Being a vegetarian and a member of EtsyVeg Team, I first heard about twigandleafbotanical while browsing the member list. Run by Kelly Beth, the shop sells ‘organic vegan products for your health and home’, ranging from organic spices to teas, facial masks, lotions, to soy candles and organic soap nuts (a natural detergent alternative)! Having recently been dissapointed by a different soy candle shop whose fragrance I found terribly strong and a bit artificial, I decided to give her soy candles a try.

Six custom made to order organic soy votive candles

Kelly provided the most amazing customer service, and also sent me some extra soy votives, scented with various blends of organic botanical oils. I’m not sure if it has to do with her training as an aromatherapist and clinical herbalist, but she certainly has a talent with creating lovely, non-iritating scents! Now, note that I am not really a believer in alternative medicine – but I do enjoy playing around with essential oils myself as I love all the various scents. But I certainly enjoyed these candles so much, I kept 3 of them aside to scent my clothes drawer. Too precious to burn!

I have yet to try any of her other products, but here is a tiny selection of items in her shop which have (in the past) received great feedback:

Organic mud mask for even or sun damaged skin

New Mother organic herbal tea refill – goes in her 2 oz. recycled glass jar if you have bought from her before

Organic soap nuts – “These strange little berries are organically grown in their native India, and are used all over the world as laundry detergent and a hypo-allergenic laundry detergent alternative! They are incredibly gentle and can be used by anyone, including those with nut allergies, because they are actually berries!”

Although the shipping prices on her listings are US only, Kelly is happy to ship out of the US – but you have to message/convo her in advance so that she can calculate a shipping price based on your location.

I found Nadia’s handwoven scarves (Sameheartdesigns) as she was a fellow member of EtsyVeg and BeKind treasury team on Etsy. Hailing from Leipzig in Germany, Nadia makes her lovely scares from a mix of organic and non-organic cotton, hemp, wool and bamboo. Her shop focuses on her handmade scarves (both vegetarian and vegan), although she also sells organic lavender sachets, baby blankets and other items.

Mayan Sunrise Scarf – what a lovely mix of warm shades!

Forest prism scarf - a cool, male-friendly scarf. Featured on the German Etsy front page twice!

One of her scarves in progress on her couterbalance loom

Handwoven organic baby blanket - what a gorgeous range of colours!

In fact, I’d probably be considering buying a scarf myself if I already didn’t have an assortment of handknitted scarves from my mum (thanks mum all the same)!

Here she is!