From caramel to candles, many traditional Valentine’s Day gifts often include animal byproducts, but there are also creative gifts out there for your vegan loved ones, if you know where to look. One option for the February holiday is to give without buying anything, but we’ve also researched the best eco-friendly vegan goodies and gifts. And because Valentine’s Day isn’t just for sweethearts, we’ve got great ideas for your parents, best friends, work pals, or maybe even yourself. 

Read on to find the best vegan gifts for Valentine’s Day.

What would Valentine’s Day be without chocolates? With a 72% cacao chocolate shell, the three fillings in Vosges’ Vegan Truffles are blood orange, hazelnut, and raspberry rose (all without dairy, of course). The chocolate has a flavor that’s rich and yet not too sweet. We also love that Vosges uses renewable energy.

Vosges Vegan Truffle Collection

The chocolatier recommends eating these truffles at a warm room temperature, but you should store them in the fridge or a cool, dry place until they’re ready to be served.

Price at time of publish: $36

Each of these gorgeous candles from Ritual + Fancy features colorful dried floral elements suspended in vegan soy wax. The wicks are made from wood (expect some cozy crackle sounds as they burn), and are hand poured into recyclable glass vessels. You can choose from a beautiful collection of different scents, all made in Portland, Oregon. The floral elements float gently around in the wax as it melts.

Ritual + Fancy Glass Tumbler Candle

“A candle adds a little bit of romance to nearly any setting. I love the way these candles smell, my favorite is the lavender.” ~ Margaret Badore

No matter if you have kissing in mind or not, these lip balms are a treat. The four pack comes with one of each flavor: Eucalyptus Mint, Citron, Unscented, and Vanilla Kush (which has a pleasantly subtle herbal aroma). Treehugger’s tester loved the soft moisturizing texture of these balms, which are truly a pleasure to apply. 

Alder New York 4X Lip Balm Set

Everything Alder New York makes is vegan, so if this pick doesn’t tickle your fancy then you can shop all of the brand’s gift sets and other products with confidence that anything you pick with be free of animal-derived ingredients. 

Price at time of publish: $39

Making your own special treats is a great way to show your affection, but if baking or candy-making isn’t your thing, there’s nothing wrong with calling in a professional. The Etsy Shop KaleVonCelery offers up a number of temping vegan treats, including these beautiful heart-shaped sugar cookies.

Etsy Vegan Love Day Sugar Cookies

Price at time of publish: $20

While all coffee is vegan, not every company has the same sustainability ethos as Tiny Footprint, which donates a portion of profits to reforestation efforts by the Mindo Cloudforest Foundation in Ecuador. This gift box includes not only a pound of full-bodied, silky coffee from Ethiopia, but also a pour-over brewer and a pack of paper filters.

Tiny Footprint Coffee Coffee Lover’s Box

Price at time of publish: $49

Theo Sea Salt Dark Chocolate

Price at time of publish: $4.49 for 1 bar

This unique hot sauce from TRUFF combines chili peppers and black truffle (plus a little organic agave nectar for some balancing sweetness) for a savory combination that’s unlike your typical bottle of Frank’s. TRUFF hot sauces are vegan, gluten-free, and go great on everything from eggs to pizza. While the TRUFF Original Hot Sauce is about 2,500 Scoville units (comparable to Tabasco), it also offers a version that’s more than twice as hot, plus a white truffle edition. Or you can select from several variety packs.

TRUFF Truffle-Infused Hot Sauce

Price at time of publish: $15

Our editors love this vegan face mask from Formulary 55, which leaves skin feeling soft and refreshed. It’s made in small batches with a mix of white and pink clay, rosehip powder, ground comfrey root, and organic rose geranium essential oil. It comes as a powder, which you mix together with a little water and then apply. 

Formulary 55 Rosehip & Clay Facial Mask

The instructions say to use half a package per mask, but we’ve found that a third covers my face nicely. It’s best if used once per week, or once per month if you have very dry skin. It does come in a plastic envelope to protect the ingredients, which can be recycled anywhere that accepts plastic grocery bags (#4 plastic)–just rinse it out.

Price at time of publish: $8

For lovers of plants and bold colors, this pretty warm-toned vessel is sure to please. It can be used to hold dried or fresh flowers, but can also stand alone as a decorative touch. It’s handmade in Vietnam with sustainable materials, avoiding harmful chemicals. It’s available in two other colors as well.We also love that for every purchase Jungalow plants two trees with Trees for the Future, an organization that’s helping create food forests.

Jungalow Rainbow Bowl in Pink

Price at time of publish: $79

This organic body oil uses a blend of rosehip seed oil, jojoba oil and apricot seed oil. It’s a lovely moisturizer that can also be used as a massage oil, if you’re looking to add some loving touch to your Valentine’s Day. Vetiver and clove bud essential oils give it an earthy, spicy aroma. Fat and the Moon offers minimal and recyclable packaging, and also sells a refill bottle of this oil that comes with a simple metal top instead of a pump.

Fat and the Moon Love Thy Self Bod Oil

If your recipient loves to decompress in a long, hot bath, this deliciously-scented bath salt contains pink Himalayan salts, sea salts, Epsom, organic rose petals and rose essential oil for a completely relaxing experience. The company uses no artificial preservatives, synthetic fragrances or petroleum products, and ingredients are sourced from small U.S. farms.

Farmaesthetics Pink Petal Roses Solar Salt Mineral Bath

Price at time of publish: $38

The gardener in your life will appreciate this thoughtful gift, made by a fifth-generation company in Holland. The set includes a trowel, cultivator, and Cape Cod weeder, as well as a convenient hanger. The handles are European Forest Stewardship Council certified ash, a hardwood that will last for years, with heads made from Swedish boron steel. Every DeWit tool comes with a lifetime warranty so your recipient will have many productive years of digging in the dirt.

DeWit 3-Tool Bundle with Holder

Price at time of publish: $100

While it may seem like wine shouldn’t contain any animal byproducts, not all wine is vegan. Wonderful Wine is, with wine releases that highlight certified organic grapes, with no added sugars. This Day-Drinker Pack is a wonderful introduction to natural wines, including a Malvasia Bianca orange wine and two crisp, citrus-accented Chardonnays. It’s a 3-pack tailored for sipping together with your Valentine over a romantic dinner or picnic lunch.

Wonderful Wine Day-Drinker Pack

Wonderful Wine’s sustainable ethos goes beyond its ingredients, with recyclable corks and a transportation supply chain that cuts down emissions by shipping wine in tanks, then bottling as close to the point of sale as possible.

Price at time of publish: Bottles starting at $15

Long-time vegan fave Pacifica has a whole line of cruelty-free beauty products, but the Create-Your-Own at Home Mani Kit is a great Valentine’s Day gift for friends. Choose a base coat, three shades of polish and a top coat to make up this one-of-a-kind gift for the beauty lovers in your life. The bio-sourced ingredients are free from chemicals and animal-sourced products.

Pacifica Create Your Own At-Home Mani Kit

Price at time of publish: $40

Beards need TLC, too. This kit includes a beard shampoo, conditioner and beard balm to soften even the rowdiest beards. The company’s plant-based products are vegan certified, contain no artificial fragrances or colors, and they’re certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny.

Bull Dog Original Beard Care Kit

Price at time of publish: $35

Many candles are made with animal byproducts, negating their relaxing ambience and scent for your vegan loved ones. Grove Co. candles are vegan, cruelty-free, and made from 100% natural fragrances and soy wax. Plus, its Lavender, Blue Sage, and Clove candle will burn for 40 or more hours. When it’s gone, you can recycle the glass jar. The company is a Certified B Corporation with plastic neutral and carbon neutral production facilities.

Grove Co. Sanctuary Soy Candle with Lavender, Blue Sage and Clove

Price at time of publish: $17

Loose leaf offers a wonderful way to enjoy a hot cup of tea, without the waste associated with individually wrapped tea bags. Vegan and certified USDA Organic, these tea pearls combine the delicate floral aroma of jasmine with the robustness of black tea. If you’d like to add an extra touch of Valentine’s Day flair, you can also get a cute reusable heart tin to gift your tea in.

David’s Tea Organic 9 Berries Tea

If you’re lucky enough to live near one of David’s Tea locations, you can even purchase this tea totally package-free (just bring your own tin).

Price at time of publish: $11 for 50 grams

The Dark Chocolate Vegan Truffles from Lake Champlain Chocolates are made from 54% cocoa, with organic coconut cream instead of dairy. The six-piece sleeve is a perfect small gift for your chocolate-craving loved ones, combining three dark chocolate truffles and three raspberry truffles. The Vermont-based manufacturer is a certified B Corporation and they use only 100% Fair Trade Certified chocolate.

Lake Champlain Chocolates Vegan Chocolate Truffles

What to Look for When Shopping for Vegan Gifts

Materials

Vegan gifts should be free of animal-derived products, including dairy, eggs, meat, fur, beeswax, wool, leather, and silk. However, for harder to spot ingredients that are sometimes but not always derived from animal sources, you may want to look for a third party vegan certification.

Nothing says Valentine’s Day like chocolate, so our top pick is the Vegan Truffle Collection from Vosges, which are luxurious and use high-quality vegan ingredients. If you’d prefer something to pamper your beloved and suggest puckering up, consider a set of lip balms from the vegan beauty brand Alder New York.

Choose manufacturers who focus on environmental stewardship, including organic ingredients, sustainably-sourced materials and manufacturing practices that either employ clean energy or otherwise minimize emissions. Many makers of vegan products will also support environmental charities or non-profits that benefit animal welfare.

Certifications

You don’t have to trust what a company claims about its sustainable practices. A variety of third-party auditors, certifying bodies and voluntary regulatory labels have emerged that can help you verify that a brand practices what it preaches. You can check out Treehugger’s Guide to Sustainable Certifications for more details, but here are a few common to products in our Valentine’s Day collection:

  • B Corporation, which certifies that a company balances profit and purpose with rigorous standards for protecting its workers, community and environment
  • Leaping Bunny, which is certification that a company and its suppliers and manufacturers do not use animal testing in any stage of product development
  • Fair Trade Certified, which indicates a product has been certified fair trade by third-party independent organizations such as Fairtrade America or Fair Trade USA.

Brand Practices

Why Trust Treehugger?

While products without animal byproducts are a vegan must, many of our Valentine’s Day picks embody other eco-friendly virtues. We looked for gift with recyclable or compostable packaging, with a minimal amount of plastic waste.

Treehugger is dedicated to helping you make smart choices when it comes to plant-based living. Arricca SanSone specializes in writing about home, shelter and gardening. Many of these products she has tested, while others were researched to meet environmental and socially responsible standards.