Maybe you’re done with your holiday shopping (but that depends upon your definition of “done”), so here are a few stocking stuffer ideas you will find on Main Street in Beacon. We don’t call this “last-minute” shopping, because buying stocking stuffers is our favorite part of the gift-curating experience.

This is also the most dangerous time to shop, because you will see loads of ideas for other people that you hadn’t thought of. Pad that budget.

Manic Panic Hair Color

This temporary vegan-based hair color has been available at Play (167 Main Street) for years and years. Perfect for the hair expressionist in your life. Buy a rainbow series for wild experiments, or one or two contrasting colors for a striped design.

The color is temporary, yet stays in decently well post-shower. However, if you wanted the vibrancy to stay, then you would not wash the hair. However, there is a dry bar shampoo at SallyeAnder at the other end of town. We haven’t tried it, but it’s an option.

Art and Socks

Zakka Joy (177 Main Street, formerly Dream in Plastic) is the destination for stationery lovers who also love kitchen decor, Pusheens, stickers, socks, water bottles, pencils, sketchbooks, journals, planners, etc. With glitter pens to match. Socks make great stocking poppers - the part sticking out of the stocking that adds that visual excitement. Most of the themes of these socks are for the sarcastic ones in your life who like a little bit of dicey language, though not all. Sometimes you just need to wear a pretty sock that says: “Delicate f*ing flower.”

Books

Depending on the size of your stocking, for the protesters in your life, this Posters for Change book from Princeton Architectural Press keeps on giving with 50 rip-out-able quote posters that can be hung somewhere. Available at Binnacle Books (321 Main Street).
Pro tip: Binnacle Books can order any book for you if it is not on their shelves. Any book!

Hygiene

Alright. So with cancer being rampant, and the quest for deodorant with no whatevers in it grows stronger with each friend who is diagnosed, the answer to an odor-blocking shield is at SallyeAnder (1 East Main Street) is the Deodorant Stone. The stone itself is odorless, and has bacteria-fighting minerals in it (find synthetic-chemical-free perfume and lotion at Beacon Mercantile just up the street, located in the old train station).

To apply it to the skin, you wet it and rub it on. The easiest way to store the stone is in a dish, which you can also find at SallyeAnder, or at most any shop in Beacon (check RiverWinds Gallery for an artisan-made one), or an unused dish in your house that is ready for prime time.

LLTO (Live Light Travel Often) also may have a solution to hold the stone, which could even fit into these mortar bowls (featured last weekend in our weekend newsletter edition).

Bonus perk with this deodorant: It uses hardly any packaging. So this is one less piece of plastic you are putting into the trash (or recycling? not sure if plastic deodorant containers are actually recyclable these days). SallyeAnder products are made in Beacon on the west side of town in their manufacturing center, located in the same building as Brett’s Hardware. The 1 East Main Street location is SallyeAnder’s flagship retail shop.

Continuing with the bath theme, Beacon Bath and Bubble has all the bribery you need to get a child into a bath. If the deodorant stone is going to be introduced to the new 9-year-old who needs odor blocking - but you don’t want to hurt her feelings telling her this so why not make it more fun and unusual with the stone and pretty dish - the colorful bath products at Beacon Bath and Bubble will get them into the bath. The soap is made right in the store, so you can expect good ingredients in here as well.

Denise Gianna Designs Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin — Denise Gianna Designs
*Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth Martin*

Interior Design

While these chairs and lamps won’t fit into a stocking, walking by the design store Denise Gianna Designs (494 Main Street, formerly Utensil before they moved to the other end of town) will be one of the perks of walking around finding stocking stuffers IRL (in real life) vs clicking online. Gianna is a longtime Beaconite and interior designer who opened up shop in various other shops (you may remember her from her Chocolate Studio days, which is now occupied by the beef jerky shop, The Village Jerk). Stop in to see what kind of furniture may fit into your space, and if she can help you visualize.

Your Eyewear Game

An easy and flat gift that can slip into a stocking is a gift certificate from Luxe Optique. Especially if you have HSA Flex Spending to use before year end, Luxe can help with that. They also make filling your out-of-network insurance claims easy - they do it for you. So if you haven’t tried Luxe yet, walk in this time. If you collect shoes or jewelry, having the same perception of your eyewear is similar. When you go to Luxe Optique, your adjustments are complimentary, as your vision is their top priority. As featured in last weekend’s newsletter edition, ask about the end-of-year specials they have running, including the 50% off shelf.

Photo Credit: Darryl’s Clothing Boutique — *Photo Credit:* *Darryl’s Clothing Boutique*

Speaking Of The 50% Off Shelf…

Darryl’s Clothing Boutique in Beacon always has a good sale running, and right now is no exception. Perfect for matching sweaters! If you once went all out on Christmas morning with family PJs, now you can with sweaters if that’s your thing.

Lambs Hill Bridal Boutique has the sample sales you want to tell your friends about. Not that a dress fits into a stocking, but you may find an accessory or two in the store. You know what would make a great stocking topper? A tiara.

More Stores In Beacon

Many more stores are in Beacon, and you can learn about each of them in A Little Beacon Blog’s Shopping Guide. Our Shopping Guide is sponsored by local stores who invest in their local media, and we thank them for their support as we get the word out about great ideas available to you in Beacon. Sponsors include: Luxe Optique, PTACEK Home/LLTO, Darryl’s Clothing Boutique, Binnacle Books, and Lambs Hill Bridal Boutique.

We went to SallyeAnder Thursday night to discover their new face mask line, and make our own as an activity. The face mask, just like everything else SallyeAnder creates, is made of all good or plant-based ingredients - we could have eaten the version we made, which included banana and olive oil!

Though you would not want to eat the face mask in the box that you would purchase - you would just be normal and apply it to your face two to three times per week to pull out the toxins and dirt, and leave your face feeling fresh. This combo was put together for this show ‘n’ tell event only, to illustrate how natural the ingredients are, and how simple the mask is at its core.

The one we mixed (and by “we,” I mean my daughter, who was in charge of our batch) had smushed banana, but we could have gone with straight-up avocado, or pumpkin.

While in the shop, I checked off my to-do list of converting to a super-natural, minimal-chemical life for deodorant (with cancer scares around me, I’m looking at things I can easily change). SallyeAnder has a Deodorant Stone, where its salt minerals kill bacteria that cause the odor. I also am trying their face balm, Krudd Balm, to replace my morning Oil of Olay moisturizer - I need to trust the ingredients!

SallyeAnder was started by Sallie’s dad, who was a pastry chef. Her brother had eczema, and to soothe his skin, Sallie’s dad devoted himself to making soap, and the brand was born. While Sallie was in law school, the family business began to struggle. “The business was like another sibling to us. We couldn’t just let it go.” So Sallie exited out of law school in order to run the family business. “Back when my dad started in the ‘80s, people were putting anything on. Natural ingredients were a hard sell. Today is much different. People want to know what they are putting on their skin.”

Sallie has been heading up the business ever since. Three children of her own later, she says that she is so glad that Beacon is their home for the business. Having a nationwide soap brand with their flagship store right here on the east end of Beacon - who also manufactures on the west end of town - is pretty handy. And by handy I mean AWESOME.