Shop local: a giant gift guide filled with items from Tucson shops and artists

Locally-made jewelry, cosmetics, home decor and more

Purchase your favorite mural in canvas form from The Tucson Gallery. 📸: Gloria Knott / Tucson Love Letter

It seems like just yesterday we were deciding on our Halloween costumes and now we’re making plans for Thanksgiving. Artisan markets are already in full swing and before we know it, our favorite winter holidays will be here. 

I love gift giving — it’s definitely something I inherited from my mom who still to this day wraps every single little gift she gives (she especially loves putting a gift card in a large box). And giving gifts is even better when you’re supporting a small business — you usually get to buy straight from the owner or artist themselves and your purchase often goes toward their livelihood. 

While it’s important to support our local businesses and artists year-round, the holiday season gives you even more of a reason to do so. This is a statistic I’ve said before, but it’s worth repeating: According to Local First Arizona, $43 of every $100 spent at a local business stays in the local economy. To compare, if you’re spending $100 at a non-local business, only $13 stays here.

My plea to you this holiday season: keep local and small businesses in mind. But if that plea isn’t convincing enough, I have a feeling this gift guide will be. I hope it gives you inspiration as you shop this season and beyond.

P.S. — If you’re looking for upcoming markets, click here. I also posted a list of (some) local brick-and-mortar gift shops here!

Reminder that this is just a tiny handful of the hundreds of local businesses that deserve your love and support year-round. 🙂

We all need a little self-care

We all need a little (a lot) of self-care in our lives. Here are some cozy gifts to give.

First, some random self-care items:

  • Kitsch Mood creates the cutest candles — the ones that are too cute to burn (though you obviously can burn them).
  • Maybe it’s silly, maybe it’s helpful. Pink Moon Mercantile carries “The Little Book of Ick: 500 Reasons to Get Over Them — For Good.”
  • Yolia Botanica is also home to lots of wellness books, including “Decolonizing Wellness: A QTBIPOC-centered Guide to Escape the Diet Trap, Heal your Self-Image and Achieve Body Liberation.”
  • For the girlies with anxiety or tummy troubles, Di Luna and Pink Moon Mercantile have silly pill cases.

Another soothing self-care item? Handmade bars of soap. Here’s where to get them: 

For everyone who loves a warm bath after a hard day:

Lastly, when you need a snuggle buddy, pick up a crocheted plushie from these makers:

The foodie in your life 

Let’s start with your favorite chef. 

  • La Vida. Taprut creates gorgeous kitchen tools including wooden boards, platters, spatulas and spoon rests. 
  • Over at Why I Love Where I Live, you can find oven mitts with a saguaro design.
  • I’d Smoke That BBQ creates sauces and spices — I hear his smoked honey sriracha is *chefskiss* 

If you have a coffee lover in your life, there are so many fun coffee mugs and tumblers you can find locally. Here are three of my favorites:

Know someone who loves beer or wine? 

  • Pink Moon Mercantile sells saguaro-shaped bottle openers.
  • Tiny Town has a silly beer sleeve that says, “Yeah, I like beer. It’s basically bread soda. Yummy.” 
  • Purchasing beer, wine or spirits from your favorite brewery or winery might also be a good call!

For the snack lovers, here are just some of the tasty options:

To decorate the home

As much as I love exploring Tucson, I love being at home. I work here, I sleep here — it’s important to me that my home reflects my personality and all the things I adore. Here are some homey gifts, some of which I’ve personally received and loved!

  • Libra & Thorn makes a saguaro-shaped shelf (which is in my eyesight at my home as I’m typing this).
  • Goodness Glass, formerly known as The Glass Desert, makes glass artwork, including suncatchers and glass shaped as potted cacti.
  • I have my eye on the suncatchers from Toad Knot!
  • Tucson is home to so many talented ceramicists. You can get trinket dishes from Mehgan on the Moon, vases from Elliot the Potter and Melissa Henshaw Ceramics or wall hangings from Tabakame.
  • Pick up colorful desert-inspired prints from Annotated Audrey.
  • La Casa del Desierto sells soft and elegant prints of the desert.
  • If your gift recipient loves Tucson’s murals as much as I do, gift them their favorite mural on canvas! The Tucson Gallery sells them.
  • Local drone photographer BG Boyd printed a 2026 calendar featuring a selection of Tucson murals.

Other tips:

  • If you want something custom to hang on your wall, consider a charcoal portrait from Bronwyn Dierssen. If you’re looking for something a bit funkier, Linus Schief of Face Me Portraits creates blind contour portraits — aka Linus looks at a photo or person and draws them without looking down at the paper.
  • Zero-waste shop Cero carries lots of eco-friendly home items, from cleaning brushes to cutlery.

Jewelry — my favorite category

If you know me, you know how much I love earrings. I purchased my first pair of locally-made earrings from Creative Kind in 2020 — they were made by local artist Juju & Moxie who is the designer behind my logo and javelina mascot! Since then, my earrings collection has grown and grown. 

Here’s a list of local jewelry makers, though like the rest of this gift guide, this is nowhere near comprehensive!

Dainty, metal, clean or maybe some gemstones in the mix:

Statement, colorful, funky or maybe featuring your favorite desert critter:

Tip: Sigfus Designs is home to a massive charm bar where you can create your own necklace, bracelet, keychain and more!

Goooooood smells

First, I need to talk about how cute the rainbow incense holder by Tough Kitty Designs is. It may not exude any good smells on its own, but it’s certainly a vehicle for your favorite scent. 

Here are some makers who sell candles, diffuser scents, room sprays and more:

The very Tucson gifts

OK, I changed my mind. I think /this/ is my favorite category. Of course, you can go to basically any local gift shop and likely find an endless amount of Tucson-themed items, but here are some of my favorites:

  • An iridescent paperweight from Q.street Collective is one of my favorite purchases I’ve ever made.
  • Rather Keen makes adorable keychains, including one shaped like a cowboy boot and another shaped like a javelina.
  • You’ll find saguaro-studded cards and prints from Drought Tolerant, but what you may not know is that the artist draws the saguaros exactly as she sees them in real life.
  • RetroTrek is home to all kinds of retro-inspired Tucson designs atop prints, magnets, stickers, luggage tags and more.
  • Brushes & Boots creates cards, prints, stickers and more inspired by desert flora.
  • Mama Bear AZ takes the award for the most desert-inspired candles and soaps you’ll ever see.
  • Aall Forms of Life creates paper goods featuring accurate drawings of Tucson wildlife.
  • The pocket tees from Qmulative aren’t your standard pocket tees — the pockets are shaped like Arizona!
  • One of my favorite shirts is made by 440 & Co. and it says, “Be a good Tucsonan.”
  • I always get comments when I wear my “Mt. Lemon” shirt made by CREAM. Yes, they spell it wrong and yes, the shirt has a photo of “A” Mountain and yes, “Tucson” is also written incorrectly.

It’s time to accessorize

We’ve got the jewelry covered, we’ve got some silly Tucson tees. Now it’s time for the accessories.

  • Adela Artisan sells leather purses and clutches made by Mexican artisans.
  • Planet Gabu has some rad shirts but she also has some rad hats!
  • There’s a good chance you’ve seen someone around town wearing a hat that features an embroidered saguaro. Those are made by Gabacho Media.
  • Desert Rat? No. Warm Shape sells hats that say, “Desert Brat.”
  • A gila monster riding a skateboard adorns a hat by Jos Par.
  • DDCo Design puts together metal belt buckles, some of which have Tucson-themed designs.
  • Find concha-shaped keychains in assorted colors at Galeria Mitotera.
  • Safety Babes Keychains puts together self-defense keychains in lots of colors and designs.
  • A Touch of Tucson Art is home to hand-painted totes, purses and backpacks.
  • Catherine Eyde has her adorable designs on tote bags.
  • Find fun sayings on the tote bags by Las Changuis Tianguis, including “hot girls shop local” and “no seas payaso” accompanied by Ricolino Paleta Payaso.
  • As the name suggests, Haul Leather makes leather bags for the long haul.
  • House of Hatters is home to a custom hat and belt bar.
  • I’m a big fan of Rather Keen’s hat that says simply: “Local Goblin.”
  • True Descendants sells apparel emphasizing Indigenous roots and cultural history, including hats!

For your bookworm friends

If you’re a bookish person, you know that most of our independent bookstores not only carry books (including ones written by Tucson authors) but also dozens of gift items — jewelry, candles, stickers, the list could go on. 

Here are some bookish gift ideas — and a couple items for the craftier friends:

  • Turtle’s Soup makes so many fun bookmarks. Some are desert-themed, some are shaped like wiener dogs!
  • Stacks Book Club carries hats with sayings like “book babe” and “born to read, forced to work.”
  • Rather Keen has a full bookish collection including hats, stickers, pins and a “get lit at the library” tote.
  • Magically Minnie Co. puts together blind book kits that include a secret gift, a bookmark, a package of hot cocoa and other bookish items.
  • BYND Books, one of few local bookmakers, handcrafts beautiful journals.
  • If you’re into junk journaling, you’ll want to pick up sticker sheets from Jnk Jrnl Poetry.
  • Pink Moon Mercantile sells a notepad that states the truth: “hot girls make lists.” 
  • Tucson creative Serena Rios McRae just released a book all about how she creates her popular pink eraser art.
  • Read a memoir from Tucson’s Courtney Gustafson, “a story about accidentally going viral while tending to a colony for feral cats.”
  • Gift Sonoran-style recipes via Jackie Alpers’ book “Taste of Tucson.”
  • Tucsonan Adiba Nelson published the memoir “Ain’t That A Mother” and it’s about a lot more than parenthood. 

Cosmetics, skincare, haircare and all around beauty

I have tried a lot of highlighters (the makeup kind, not the marker kind) in my lifetime, but none come close to the Super Nova shade from Emiliaxocosmetics. And the best news: owner Monique De La Torre is from Tucson and she also creates eye shadow palettes, lip gloss and colorful eyeliners. 

More beauty products in Tucson:

  • Earth Based Body creates body creams, lip products and cheek balms.
  • Turtle’s Soup recently launched a line of adorable claw clips.
  • Find botanical skincare — serums, body oil, face toner — from Larrea Skincare.
  • If you want to smell like monsoon, pick up the creosote roll-on fragrance from Artemesia Soaps, Salts & Scrubs who also makes lotions, shave bars and sugar scrubs.
  • Desert Mystic Goods is known for their witchy skincare — tattoo balm, lotions, serums, toner and more.
  • Sonoran Rosie handcrafts dozens of skincare products including sunscreen, face oil, lip balm, deodorant, shampoo and more.
  • Smell like desert rain all the time with the help of Cicada’s perfume oil and hand cream.
  • Hathor’s Hacienda makes skincare products with tallow.
  • Alo Goods is known for their natural skin and haircare products, including shampoo and conditioner bars, salves and balms.
  • The Lavender Manor is the Tucson counterpart to the Life Under the Oaks Lavender Farm in Oracle. Find products made with lavender!
  • Zero-waste shop Cero carries lip butter, deodorant, shave cream and more.
  • Find unpasteurized mint oil and bodycare products from Peppermint Jim.
  • Wexley & Co. specializes in small-batch artisan fragrances.
  • Find lots of skincare items from Soaps & Candles by Aris — body butter, beard oil and more.
  • Nailsby.t.r.i.n, an artist with Student-Made Arizona, is known for detailed press-on nails.
  • Head to Pink Moon Mercantile for pasta-shaped hair clips.

The things you can fit into a stocking

Now’s a good time to chat about gift cards and experiences. Purchase a Reid Park Zoo membership, snag tickets to a Broadway in Tucson play, gift an annual pass to Sabino Canyon, pick up a gift card from your bestie’s favorite local restaurant — those are all fun gifts too!

Here are some small but mighty gift items to fit into a stocking:

  • All the stickers! You can find stickers at pretty much any local shop and countless local artists design them. To get started, check out Turtle’s Soup, Juju & Moxie and Darby Hunter Art — who also sell items like pins, bookmarks, claw clips, bumper stickers and other stocking-stuffer-sized items.
  • Lila Art makes very colorful and desert-inspired coasters.
  • I love the “I brake for tiny guys” bumper sticker at Arizona Poppy.
  • Rabbit Droppings makes adorable keychains (and also stickers).
  • ‘Tis the season for ornaments — Laura Duncan Ceramics makes ‘em.
  • I feel like socks are always a good stocking stuffer. Studio Bolt sells naturally-dyed ones!
  • I’m in love with the phone grips from Momotin Studio (who also sells keychains, bookmarks and stickers). 
  • Girthy Gochu is a line of artwork featuring punny penis illustrations. You can even get lil weenie hippers to sit atop your phone.
  • Ashley’s Art, an artist with Student-Made Arizona, paints desert-inspired prints, including ones in an adorable mini size.
  • Creative Kind, which was formerly home to the La Encantada Shopping Center, recently released A Little Lift Deck, a stack of cards that turn intention into action. They’re available at Why I Love Where I Live in Tucson!

The witch in your life

Tucson is home to several metaphysical shops, each with their own flair. Each store is home to crystals, tarot decks, ritual tools and so much more. The below gift ideas are just a very small fraction of all that each shop offers for the brujas in your life:

Other witchy shops to check out:

All about your goth + alt bestie who might also love oddities

This one’s for the person who loves spooky szn and horror, frequents Emo Nite at Hotel Congress or collects all kinds of oddities. You get the vibe.

  • Jos Par’s art features cosmic motifs and hints of existentialism. Find tees, stickers and prints.
  • Find apparel from Planet Gabu featuring skeletons and sayings like “don’t worry — nothing will be alright.”
  • With BySpookySelena, it’s Halloween all the time. Find tees, cups and totes.
  • Nomad Chainmaille creates stainless steel armor jewelry.
  • GreyRose Art creates statement earrings with haunted designs.
  • Create to Stay Sane is known for their one-of-a-kind jewelry that wraps crystals, bones, trinkets and mementos.
  • Pick up blind horror DVDs from downtown store Mourning Star Curio Shoppe.
  • I recently bought a tiny “adopt a ghost” from Midnite Curiosities.
  • Wishing Wells Crafting is home to oddities and insect taxidermy.
  • Sparrows & Sombreros has desert-themed apparel, including a tee with a three-headed roadrunner.
  • Aiming to bring beauty to the forgotten and unwanted, Screaming Cicada Oddities puts together oddities, including a line that includes Troll dolls.
  • Quantum Casual creates prints that blend humor with femininity, connection and mortality.
  • Nedzelski Designs crafts spooky art including prints and suncatchers with bones.

Tip: Visit brick-and-mortars Mourning Star Curio Shoppe and Luna Ink & Oddities for more!

For the person who is always coming home with more plants

This section is dedicated to all the green thumbs in your life. Of course, you can visit a local nursery to pick out a plant to gift or you can purchase seeds from Native Seeds/SEARCH. But if you’d rather give a plant-ish thing instead, here are some ideas:

  • MadeItMikayla creates plant-themed stationery, magnets, stickers and jewelry dishes.
  • Pick up a print by Marcy Ellis, who creates artwork that focuses on flora and femininity. 
  • Ditch the traditional terracotta and stick a plant in its own casita made by Plant Casitas.
  • YellowBird Farm sells potted plants perfect for a gift to a party host.
  • Sonoran Desert Metal creates metal yard art shaped like saguaros, javelinas and more desert critters.
  • Pick up a snail-shaped garden stake made out of reclaimed metal and glass from Bottle Rocket Design.
  • Melrose Macrame creates plant hangers in different sizes and colors.

Your favorite pet parent

Maybe these gifts are more for the pet and not the parent, but they’re gifts nonetheless. 🙂 

  • CandTTies makes pet bandanas with all kinds of fabric designs.
  • Get locally-made collars and bowties from Greyt Escape.
  • StickiesForKitties has SO. MANY. cat-themed sticker designs — and a portion of the proceeds go toward helping shelter cats!
  • Rosie’s Barket is known for its DIY dog washes and they also make collar charms.
  • Luna Zen creates skincare for humans and pets! Pet products include shampoo, balms and treats.
  • Di Luna might be most known for their candles, but you can also find a small pet section with desert-themed dog toys.
  • Dogs-n-Donuts carries tons of dog treats, plus toys and pet-themed apparel for humans.
  • If you’ve ever thought your cat needs a tiny crocheted cowboy hat, look no further than Desert Girl Crochet.
  • If your bestie is a Wildcat, get their four-legged friend a University of Arizona jersey from Bark n’ Berry.
  • Stop by Bark n’ Berry where jewelry artists Desert & Stone and GreyRose Art have earrings featuring the faces of our favorite dog breeds.

Tip: Take your favorite pet parent and their fur baby to Bark n’ Berry and Dogs-n-Donuts for treats!

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