshire Hotel

This 90-minute, signature Sugar Peppermint Scrub and Wrap is basically the Beverly Hills, 60-minute spa version of Christmas. Starting with a cooling, whipped sugar peppermint scrub, a hydrating peppermint butter wrap is applied to the body, followed by a scalp massage and application of a rich, firming body lotion.

For the Hostess

Natural Wine Subscription, Dry Farm Wines

Source: Dry Farm Wines

For those of us who drink, nothing beats a delicious wine that happens to be llow-sugar, toxin-free and naturally made. All of the wines included in Dry Farm Wines’ subscriptions are biodynamic, organic, sustainably produced and small-batch. Gift a monthly subscription that include monthly shipments of six wines, selected from small producers around the world.

Champagne Eric Philippe Extra Brut, Tayson Pierce Estate Wines

Source: Tayson Pierce Estate Wines

The Champagne Eric Philippe is produced by renowned single-estate producer Tayson Pierce Estate Wines, and contains 93% less added sugar than most commercially available extra brut bottlings. As far as calories go, it can take two glasses of dry Champagne to equal of the calorie count one glass of non-sparkling wine, perfect for making room for a second slice of pie.

For the ‘Always on the go’ City Dweller

Grocery Delivery Gift Card, Hungryroot

Source: Hungryroot

The best non meal-kit-meal-kit of them all. Why? Each meal takes only ten minutes to prep, sauces come prepared (and nearly all are vegan-friendly), and there is so much less packaging than those guilt-inflicting, first-wave kits. Each week, depending on the size of subscription, Hungryroot curates a selection of meals and snacks or desserts for the week ahead. Upon delivery, you can visit the site to review recipes and in ten minutes be treated to super-easy, healthy and yummy meals for two.

Healthy Meals in a Cup, Daily Harvest

Source: Daily Harvest

Daily Harvest’s single-serve, meal kits in a cup range from superfood smoothies to warming soups to hearty grain bowls. All meals arrive frozen, with meal ingredients prepped and ready to be warmed or blended into filling vegan meal on-the-go. This season’s new items include a limited edition Chocolate and Peppermint CBD Latte, and a new, gift-able ‘Gift a Nine Box’.

For the Beauty-obsessed

Carte Blush Membership, Blushington

Source: Blushington

Blushington’s unlimited makeup application service is called Carte Blush, and includes your standard full-face makeup application, plus decadent add-ons including airbrush foundation and lashes at no charge. The Carte Blush membership now also includes dry hairstyling, making it the handiest beauty hack since DryBar launched.

UFO by FOREO

Source: Foreo

We are obsessed with FOREO’s crazy combination of Korean sheet mask and infrared light therapy. The UFO device is a hockey-puck shaped little device, inside of which can be placed a series of single-use, mini Korean-designed sheet mask formulations. The FOREO app reads the mask and determines which combination of red and blue lights, heating and cooling cycles and T-Sonic pulsations are most appropriate for that type of mask, then it starts whirring away and 90 seconds late, DIY spa treatment complete .

For Anyone

A Massage at The NOW

Source: The NOW

LA ‘everyday-luxe’ massage studio The NOW offers the best way to chill out, in a jiff. For anyone on your list who is not within stone’s throw of The NOW studios, the brand now ships their dreamy, chill Cali vibes candles, new body oils and lotion nationally. This is the gift of turning a home bathroom into a chic little LA sanctuary.

How I'm Having My Best-Ever Thanksgiving

Source: Country Living

I am not away this holiday weekend. I am very much at home, ¼ of the way through a Thanksgiving menu prep list and so thankful to get to celebrate with family for the first time in my new home. As I prepare to gather my family for a totally plant-based Thanksgiving, complete with some delicious desserts by my favorite local vegan bakeries, I wanted to share some of my favorite resources for luxuriating in being at home, no planes, no trains, no traffic, probably not even any shoes. 

Tablescaping
Tablescaping is my new mindfulness exercise. After years of tiny-apartment living, I have a dining table (like, not just a couch and coffee table). I am 100% enthusiasm and 0% on experience, so have been relying on these gorgeous tables, including one by Well + Away friend Abbye Churchill.

A 2017 Classic
This post by The Atlantic from 2017 is my go-to for anyone who thinks that ditching plastic straws is really doing all that much for the climate and water waste. Hint: it’s not. This investigative style report on water waste and animal agriculture shares how much of a change we can make by swapping beef for beans.

Just move. 
I am preparing my body for a feast to end all feasts by kicking off Thanksgiving morning with a SoulCycle session to get my metabolism revving and ready to eat and drink. My goal for after dinner is to get the family on an easy 15-minute walk, probably with drinks in hand, to break up all the sitting (and because I have no interest in football). 

Cut out some of the booze
More and more people are not drinking, going either sober, ‘California sober’ ie just cutting booze, or just being mindful of what their alcohol intake is. I’m making it easier to still feel festive and not drink by offering a sparkling cranberry punch. And there will be plenty of cola-flavored LaCroixs. 

Give plants center stage
I am not a blogger. I am not up-to-date on what is happening in the blogosphere, I don’t know who is winning blog awards and I when I write it is either for our Well + Away VitalGuide guidebooks or for traditional media outlets. As amateur a blogger as I might be, what I do know is that blogger Stacey Homemaker and her complete ‘how-to’ guide for a vegan Thanksgiving is the most useful blog post ever written. Enjoy. 

How to Be Vegan at Family Thanksgiving, According to some of our Favorite Vegans

Source: @thecuriouschickpea

I don’t know of a single vegan who, when heading home to family Thanksgiving dinner, finds a fully plant-based tablescape. Well, outside of the Seventh Day Adventist community (hi, Adventist friends, here to help you with that empty seat at your next holiday gathering). We suck it up in the name of being a good sport for the sake of enjoying time with family, and maybe a yummy side or two.

But when it comes to brass tacks - what is the actual best way to handle dinner? Do you bring something vegan or give your host a head’s up? Do you try to duck out early to hit the vegan spot in town offering Thanksgiving-themed dinner or just load up on sides? There is of course no easy or right answer to the question, but here is how a few of our favorite vegans tackle the question.

Source: @nativefoodscafe

Jolinda Hacket from TheSpruceEats.com recommends to “prepare in advance” and to communicate dietary restrictions to your host in addition to bringing something to feed yourself and enough for others. “If you're preparing food for yourself, be sure to bring along a bit extra, as everyone else is certain to be curious and want to taste. Most hosts would be more than happy to have you help share in the work of preparing the meal. And, if you prepare a dish or two on your own, it will also fill your plate up and divert attention from what you're eating and not eating. Any vegan who has spent an entire meal defending their dietary choices and dodging hunting jokes knows that sometimes, you just want to eat in peace, rather than hop up on the vegan soapbox.”

Or, if you’re time pinched and would rather grab and go, Jolinda reminds us that, “Whole Foods offers a pre-cooked vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner, as do many larger health food stores and plenty of vegetarian restaurants such as Native Foods. You can also order vegetarian and vegan Thanksgiving side dishes a la carte from Whole Foods as well.”

Iconic pop artist and decades-long vegan Peter Max feels that "I think it's proper to let your Thanksgiving host know that you are vegan beforehand’, and ‘how much you appreciate them preparing or having vegan dishes for you. That way they can have something for you and their other vegan guests. It's also good to offer to bring something vegan and delicious for the meal, so you can check to see what the host would like you to bring. There are usually great vegetables at every Thanksgiving feast like string beans, a host can easily prepare portions of these without butter or cream for vegans. And perhaps your host will make vegan versions of other favorites too, like non-dairy mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, baked apples and cranberries or a rice cornbread stuffing with sage.” 

When it comes to dessert, Peter recommends that you, “bring something vegan that everyone can enjoy too. I love Erin McKenna's Bakery in New York for vegan pies- dutch apple and pumpkin, great vegan cupcakes too. You can bring something delicious and vegan to the Thanksgiving table that everyone will love. And they probably won't even know it's vegan- the recipes are so good now.”

An unexpected dish to bring, he suggests? Kimchi. He says that, ‘It was so unexpected, but everyone loved it, vegan or not. Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time to get together with friends and family and maybe a time to turn a non-vegan on to a delicious vegan desserts or sides."

Source: @Lane_Gold

Lane Gold, author of the new Vegan Junk Food, Expanded Edition: 200+ Vegan Recipes for the Foods You Crave -- Minus the Ingredients You Don’t, has a different approach. She shares with us that, “To my mind, the holidays are about enjoying people and traditions and one of those traditions is definitely food but it doesn’t have to be a point of contention. I tend not to overwhelm a host by announcing that I’m vegan before I arrive because I don’t want anyone to do extra work to accommodate me. If it’s a potluck I’ll definitely bring something vegan so that I know I’ll have something other than carrot sticks to eat. Most vegans going to events knowing there might be limited options will eat a PB&J before they arrive, or at least I do. In general, I go to have fun and enjoy the company of friends and family, I don’t arrive with any kind of food agenda or expectation; increasingly I’m happily surprised that vegan options are already there.”

Or try a sneak attack. Vegan handbag designer and Filbert Founder Bridget Brown likes to, “Take Thanksgiving as an opportunity to push some subtle vegan propaganda in the form of a delicious vegan baked good. The keyword is DELICIOUS. Now’s not the time to peddle some dry and boring holiday desserts, so peruse some vegan baking cookbooks and go ham (see what I did there) on a beautiful berry cobbler, chocolate molten cake, or apple pie with coconut ice cream. I highly recommend The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau or Vegan Holiday Cooking by Joy Pierson. 

Everyone will be so shocked when you tell them it was made without eggs or dairy, and hopefully will make them consider how easy it is to move to a plant based diet!”  

And, above all else, Matt Frazier of No Meat Athlete reminds us to, “Remember that the food isn’t the real point. One of the great things about vegan Thanksgiving is that it’s not quite as easy to eat so much that you’re disgustingly, uncomfortably stuffed and needing to immediately unbuckle your jeans and collapse into a food coma the instant the meal is over. Use the energy and attention you would have spent destroying your plate to instead be mindful and grateful that you have food on it, and that you have friends and family to share it with.” So true.