Hi there, it's Veronika!

Although I celebrate two Mother's Days a year (one in March as that's when it's celebrated here in the UK and one in May as that's when it's celebrated in my home country), most of the time we don't celebrate this with my mum together due to our location. We have always a nice video call, we both make ourselves a cup of tea or coffee and have a long chat about all the news that happened since we talked last time. And because we both agreed we want to be as eco-friendly as possible, we don't ship each other gifts anymore - we take them with us we travel to visit each other (we do this with my other family members too).

So I'm not in the need to shop for any gifts at a specific time (if so, I do it before I travel) but I was thinking this year, what would I want to get for Mother's day myself... from my kids... perhaps one day, when I have them =)
I love browsing Etsy, I mostly enjoy all the handmade crafts made from natural resources, of course without any usage of animal products. But I wouldn't want my kids to have to pay too much money. So I'm looking today for something natural, vegan and eco-friendly... let's say under £30 (assuming my potential kids in this scenario are already grown-ups or their father actually helped them to pay for it).

Ok, let's look what's on Etsy...

So my first thought - let's look up "natural". The search is suggesting me deodorant, soap, crystals, candles,... I like all the ideas. Let's find the best one from each category.

Natural deodorant: Ok, I didn't look any further than a few listings because my eye caught natural deodorant balm from BattleGreenBox - a brand I talked about in my recent Christmas gift guide. I've been already in touch with the owner and got a good vibe from them, so I'd be happy to get a gift deodorant from them for sure. It's really all-natural and even the packaging of the deodorant itself is made of paper only. Forget your plastic deodorant tubes, get something natural wrapped in paper =)
The only thing is, that looking at the ingredients, it's practically the same recipe as I use myself at home (I wrote about this also about in one of my earlier articles). So I could easily just make this deodorant myself. But unless you want to be buying all the ingredients in bulk like I do and having loads of spare shea butter, baking soda and such, then you may prefer this ready to use deodorant instead =)
As a gift, definitely a good idea - natural deodorant with completely biodegradable packaging. If I would handmade it with the intention to gift it to anyone, I'm not sure what would I put it into (I normally use a small food container and apply by fingers). But I can gift to my mum or my partner's mum to give them something nice and perhaps teach them how to make their own when they finish it.
But let's get back to what I would like to get from my kids as that was the original idea =)

Natural soap: Yes... there's a lot to it. And I realised, I always look for soaps and I always find so many great natural soaps out there. On Etsy especially. It's like the soap market. Not vintage and jewellery but soaps. (Ok, there's also a lot of vintage and jewellery stuff, yes.)
I think it would take too long to try to pick a favourite. Or two or three. So just heads up - if you look for vegan soap, check the ingredients - obviously, no milk, no honey, but also check whether glycerin is plant- or animal-derived.
I know my kids would know this though, so I'd be happy to get a Mother's Day gift soap from them =)

Let's move on... I can't just pick one soap anyway (here's my natural soap search - you can give it a go yourself).

Natural crystals: OMG! I found something amazing - straight the first listing when I searched for this term on Etsy. I really wanted to look further, but this just fits so well to my idea of a great gift for myself. If my kids would give me Air Plant Crystal Zen Garden from Auramore, I would be so pleased, here's why:
1. I like natural crystals. For their looks rather than for any sorts of healing powers and such. I'm mathematician, so things like healing energies seem too illogical to me to believe it. But I'm not saying such things don't exist - I just leave it be to its illogicality. It doesn't stop me liking crystals as they are a beautiful part of the natural world.
2. One of the crystals is purple - YES! (I said, I care about the looks of the crystals generally, not any powers they may have.)
3. I love plants and always wanted to have an air plant but never got around it. Yet.
So I would get something eye-pleasing with an air plant in it - I'm saying yes to this gift. Should probably buy it myself. For me =)

Natural candles: Obviously, I've skipped all the beeswax candles. Bees need their wax more than humans. When it comes to soy candles, that's the way to go. I'm still not sure what the exact trouble is with candles as I heard a bit here and here but in general, some candles may be releasing harmful substances into the air - I think the very natural candles should be ok though. I need to research it more, definitely no petroleum stuff and such in it - also I think I read some wicks may be problematic from the healthy point of view.
Assuming soy wax is ok and the wicks will be good to go too, I was looking for something that would catch my eye.
And I found so many =) Not sure what to choose. But going with something motherly, I chose to highlight in my article this soy candle...s - erm... I can't choose just one!
And this is ONLY the first page from the search - I don't even want to click on the next one or I would have to rename the article to a soy wax candle gift ideas for Veronika.
So although I skipped specific soap samples to share with you, I'll stay a bit around candles =)

Cedarwood and Jasmine Soy Candle from LykkeCandles - look at the nice jar. And honestly, the product photos. That caught my eye first. Anyway, I can think about many ways to re-use the jar after the candle's gone. Just a tiny minus, the plastic label on the top of the jar. Paper label would've been much better and eco-friendly. But the description otherwise stated that all packaging is biodegradable and eco-friendly. I'm happy with that. I don't like getting things packed in plastic. So the packaging is very important as well as the product itself.
And the most recent review states that it was a (Christmas) gift for their mum and that she loved it. Well, you can't get a better review when you're shopping around for Mother's Day gift =)

Soy Wax Candle with Bioglitter from VeganbunnyCo - hmm, I was thinking for a moment about this. My natural love-hate relationship when it comes to glitters made me curious. Obviously, I like it, it's shiny and sparkly, it's eyecatching. But it's pain when it comes to getting rid of it and it used to be very very not-eco. But natural mineral glitters or biodegradable glitters are ok (still a pain to clean though when you accidentally sprinkle them around or so =) so I looked closer and I really liked what I read about the candle itself - VeganbunnyCo seems to be very on top with their eco-friendliness, I'm sure I'll be in touch later for more info and perhaps another article.
Oh, not to forget - I originally also clicked on this product because I liked the copper (plated...?) tin it's poured in. Does your mum like copper decoration? There's a candidate for the gift.

Coffee beans in a candle - I say yes! Though the one that popped first was from palm oil... we all know that palm oil is nowadays quite a problem and there wasn't any more information on sourcing... so I did further research specifically on coffee beans soy candles and it paid off! Cinnamon & Coffee Bean Soy Candle from BlueKrowArtistry is amazing and doesn't contain only coffee beans but also cinnamon! (Etsy must know I have my latte with cinnamon on top - why would this one pop so quickly in the search while searching just for coffee scented candle...? =) I love it!

And so many more - just briefly:
If your mum is rather an outdoor person (just like me) - this candle Vegan Soy Candle - Highland Woodland Wander from WeArePaperPlane seems to give the good vibes - I know it may look like rather a Father's Day gift - but again, I would personally love this. Rather than getting jewellery or chocolate and flowers. You must know your mum the best, I hope my children would know me also well =)
Candle in a coconut shell - blast me! Vanilla Sandalwood Coconut Shell Candle from CoquiCandleCompanyPR
Why does this one have the crystals in it? (Crown Chakra Scented Candle from HolisticEarthCo) I like that!
So it looks like it's not only candles that are popping up in the search. There are even - what they're called? Crystal enhancers for candles sold on their own (these are from WoodenWickCo) - what is that anyway? I like it, of course. Have candles and crystals. Enjoy. I think that'll be the best combo =)
Oh, and just at the end of the first page, there was this natural wooden candle holder from RusticFlitch caught my attention! So nice - bringing nature home, literally. I wouldn't mind that either.
So many candle accessories...

Candles are the big hit as you can see most of the graphics I made for this article are candles, or candles related accessories, indeed... =)
Soy wax only, of course.

From top left: Natural Deodorant Balm from BattleGreenBox & Air Plant Crystal Zen Garden from Auramore
Middle: Cedarwood and Jasmine Soy Candle from LykkeCandles & Soy Wax Candle with Bioglitter from VeganbunnyCo
Bottom:  Crown Chakra Scented Candle from HolisticEarthCo & Natural Wooden Candle Holder from RusticFlitch

Definitely, candles and candle stuff could be good ideas for mums. Not only for me. The good thing is, candles get used up so they are not going to pile up like non-consumable gifts, therefore, you can get candles again next year (perhaps a different one though just to keep it varied =)
Yeah... I definitely wouldn't mind getting some natural soy wax candle every year for Mother's day. And how about you (and your mum)?

But everyone's mum's different. I'd suggest having a look around - if on Etsy, perhaps use this gift guide Etsy made for Mother's Day and get inspired (if you think you mum wouldn't appreciate the ideas I had here - like candles with crystals and some live plant or something made of wood and other natural materials - oh, I would be so easy-to-gift-to mum, for sure).

A fun fact: While finishing this article I started smelling something nice. A candle? Am I going mad? Oh, of course, my partner lit up our oil burner so now I'm smelling some citrus essential oils - which got me one more (yes, candle related - I'm really thinking I should rename the title of this article) idea for Mother's Day, and that is an oil burner.
But look those up yourself - you can try my Etsy search, it's been proven useful a lot (think about all those amazing candles... ok, I'm not mentioning candles anymore), we have a visitor coming over soon for nice vegan curry, who will be hopefully telling us a lot about her travels around the world, so I have to wrap this article up now =)

I'd be curious to hear in the comments what did you get to your mum for Mother's Day this year.